The convenience of booking air tickets online is evident from the research findings by the leading credit-card company, Visa International, stating that 40% of Indian online transactions in the first half of 2006 were air-ticket bookings.
MUMBAI: Tired of making three trips to airline offices for a single ticket? Or fed up with booking your air ticket through an agent, who would either make a mistake in the date of departure or book a ticket of an airline that you hate to travel, just to pocket the larger commission the airlines offer him? Try out e-ticketing.
e-ticketing can be a time-saving way to plan your business or leisure trip. The convenience of booking air tickets online is evident from the research findings by the leading credit-card company, Visa International, stating that 40% of Indian online transactions in the first half of 2006 were air-ticket bookings. Moreover, all the domestic airlines are providing e-ticketing facilities these days for cutting operating costs.
Online ticket booking can be done directly through the website of an aircraft operator. However, if you are not the kind who prefer a particular airline, then you can check out travel sites, which collate flights details of all airlines, are the apt place to book or bid for air tickets. Travel portals, such as, travelguru.com, arzoo.com, yatra.com, indiatimes.com, rediff. com, makemytrip.com and cleartrip. com, would provide you all details of flights along with their fares in an ascending order, i.e., the lowest price ticket is featured first, on its web page.
You may get discounted prices on the travel sites, such as rediff, indiatimes and makemytrip, which offer auctions.
“I had once booked a ticket to Kerala for Rs 3,000, while the same ticket would have cost not less than Rs 10,000, had I booked it through an airline” says a Mumbai-based flyer.
The travel sites provide two options - bid now or book now. Websites, such as indiatimes and rediff offer auctions, where you have to offer an amount higher than the one last bid for the ticket. If you win the auction, you would be informed via an SMS or a telephone call, and would later be sent an e-mail containing the details of your flight, within 48 hours of your bidding. The bidding process works best if you are booking your tickets well in advance. But, before booking a ticket online, it’s in your best interest to read the rules and regulations list, or the online reservations guide on the portal because norms differ from one website to another.
Further, while using a travel site, check whether the site offers flights from all the airlines, especially the low-cost carriers. If not, then open such an airline’s website in another window and compare the prices to get a better deal, suggests another e-ticketing regular, Malini Sinha. Ensure that the fare mentioned for a ticket is inclusive of the airport and government taxes that airlines charge, apart from the net air-ticket fare, or else you might be in for a surprise when you come to know of the total cost of the ticket.
An e-mail account and a credit card are essential for e-ticket bookings. During the reservation process you would be asked for your credit card number and the last three-digits of the CVV number printed on the reverse of your credit card. Confirm that the contact details provided are correct. Don’t forget to get a print out of the online booking confirmation, stating your passenger name record (PNR) number, which is the only proof of your web-based reservation. If you are using a public computer do take care to log out of the website, lest your personal details including your credit card number are leaked.
Another advantage that airlines offer online is the web check in facility. You can submit your PNR number on the airline’s website and select the seat number, meal preference, 3-4 days before departure in case of Jet Airways and a day earlier for Kingfisher Airlines. You would also need the PNR number and a photo identity card —voter’s ID card, passport or driving license — at the airport before being issued a boarding pass.
Reach the airport a little time earlier to strike off the online-transaction related complexities. The reporting time for all e-ticket passengers is at least an hour before the departure.
Though you can book tickets online you can’t cancel them through a web transaction. You either have to get in touch with the travel portal -indiatimes, makemytrip - or call the airline office and get the tickets cancelled by informing your PNR number. The rules and regulations on the website would mention the ticket classes, which are non-refundable. Do check for the tag, if you are not too sure whether you would be cancelling the flight later. If your ticket is subject to cancellation, then the penalties, which differ from airline to airline, and the travel site’s service charges are deducted and the balance is credited to your account. Besides, if you bagged the ticket in a low-cost offer, you would also have to pay the difference against the normal fare.
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