Most people arrive here after seeing a price that made no sense, or after deciding that this year they are finally going somewhere. Here is how the board works, how to read the visa buckets, and what to check before you pay.
The four buckets
Domestic means both airports are in India. No visa, no passport queue, just a photo ID that matches the ticket name.
No visa means Indian passport holders can enter for a normal tourist trip without applying in advance. That includes visa on arrival and free permits. Popular ones from India are Thailand, Malaysia, Nepal, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Seychelles and Kazakhstan.
E-visa means you apply online before you fly. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kenya and Tanzania all work this way for Indian passport holders. Approval is usually quick, but it is not automatic, so apply before you book anything non-refundable.
Visa needed means an embassy or sticker visa: the UK, Schengen Europe, the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, China and most of the rest. These fares are often the best value per kilometre, but the paperwork is part of the cost.
What every post tells you
Each fare carries the price, the departure date, and, when we have enough history, what that route usually sells for and how far below it this one is. If the price is not clearly below the usual price, it does not get posted. The date matters too, because a cheap fare for a Tuesday you cannot travel is not a deal.
Domestic fares: how they behave
Indian domestic prices are tight. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive date on the same route is usually small, so a domestic fare rarely looks dramatic in percentage terms. The real savings come from timing: booking a few weeks out rather than a few days, flying midweek, and taking the early or late flight. When a domestic fare does drop well below its usual price, it is usually because a low-cost carrier is trying to fill a specific aircraft, and it does not stay.
Long-haul fares: what to watch
The biggest genuine bargains out of India are almost always international, and usually not in economy. Business class mispricing on long-haul routes, fuel surcharge errors, and currency splits between sales sites are the usual causes. They are rare, they are often pulled within a day, and the airline may cancel the ticket afterwards. If you book one, pay by card and do not book non-refundable hotels until the ticket is issued and stable.
Before you pay
- Check the fare rules. A very low fare often excludes checked luggage, seat choice and any change. The total with a bag can be higher than the headline price.
- Check the dates and times. A fare can look cheap because it departs at 6am and arrives at 2am, or because it lands a day later than expected.
- Check the name. Airlines charge to change a passenger name, and some refuse outright.
- Pay in a way that is easy to reverse. A card is usually safer than a bank transfer.
- Look at the total, not the fare. Taxes, card surcharges and the checked bag are where the price comes back.
How to book one
Open the fare, read the details, then use the booking link on the page. The link is prefilled with the route and the dates, so you land on a search with the right itinerary. Confirm the total there, including bags, before you pay.
If a fare looks too good to be true, it sometimes is. Check the airline’s own site for the same route and dates at the same time. If the airline shows a normal price while the fare link shows something much lower, the fare is either very short lived or it is a mistake fare. Both are worth taking seriously, and both can be cancelled.
If the airline cancels the fare
When an airline pulls a mistake fare, the usual outcomes are a full refund to the original payment method, or a voucher for future travel. Which one you get depends on the airline and on the fare rules. If you have travel insurance that covers airline cancellation, that is the moment to use it.
How we check fares
Every route we cover has a usual price built from real fares on upcoming departure dates. A fare has to break that usual price by a clear margin, or sit under a deliberately strict absolute floor for its bucket, before it earns a post. If a route does not have enough data, we do not claim a discount. Fares that do not survive that do not make it onto the board, however good they looked the first time.