I had been looking for R/T fares HKG-DEL for Oct. departure and Nov. return and I found most to be about the same, roughly $650.00 or so no matter if it was thru the internet or a TA. I just happened upon a TA ad in a local Indian newspaper for a TA in NYC and I could not believe my luck to hear the fare he was offering. Its was $450.00 R/T!! I took it of course. Its a ns with JA and as I wasn't born yesterday I paid with a CC in case this was too good to be true. Well I called JA and found out its legit so I got our seats assigned and asked for a meal preference. Sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut. Cheers, Larry
PS I can't post the TA of course as this is against Fodors policy.

Good for you!!! Wish I could find cheap ORD-BKK fares like that ... yeah, sure... lol

Thank you.

I think you can post the TA because you do not work for that company. We see many posts of recommendations for TA's and as long as you don't profit personally it's not against policy.

Please do post this good info, I think other Fodorites will appreciate it. Thanks.

Budget Travel magazine had a feature in the last few years that recommended "ethnic" travel agents for cheap fares from the US to their "home" countries. It could be anywhere, India, Greece, and others were all suggested.

Actually this TA was the most "ethnic" of them all. I know about using ethnic TA's. My wife is from India and we have used Indian agents for all our trips there. You will get a better deal though these days the net is pretty close. What surprised me in this case is his price was so much less than the 6 or so other Indian TA's I called. I suppose its OK to give out his name so:
Maharajah Travel and Tours, NYC.
888 939 9322
Ask for Raj.
I hope some here find this helpful.
Larry

DONT USE THIS GUY. HE IS A FRAUD. bT SHEER CHANCE I CALLED ja AND FOUD OUTT HIS RESERVATION WAS CONCELLED AND WAS TOLD IT WAS REFUNDED. THIS IS A LIE AND WHEN I CALLED HIM THE NUMBER WAS DISCONNECTED. GOOD THING I USED VISA.

Sorry about the misspellings above. I was really ticked and was talking to VISA when I wrote it. I found a few neg. reports om yelp, added my own and will also call the BBB as well. The good news is my $$ has been refunded and I was able to get a JA flight but at the rate that most others were offering. To be sure I booked thru the airlines itself. This guy cancelled the reservation 10 days after I booked it though B4 I confirmed it w/ the airlines and even told them he had issued a refund. I even had our seat assignments and meal requests in. Well bad karma fior him. Cheers, Larry

Sorry about your bad luck, but the acceptable resolution.

And thanks for letting us all know.

No problem, You're welcome.

A rather late f/u note of this is I was told that visa got their money back thru HIS bank so what that means exactly I don't know but I do hope it means legal and financial issues for him. I hope it hurts where it matters In his wallet.

Thanks for the update and I'm glad visa gave back your money. Whew!!

Thank you too. By sheer chance I was checking air fares in late Aug. to see if there were any price changes and noticed a change in the flight schedule prompting me to call the airlines and discover this scheme. According to visa I have 120 days to protest a charge and this day 115. Whew! indeed.

If something is too good to be true it usually is.

www.airasia.com good prices sometimes

on that route via KUL for me.

www.yatra.com also for me sometimes

You were very wise to pay with credit card

I always do that and www.insuremytrip.com

always get my money back that way...

qwovadis: very true about cc payments. This guy Raj actually would have charged less had I wired the money to his bank but for $50.00 more I thought the cc was better just in case. I actually called JA after this transaction to confirm things and all was well so this clever devil dog waited a bit and then pulled the ticket.