South Korea (Busan) return for under 20k INR-VietjetAir deal!

 Vietjet has Mumbai- Busan return tickets for under 20k for various dates in June, July 2023 or later.

And Mumbai-Seoul (ICN) for about 24k

Be advised these are low cost fares with no checked bags, no meals. If you add all of that, another 10-12k extra.

Similarly priced tickets are available from Ahmedabad as well.

From Delhi I could see return tickets from 30k onwards. You can try more date combinations and see if you get lucky.

Other cities: try your luck on Air Asia. Air Asia also has flights to South Korea and if you try various date combinations you might find some cheap fares. Anything 25-30k return can be considered cheap.

Do research a bit about season at the destination, as low fares might indicate low demand due to off season.

Same trip on Singapore Airlines, which is a full service airline costs 30k onwards if you are flexible with dates. I had paid 29556 on SQ earlier this year for a ticket to Busan, South Korea. Looking forward to the experience.

My VietJetAir Phu Quoc experience here

Lufthansa Bengaluru-Munich direct flight-strange pricing

Lufthansa is set to launch Bengaluru-Munich flight from November 2023. This is in addition to their current daily service to Frankfurt. Munich flight will open up another set of flight options for travelers from Bengaluru to destinations in Europe and north America.

But as I was scanning their website, I found a few odd things

- Premium Economy is cheaper than economy on certain dates. Vistara had similar pricing in several cases. Another reason we should check airline websites directly and not rely on OTTs as this visibility you will not get in travel sites.

- Direct flight costs 2.4x more for economy passengers compared to one stop flight, but for premium economy and business class, it is cheaper than one stop option.

My guess is they are still refining the pricing for this new route and above may get corrected soon.

Either wait or if you feel the deal is good, then book.

My most expensive and cheapest flight tickets till date!

What is the max amount you’ve spent on a flight ticket? For me the highest ever amount spent on a single ticket has been less than 50000 INR, even for ultra long haul flights.

Criteria I've used is as below

• Work trips paid by someone else not included: I’ve had a few trips to Chile, USA and Europe at much higher prices but those were business trips paid by my employer, hence I have not counted them here.
• Per PNR, per Person is considered, return or one way (one trip may include several separate flight bookings- they are not clubbed).

#	Date	To where?	Airline	Amount in INR	Amount per km
1	April-May 2019	Chennai- IAD (Washington DC) & back	Qatar	48250	1.75
2	Feb-March 2023	Mumbai-Paris return	Lufthansa-Swiss	38000	2.71
3	Sep-Oct 2019	Chennai-London Gatwick return	Qatar	35450	2.16
4	2024	Mumbai-Taipei return	Singapore Air	34986	3.47
5	2023	Mumbai-Busan return	Singapore Air	29556	2.57
6	Nov 2018	Chennai-Auckland	Air Asia X	22500	0.97
7	2016	Chennai Melbourne Return	Air Asia X	20,000	1.13
9	2018	Chennai Gold Coast Return	Air Asia X		1.1

It was amazing to fly for less than a rupee per km to Auckland. Hope those good old days of extreme low fares will be back again

Before you wonder how flying could be so cheap on a per km basis, you need to understand the following

• Not all seats on a flight are sold at the same price. I would have booked 3-6-9 or even 12 months in advance to grab the cheapest of the seats while other passengers who book late would have paid more. Some of the business trips I had taken were costing 1 to 1.5 lakhs because of last minute booking.

• Most of these were during a sale or with conditions like no refund, no change. So I took a bigger risk

• Air Asia is a low cost carrier- bag, meals, everything is extra. It was tough to manage an ultra long haul without food- I have spent a few thousand extra on food inflight or at the airport on such flights. I have mastered how to manage without a checked bag, so that part is not a concern for me.

Cheapest flights!

Cheapest flights are hard to recall, as there have been many and I’ve not been keeping track. Below are some of my cheapest flight tickets.

#	Date	To where?	Airline	Amount
1	Sep 2020 (Couldn’t travel due to covid)	Kuala Lumpur-Penang & Back Details	Air Asia	24 MYR or 400 INR
2	Sep 2020 (Couldn’t travel due to covid)	AMD-KUL one way Details	Air Asia	INR 502
3	2014	Chennai Goa return https://www.enidhi.net/2014/04/spicejet-cheaper-than-train-ticket-sale.html	Spicejet	700 INR
4	Sep 2019	London SouthEnd to Dublin oneway	Ryanair	800 INR
5	Sep 2015	CPH-Kaunas (Lithuania return	Ryanair	1500 INR
6		Chennai Vijayawada return	Spicejet	1800 INR
7		Chennai Madurai return	Spicejet	1800 INR
8		Manila Palawan	Air Asia
	Feb 2011	Chennai-Colombo return	Spicejet	4200 INR

How much is yours?

Vietjet deals are back: AMD-Vietnam 13k return

VietJet cheaper flight tickets are available again. From AMD, DEL & BOM to Vietnam, South Korea and other destinations

• Ahmedabad-Hanoi return: 16k
• Ahmedabad-Saigon (HCMC): 13k
• AMD Seoul: 23k
• AMD-Bali: 26k

They have a strange "Admin fee" for India operations. Not sure why is this. Vietjet has no offices or customer care in India.

Airline reliability has been poor. Book at your own discretion.

New Airline Fly Arystan: Oneway 4500 INR only!

March 2024 update: flew Fly Arystan DEL-ALA

Fly Arystan is the new airline from central asia, based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I learnt about FlyArystan airline via Amar Singh Solanki, who runs Lily Holidays.

Fly Arystan is a low cost subsidiary airline of Air Astana. They operate A320 planes around central asia. The airline has been around since last few years but we noticed it only recently I guess.

Fly Arystan had a few super cheap tickets between DEL and CIT (Shymkent, another town in Kazakhstan other than Almaty). Their cheapest ticket was 55 USD (INR 4500) one way, with only a 5 kg cabin bag allowance. Before I could decide the last remaining seat for 55 USD was gone, now the next seat costs 102 USD. It is possible to have a return ticket to Kazakhstan for under 20000 INR with this airline.

If you keep checking you might get a 55 USD one way ticket for some dates in future. But check if you can manage with a 5 KG cabin bag. At least 7 would have been nice in my opinion. I found one for 15th June. For extra 35 USD you can get 10 kg cabin bag and a seat selection.

But the catch is return ticket was costing over almost 200 USD (INR 16500) so I hesitated to book. The return ticket will cost close to 20000 INR.

I will watch them for sometime. Haven’t booked anything yet.

Official website: https://flyarystan.com/en

Why not serve food at airport (for short haul flights)?

Eating is an integral part of survival. It is an integrated part of our travel experience. Almost all flights in the world either serve some free food (full service airlines) or sell food (low cost carriers). But is it really necessary to eat in a flight, particularly short haul ones (just a few hours)?

Serving food inflight has several complications

• Airlines need to declare a menu, anticipate how much quantity of various items are needed
• These food items need to be sourced when on ground and loaded on to the plane
• Extra equipment and space need onboard to store food items, plates/trays, cutleries, trash, ovens/heaters
• Cabin crew need to wait till seat belt signs are turned off and need to finish before descent, along with other duties like safety demonstration, garbage collection etc (on a 2 hour flight, effectively 60-70 minutes of time will be available for serving 180 people (in an A320 or B737)
• Passengers need to wait a long time till the trolly comes to them and need to select from limited options
• Passengers need to eat in an extremely confined space, taking extra precautions not to spill the food
• Turbulence can cause issues while meals service is on
• Going to toilet is difficult when there are food carts on the alley or other passengers have food on their tray.
• Lots of garbage management to collect empty plates and dispose
• So many food items are not suitable for eating at high altitude (like fish with bones, which are choking risk)

So why bother with so much circus trying to serve food onboard? I have a better idea

Serve food while passengers are waiting at the gate to board, or after arrival at destination airport

Advantages

• Lots of space- passengers can eat at their convenience
• Cheaper- serving food on ground is lot cheaper than carrying it into the plane to be served at 30000 ft. Airline will save money.
• Lots of options- if passengers want anything else (like a juice or coke) they can buy in airport, not limited by options available with airline
• Less workload/stress for cabin crew: Serving on ground is lot easier. Less workload for cabin crew
• Less weight to carry- more fuel economy and savings
• Relaxed flight- passengers need not wake up from sleep or struggle to eat food in the confined space- they can sleep peacefully and land
• Faster turnaround: With time saved for loading food items, emptying trash etc, a plane can turn around faster
• More seats: Airlines can have a few more seats on the space saved by food trolly storage space, kettle, oven space, trash storage space etc

So why not airlines going for this option?

I feel following are the reasons

• Airlines can’t control the experience- airlines are scared to break the tradition and try something new?
• Loss of revenue: passengers will have lots of options in the ground- they may buy from a shop instead, so if airlines try to sell food on ground for same price, passengers will buy something cheaper from an airport store.
• Delay in boarding? If people come to gate late, delay eating then boarding maybe delayed
• Airport fees may increase: If there will be more trash left behind by passengers, airports will ask more money from airlines per passenger
• People are scattered: In a plane all passengers are together. At airport few are in a lounge, few in smoking room, few shopping, few late & yet to clear security, few trying to figure out where is their gate etc. So might be hard to ensure everyone reaches early with enough time for food. 
• Airport gates are not designed for eating: while airports have food stalls and some places to sit and eat, most seats around the gate are not suitable for eating- like need space to keep the food tray, water bottle etc- so passenger experience may not be optimal if they have to hold the plate in one hand all the time and eat.

It is also said that our taste buds are not at their best when at 30000 ft in a pressured cabin. So airlines can get away giving bland food. On the group people may not like the same food.

 

What do you think?

10 Domestic destinations under 6000 INR return ticket

As domestic flights within india are now at all time high level, with most destinations easily costing 10-15k for a return ticket per person, I did some search where all we can go for cheap. 

Here is a list of 10 origin- destination pairs within India for which you can book a return ticket for under INR 6000.  Dates checked: June 2023 onwards

#	Where to Where	Approx Return Fare	Airline	Dates
1	BLR-COK (Kochi)	4300	Akasa, GoFirst, Alliance, Indigo	June onwards
2	Delhi-Jaipur	3200	Air Asia, Alliance air	June onwards
3	BLR-MAA (Chennai)	2400	Air Asia, Akasa	June onwards
4	Mysuru-Chennai	5300	Indigo, Alliance Air	June onwards
5	Goa-Bengaluru	4000	Air Asia, Indigo	June onwards
6	Goa-Mumbai	4000	Indigo, Go First	June onwards
7	BLR-Vizag	4700	Akasa, Indigo	June onwards
8	BLR-Vidyanagar (Hampi)	4599	Alliance Air	June onwards
9	BOM-BLR	5100	Air India	June onwards
10	Goa HYD	5300	Air Asia, Indigo	June onwards

Some references

BLR-COK

BLR VTZ

As you can see most are short flights - 1 hour or 90 mins max. Goa is the only popular tourist destination. June onwards is off season for Goa hence flights are cheaper. Same destination in May will cost more. But it will take some time before monsoon reaches Goa, so even June first few weeks you can have a great trip in Goa.

Vidyanagar-Hampi is another option, but Hampi is too far from Vidyanagar airport- better to take overnight train to Hosapete.

BLR-COK has been traditionally very cheap and continues to remain affordable.Other airports in Kerala- Trivandrum, Calicut etc cost more.

BLR-BOM was costing a lot before Akasa air started. Now it is at sensible levels, which is good.

Blr-Chennai and Mysuru chennai might be better traveled on Vandhe Bharath or Shatabdi instead of complicated travel to airport, then flying to destination. Door to door time might be similar in train vs flight.

Do you find this useful? Planning to book anywhere? Do let me know.