Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site ahuta.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxb!mhuxn!mhuxm!mhuxj!houxm!ahuta!jis1 From: jis1@ahuta.UUCP (j.mukerji) Newsgroups: net.nlang.india Subject: re: Recent fare to India Message-ID: <440@ahuta.UUCP> Date: Sun, 10-Feb-85 13:13:32 EST Article-I.D.: ahuta.440 Posted: Sun Feb 10 13:13:32 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 11-Feb-85 05:57:08 EST Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 42 I travelled by SAS from New York to Calcutta via Copenhagen and back, including a one night stopover at Copenhagen on the way back, payed for by SAS. The fare was $1100 round-trip. I have heard rumors that the flight to Calcutta from Copenhagen has been replaced by a flight to Delhi since then. Yes, International travel from Airports in India are a pain in general. Too many lines, and too long waits. I try to arrive in India and depart from India through one of the lesser travelled international airports. The choices as they stand now are: Calcutta, Madras, Trivandrum and Amritsar. The delays in lines are considerably less at these airports. However, you do have to spend some time researching low fares to these airports. I did research some before going to India late last year. My first surprise was that Air-India is nowhere near the least expensive way of getting to India anymore. In particular, I researched going to Calcutta, and besides the SAS deal, which I took, I found three others. They are: 1) New York to Amsterdam by your favourite discount trans-atlantic and then Bangladesh Biman from there to Calcutta via Dacca. I am told that their service is pretty reasonable. The fare at that time worked out to about $1000. 2) New York to Copenhagen or Luxembourg by your favourite discount trans-atlantic, and then Aeroflot from there to Calcutta via Moscow. Again the fare worked out to about $1000+. 3) New York to Copenhagen via SAS and then Thai from there to Calcutta via Bangkok. Same fare as SAS all the way to Calcutta, but takes more time. I chose the SAS deal because it was the most attractive when fare, timings and other conveniences were concerned. If I were really pinching for the last penny, I would have taken the discount-trans-atlantic/Bangladesh-Biman deal. Fares, specially trans-atlantic fares change so frequently these days that nothing that I have mentioned may hold good any more! Jishnu Mukerji AT&T Information Systems Labs. Holmdel NJ