(sorry if this is a duplicate...it keeps disappearing!$%*&^)

I am going to Delhi on a spur of the momnet trip. With dates of Nov 28- Dec 14th though, tickets are scarce and expensive. After 3 days online, the best I can get is AA thru ORD for $2600, UAL for $3400, and all my favorite Asian carriers are full.

Continental's Honolulu-Newark-delhi has the days I need and is $1600. don't have any miles to upgade on them, so it will be economy all the way..31 hours total travel time!

Should I go for it, or keep shopping? I

I was checking out the ewr-delhi flight prices recently, and $1600 was the price for that flight purchasing 6 months in advance...so if that is your price from Honolulu, that is a good deal. Any chance you could stop over in NYC for a night to break-up the journey?

Do you know if there are South Asian travel agents in Honolulu? They may have access to some consolidator fares.

Barring that, CO may be the best deal you can get. Just think about this - by buying this fare on continental.com and completing the flight, you're just 430 miles short of 25K miles and EQM. In fact, you may want to get on a cheap Hawaiian flight before 12/31 so that you will be Silver Elite for 2006. You'll get bonus miles & other goodies till 2/2007.

Okay, I'm felling better if I can get all the miles!

I usually get terrific Asia deals thru HIS in honolulu, but apparently many of the flights are totally full and waitlisted. The few available ones include multiple stops, Air India or even Midwest Air..

Which is a shame, as I'd love a stop over on the way back in either Bangkok or Tokyo!

If you decide to take CO, you may want to invest in a hotel room at EWR for the day, or buy a CO President's Club 10-pass booklet for $250 (good for a year). They also have a lounge in HNL, so you can use it for other occassions.

Just want to make sure you purchase your tickets on continental.com to get 100% EQM. If you have more questions about CO's elite programs, ask and I'll answer. Quite a bit of benefits - worth a short island hop if you're going to travel a bit from 1/2006 to 2/2007.

Just wanted to add that if you do have a short layover in Newark, it is an easy $14 train ride into Manhattan...(no traffic)

Have you explored flying westwards with a layover in Tokyo or Hong Kong or Singapore?

HI hobbes- yes! My first choice was to go west. I have lots of miles on JAL, Thai,and ANA, plus would prefer a stop in asia rather than NJ/NYC. All the flights are very full at my time thoughm, so unless I want to go Air India and with multiple stops, I have to go eastward.

Before buying the air ticket, make sure you can get hotels in places you are interested in going, as you are going at the peak season for travel in northern India. You might not find too many hotel bargains, but with a good airfare, maybe it all evens out. However, in some places like Delhi you may not find hotel rooms at all, so start looking now.

Personally you would have to pay me to spend that many hours in coach, but whatever works for you is fine.

FYI on Expedia for your dates they are showing a $1000 fare for the NON STOP flight from Newark to Delhi (13 hours out and 15 back), and Expedia is hardly the cheapest, so I don’t know that tat $1600 fare via Honolulu for 31 hours is really a bargain. . . .I assume availability as the flight shows up as available.

Cicerone,
I think you and the OP are looking at the same CO flights. Note that Icuy needs to fly FROM HNL.

Have you checked with some Indian travel agents? They always manage to get me wonderful rates as low as $1200 during the peak season. Nov 28-Dec 14 is not a peak season, since the peak season usually starts off Dec 10 and ends Jan first week, on the lines of the Xmas season.