Is it worth the trouble to FLY at NIGHT

Is it worth the trouble to FLY at NIGHT

 

Night fares have been around for some time now, with all airlines, even Air India, offering them. Night fares are nothing but lower prices for tickets for flights that operate during the night on routes within the country.

 

The idea was to utilise seats that would otherwise have gone empty in these flights.

 

Take, for instance, Air India. Most of its flights, especially those from the US and Europe, land in Mumbai and Delhi at night. Air India offers a 25% discount on tickets booked on flights on domestic routes between 8 am and 8 pm and a 32.5% discount on domestic flights between 8 pm and 8 am.

 

So, if you want to fly from Mumbai to Delhi, you would pay Rs 3,972 for travel between 10 pm and 8 am and Rs 4,342 for travel between 8 am and 8 pm.

 

For a more detailed look at the various prices for specific routes, one should check out the Air India website.

 

One must look at the conditions that need to be fulfilled.  One of them being that these fares are valid only if tickets are purchased in India. There is no advance booking required for Air India and cancellation charges are Rs 100 per ticket.

 

Also, Air India states that the number of seats allotted for these fares is nearly 80% of its capacity and therefore, is not constrained, like domestic airlines that offer such discounts.

 

However, travelers must account for the flight arriving at Indian airports at unearthly hours as well as the hassles of reporting to the international terminals, not the domestic ones, with the reporting time 90 minutes before the flight, as against the one hour or so for domestic airlines.

 

Domestic fliers are also required to fill in customs declaration forms.

 

Indian Airlines also offers concessions for night flights for which the traveller should check with the agent or airline. Jet airways recently intensified the fare war, launching revised fares on Mumbai-Delhi (effective October 1, '04) and Delhi-Bangalore (effective October 6, '04) routes.

 

The present night fare for flights leaving from Delhi for Mumbai and Bangalore and vice versa at 10:30 pm, is around Rs 5,810, but, under the new offer, the highest night fare is around Rs 1,600 less than this.

 

There are no preconditions for advance booking like apex fares. However, there's a cancellation charge of Rs 500 if the ticket is cancelled one hour prior to departure, and 50% if the fare if cancelled or reissued one hour after departure of the flight.

 

While night fares will end up saving money in terms of actual ticket costs, the traveller must remember that he/she will land or take off from the city at odd hours of the night, with all the attendant issues like food, safety, transport costs and loss of sleep.

 

In Mumbai, for instance, taxis and rickshaws charge 150% of the day fare after midnight.

 

So, if you're landing in Santacruz domestic airport around 1 am and want to go to Borivali, 25 kms away in North Mumbai, you'll pay at least Rs 350, against the normal Rs 200 or so.

 

Ditto in Delhi where getting late night transport is a bigger issue than in Mumbai. While the expenses on this front is not likely to nullify the savings made on the price front, many people might feel that all the additional trouble is not worth the small savings made.