Flight Strategies within India?
 

What are the best ways to buy economically-priced tickets to fly on reasonable safe airlines in India?

Currently, my reservation has Delhi as the international gateway where I fly into and out of India. From there, I need to go to Hyderabad and possibly Mumbai (Ajanta caves area) and Varanasi too?

I've checked the roundtrip ticket from Delhi to Hyderabad on Jetways, and it's rather expensive-- $430 USD. What other choices I have and is it cheaper to buy it through an agent?

Also, which airlines are good and safe for domestic travel in India?

Also, I'm open to taking the train too, but it might be too time wasting to take it everywhere--one way by train and another by plane might be better?

Thanks!

You might want to look into a multi-city ticket with JetAirways instead of the round trip. I did Delhi-Mumbia-Udaipur-Jaipur-Dehli for $570US in Feb/Mar of this year.

Kingfisher Airlines is currently the finest domestic airlines in India. See if they have your routes -

http://www.flykingfisher.com/

Jet Airways is also excellent and has been around longer.

http://www.jetairways.com

Thanks for the info. I didn't know about kingfisher. I just checked and a one-way ticket between HYD and DEL is already $300+ USD. Wow, flying within India is expensive? Any other airlines or agents I could check out?

You might want to check out this thread from India Mike. It lists the main domestic airlines and some airfare search engines.
http://www.indiamike.com/india/showthread.php?t=12074

For foreigners, Jet and Kingfisher are going to be expensive (Indian pay less than foreigners on several domestic airlines).

When I was in India, I flew Air Deccan a lot. It's no-frills, and sometimes has problems with delays (more than the usual amount), but I didn't feel it was unsafe. And I didn't have to pay extra just because I was foreign.

I doubt that an agent would be able to get cheaper airfare for you, but they would know what all the various flight options are.

I have been researching return flights to Goa from Dehli & Go Air & Spicejet were the cheapest. Don't know what they're like though.

Hello JC98,

Ajanta is a wonderful place but it is quite a long way from Mumbai. Nearest big city is Aurangabad, and train stn if I remember rightly is Jalgaeon (sp??).

You are trying to visit places far apart and on three corners of a triangle, if you know what I mean.

All eminently do-able by train if you have loads of time, but if you don't then I guess you are up for some serious money on airfares.

Just a thought - but might your itinerary work out easier if you made Mumbai the entry point?

Best of luck.