Oh no! Not another fare sale

It hasn't been 24 hours that I wrote about Jet Airways, SpiceJet and Indigo coming out with fare sales, and Jet has already upped the ante a bit with a new promotion for up to 50% off on domestic tickets in economy class.


Bookings need to be done by 4 August 2014, for travel on or after 1 September 2014. You can check out the offer here. Tickets under this offer are non-refundable, with limited seat inventory.

Here are a couple of samples for a random date in September.

MAA-DEL and DEL-MAA

DEL-BOM. The BOM-DEL route is priced fairly uniformly at Rs 3,700 for this fare class.

As you can see, these are fantastic prices. What's more, these compare quite favourably with fares on, say Indigo, which are around Rs 12,700 for MAA-DEL return on the same dates.

So it looks like a great deal overall. And if you already have booked tickets (either on Jet or another airline), you might want to consider cancelling those tickets and rebooking under this offer, if there is a net saving involved (after considering cancellation costs, etc). Plus you'll also be eligible for miles (minimum 500 miles effective 1 August under JP's new customer-friendly rules!), so that's an additional sweetener. Just make sure that you book your new tickets first, before cancelling the old one!

A few thoughts

Indian airlines have come out with various fare sales in 2014 already, that it has been difficult keeping track of them. The second quarter of the calendar year, ie April through June, is possibly the best quarter for airlines in India, generally. The demand is largely driven by summer holidays, and lots more families are flying to their vacations these days. The last quarter of the calendar year, October through December, is the next best period, because of various holidays, festivals, etc, which again results in either traveling for those events, or using those breaks to take vacations. The other six months of the year can be quite lean for airlines.

Because Jet Airways, Air India and SpiceJet are in financial losses, it takes a toll on their cash position, and so these airlines resort to fare sales to push up their cash inflows. The sad part, however, is that competitors will be forced to match the lower fares, which could affect their own business plans. I'd hate to see any of the existing airlines fold up, so I'm hoping for the best.


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