Plane ticket India to USA

[ELW 5]

Thanks again all, for all the suggestions! Just wanted to let you know that we reserved his ticket today. I did tons of heavy research but found the best prices on MakeMyTrip.com. Local travel agents quoted higher rates (or exchange rates of me sending the money made them higher) . On Orbitz.com, the search engine advertised cheaper rates, but whenever I clicked on a ticket to book it, a message would come up saying the ticket price had changed and it would be $200-300 more than advertised (their cheapest was $1,400 Hyd-JFK-Fresno). Expedia was also higher.

We booked leaving Hyderabad on May 25, arriving JFK May 25 evening, and flight to CA on 26th morning, total price $1,074. Yes it would have been $200-300 cheaper flying directly to CA, but if he gets the EAD and works even 1-2 months the extra 1-2 thousand dollars will be worth the trouble and cost!

Only problem is a long layover in JFK. I'm thinking about posting a question if anyone knows of any nap nooks there in the airport. (Once my mom and I slept near a Singapore airport balcony on a long layover. ) Getting a hotel would be toooo expensive and I don’t have the $800 it would cost to get a round trip ticket & hotel there, to be with him.

[merijan 0]

Thanks again all, for all the suggestions! Just wanted to let you know that we reserved his ticket today. I did tons of heavy research but found the best prices on MakeMyTrip.com. Local travel agents quoted higher rates (or exchange rates of me sending the money made them higher) . On Orbitz.com, the search engine advertised cheaper rates, but whenever I clicked on a ticket to book it, a message would come up saying the ticket price had changed and it would be $200-300 more than advertised (their cheapest was $1,400 Hyd-JFK-Fresno). Expedia was also higher.

We booked leaving Hyderabad on May 25, arriving JFK May 25 evening, and flight to CA on 26th morning, total price $1,074. Yes it would have been $200-300 cheaper flying directly to CA, but if he gets the EAD and works even 1-2 months the extra 1-2 thousand dollars will be worth the trouble and cost!

Only problem is a long layover in JFK. I'm thinking about posting a question if anyone knows of any nap nooks there in the airport. (Once my mom and I slept near a Singapore airport balcony on a long layover. ) Getting a hotel would be toooo expensive and I don’t have the $800 it would cost to get a round trip ticket & hotel there, to be with him.

I hope someone will be alble to give u some help with this one because its a looooooooonnnnnnng layover.. oh and dont forget to tell him to wear warm shoes its cold on the plane..

[ssma2007 0]

farechase.yahoo.com is one good place to check the rates. It will search all the available web-sites for the best deals, so one doesn't have to go to individual web-sites.

[ELW 5]

farechase.yahoo.com

Thanks, that is one I didn’t know about. Orbitz and Kayak are the two sites I used to check prices (both of the sites check multiple websites and carriers for the best deals). Even farechase.yahoo.com reported Orbitz.com as having the best rates, and directed me there.

Still out of all of them, MakeMyTrip gave the best deal!

[chri'stina 190]

Glad that you booked the ticket! That's good that makemytrip had the best price.

That is long at JFK, but at least you won't have to worry about him rushing to the next plane. Sometimes immigration and customs can take awhile, so he'll have plenty of time. lol. I'd ask Suj about nap nooks, but he was rushing every time he was at JFK so I don't think he would have noticed.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Thanks again all, for all the suggestions! Just wanted to let you know that we reserved his ticket today. I did tons of heavy research but found the best prices on MakeMyTrip.com. Local travel agents quoted higher rates (or exchange rates of me sending the money made them higher) . On Orbitz.com, the search engine advertised cheaper rates, but whenever I clicked on a ticket to book it, a message would come up saying the ticket price had changed and it would be $200-300 more than advertised (their cheapest was $1,400 Hyd-JFK-Fresno). Expedia was also higher.

We booked leaving Hyderabad on May 25, arriving JFK May 25 evening, and flight to CA on 26th morning, total price $1,074. Yes it would have been $200-300 cheaper flying directly to CA, but if he gets the EAD and works even 1-2 months the extra 1-2 thousand dollars will be worth the trouble and cost!

Only problem is a long layover in JFK. I'm thinking about posting a question if anyone knows of any nap nooks there in the airport. (Once my mom and I slept near a Singapore airport balcony on a long layover. ) Getting a hotel would be toooo expensive and I don’t have the $800 it would cost to get a round trip ticket & hotel there, to be with him.

Nagaraju may have to use the time-honoured approach used quite oft in Indian rail-stations (and also @ Heathrow airport). Find a batch of empty seats (or, if none available, stretch out on the floor) and take the nap.

Sorry to be so callous, but..

[ELW 5]

That's not callous CherryXS, just practical! (Nagu is of course expert at falling deeply and happily asleep on the cement floor of a noisy railroad platform .)

What about the comment on the "POE JFK SUCKS!!" thread, the person that said their friend was not allowed to stay in the airport and those without money had to walk around a hotel but were not allowed to remain in the airport! How can that be? Can't just anyone in the airport remain all night? Or should I just go ahead and book a $150 a night room for the 17-hours Nagu will have to wait? (Less of course maybe 3 hours immigration and 2 hours domestic flight check-in.) Your learned advice, please!

[devblt 0]

I just booked my wife's ticket for June 2nd. She'll be flying from Mumbi to Paris to Atlanta to Charlotte.

Her interview is not until May 24th, but felt that having a 9 day buffer will be enough for her to get the visa in hand if she doesn't happen to get it on the day of the interview itself.

The one-way ticket cost Rs 40,000 approx from a local travel agent.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

I just booked my wife's ticket for June 2nd. She'll be flying from Mumbi to Paris to Atlanta to Charlotte.

Her interview is not until May 24th, but felt that having a 9 day buffer will be enough for her to get the visa in hand if she doesn't happen to get it on the day of the interview itself.

The one-way ticket cost Rs 40,000 approx from a local travel agent.

If you can rebook it to one coming straight-in to Charlotte, I recommend doing so--basically, I consider it optimal to use your local airport if it IS a POE (which Charlotte is) unless coming from Canada or Ireland (likely these latter will be irrelevant to you, so...)

[Saddle Bronc 124]

That's not callous CherryXS, just practical! (Nagu is of course expert at falling deeply and happily asleep on the cement floor of a noisy railroad platform .)

What about the comment on the "POE JFK SUCKS!!" thread, the person that said their friend was not allowed to stay in the airport and those without money had to walk around a hotel but were not allowed to remain in the airport! How can that be? Can't just anyone in the airport remain all night? Or should I just go ahead and book a $150 a night room for the 17-hours Nagu will have to wait? (Less of course maybe 3 hours immigration and 2 hours domestic flight check-in.) Your learned advice, please!

Other choice is to do standby on a flight from LGA (LaGuardia) or EWR (Newark) to LAX. There are busses that run between the three airports.

Admittedly, some problems:

• [*]passenger will be set back the bus fare (last I checked, JFK to LGA was $15--which is still less than $150/night hotel)[*]the journey will likely be made by rather jetlagged, tired passenger.

Plus point of it is that Nagaraju has a chance to reach home sooner.

[devblt 0]

I just booked my wife's ticket for June 2nd. She'll be flying from Mumbi to Paris to Atlanta to Charlotte.

Her interview is not until May 24th, but felt that having a 9 day buffer will be enough for her to get the visa in hand if she doesn't happen to get it on the day of the interview itself.

The one-way ticket cost Rs 40,000 approx from a local travel agent.

If you can rebook it to one coming straight-in to Charlotte, I recommend doing so--basically, I consider it optimal to use your local airport if it IS a POE (which Charlotte is) unless coming from Canada or Ireland (likely these latter will be irrelevant to you, so...)

We tried getting the flight to Charlotte, but the tickets from Mumbai to Frankfurt were not available. They said to wait a couple of days to see if any become available. I didn't want to wait any longer.

[ELW 5]

I was happy to get the website http://www.sleepinginairports.com/ from this forum, it advises that in JFK the one place one can lay down and nap undisturbed on a long layover is in Terminal 4, upstairs on the red rug. Yea! Now we have peace of mind and no huge hotel expense (and no wondering the streets of New York!).

[chri'stina 190]

So today's the day, ELW!!

[ELW 5]

Yah less than 6 hours... but for me things don't seem "real" until they are actually happening... so it is just another leisurally Saturday... till I get in the car to go to the airport I guess...