Reach

Found this site while browsing the internet - http://www.seat61.com/India.htm

Wanted to know about the different classes (First Class, Sleeper class) provided in trains of India. This site had covered them all with pictures of each.

The site also gives you details about ship and train travel across many countries - http://www.seat61.com

A wonderful source of information indeed!

Cheers,
Manish.

Labels: first class, sleeper, train

This post tries to analyse various online airline booking portals in India.

Well, I just wanted to check which site offers me the best deals to fly from Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai. I did not have to fly/book-tickets to do this, just check the deals provided on the websites :)

The sites I analysed were -
www.makemytrip.com
www.cleartrip.com
www.ndtvtravels.com (Powered by http://www.travelmartindia.com)

These are few of the most seeked airline reservation portals. Also, the assumption here is, you are ok to switch carriers. Else, you could accomodate flying miles from one carrier and acquire cheaper deals if you are a frequent flyer.

All the three sites competed farely well. The fairs are almost equivalent.

Let's compare them on a few comparison points:

1. Airlines included: MakeMyTrip does not offer deals on Air Deccan & Go Air. ClearTrip does not show deals for Go Air. Ndtv Travels shows what MakeMyTrip and ClearTrip show, plus Air Deccan & Go Air.
2. Lowest fairs: Well, it surely depends on the time of day you need to fly and whether you are OK with a budget carrier. If you are ok to fly with Air Deccan, MakeMyTrip is useless for you as it doesn't list Air Deccan. Air Deccan is one of the best airlines that offers lowest fairs. The caveats like frequent delays and no in-flight Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner go along with it though. So as far as lowest fairs go, ClearTrip surely gives the best deal. Though NDTV Travels offers Air Deccan in its portfolio, options provided by ClearTrip are far more as compared to NDTV Travels, primarily because NDTV Travels must be selecting some of the flights and not all during the day. For other airlines like Air Sahara, all the sites provide almost similar fair, Rs. 500 here and there.
3. Direct booking through carrier: Tried to check if the carriers offered me a better deal as compared to the aforementioned sites. Air Deccan did! I got a better deal on Air Deccan as compared to the ClearTrip offer. It is another story that ClearTrip helped me locate Air Deccan's flights and then I went to Air Deccan's website. Air Sahara's website asked for more fair than MakeMyTrip. MakeMyTrip had a discount offer going on for Air Sahara tickets at the time of writing this post. Kingfisher website offers better deals for Kingfisher airlines as compared to above portals. So if you want to fly kingfisher, try checking Kingfisher website for sure. If you are looking for a return journey through the same carrier, you must visit the airline website.

Conclusion: Which portal to choose ?

I would suggest to start with ClearTrip. It has coverage across most of the carriers and covers most of the flights within a day for a particular carrier. NDTV Travels does not list all flights within a day and MakeMyTrip does not list all the carriers.

The ClearTrip website also allows you to select/deselect airline carriers of your choice so that you would focus on airlines of your choice.

You may not be eligible for flying miles if you book these low fares. Please read the Terms and Conditions on websites if you are interested in earning flying miles.

Finally, if you want to choose different airline carriers for depature and return journey, you need these web portals. Else, if you are choosing the same carrier, make a point to visit the airline website after shortlisting a lowest deal from the web portal.

Cheers,
Manish.

Labels: airline, india, review, travel