Via.com, a travel portal which used to work the backends for many travel agents and has now gone direct to customers, is offering a promotional offer where you can purchase domestic flight tickets in India for INR 2,500, all taxes inclusive.
Here is how it works. Via.com is selling coupons online , which are valid for a year from purchase. Once bought, log into your Via.com account, plonk the details of where you want to go and when (remember, at least 7 days in advance!) and at what time of the day, and you will get a ticket in your mailbox within an hour’s time. The tickets are valid for bookings on most sectors in India, and there is the complete list of the city pairs you can travel with this offer on the website.
The catch is, the tickets are heavily discounted, and come with the usual restrictions. The bigger catch is that you won’t know the name of the airline you are travelling on till the time you are booked up. My sense is these tickets would come up on low fare carriers in India such as Go Air, Indigo or SpiceJet, but I could easily be surprised if the other carriers are also on board.
In today’s age, when the minimum cost of a ticket Mumbai-Delhi, for instance, is INR 3,800 upwards, this would be a nice saving if you are okay with some mystery in your life. Take a look below at a Mumbai-Delhi one-way ticket for 45 days out seen below:
As soon as my family can decide some of their leisure travel plans, I am going to get hold of some of these coupons and do some bookings. But in the meanwhile, if you guys get to try these, please drop in a line here and tell us your experience!
AJ (#13) look at FlyerTalk for a report on the difficulty of using these coupons. Precisely why I said ‘Caveat Emptor’. Websites accepting CC only from one country is not “logical” and trying to compare a relatively new entrant (via.com) from many established businesses as to their sustained viability is also not “logical”
Caveat Emptor. What is the guarantee that this company will be in existence 4 months from now? And even if it is, that it will honour the terms of this promotion and not find a way to weasel out? Finally, since this is paid through an Indian CC only, your chances of disputing the charge in case they do not deliver are squat. No thanks, count me out.
Since this is a promo for travel in India by an Indian travel portal, it seems logical to have them only accept Indian credit cards.
As for the guarantee that this company will be in business, no one can offer that guarantee for any business, so this is no different! I’d buy those coupons only if I could ticket them right away and not hoard them, really!
They seem to have change the offer to INR 2999..
Looks like they changed the deal to Rs 3000 and also realized they only accept Indian CC. Boo!
This offer is for INR 2999.
http://www.via.com/bdo?action1=aircard
I had a question which I did email VIA about. It was that the website says taxes are covered but would they include “surcharge” or “PSC” (I dont know what it is but I’ve seen it in the fare breakdown) etc or would the passenger be on the hook for them ?
Thanks in advance
The terms and conditions seem to convey that 2500 is an all-in fare.
Are these transferable? I mean if I buy it can I transfer it to someone else?
When I was testing it, I did see you could input another passenger’s name for the booking. But if you take them in your account, you will have to complete the booking I presume
I bought 2 coupons. Lets see how it works out. It definitely doesn’t seem like a bad deal at all esp since very few sectors in India cost less than 2500 after taxes.
I wonder what they will do if there is only 1 option and that is a FSC – for example, flying HYD-PNQ, all LCC flights are in the evening. Before noon, the only choice is Air India.
If I booked a ticket in the morning, I guess they’d be forced to book through Air India?
@Raj It is possible. All I would say is check if the city pair is valid on the website, and if it is your pairing could sure work out!