Dublin - New Delhi (Dec 2021)

JohnCleary

Hi all,
Firstly, I realise that we are in the middle of a Pandemic (we have cancelled our annual SE Trip for Dec 2020). These plans are academic plans for Dec 2021.

Any experience with getting to New Delhi from Dublin?

Traditionally, we always used Bangkok as our hub for SE Asia and traveled Business Class with the likes of Emirates. Etihad, Qatar.... so the flight was very stress free and the fun began in the airport.

Next year, we're going to pump the budget into accommodation so we're going to fly economy.

The usual Eastern carriers are quite expensive compared to Virgin from LHR (I know things can change, prices are all over the place at the moment). So, this would mean a point to point with Aer Lingus to LHR and then a separate flight with Virgin (direct) LHR - DEL.

Wondering if anyone has any experiences? We only want 1 connecting flight (So DUB - LHR - DEL would be fine), but we run the risk of missing a flight and it would be our own problem as they'd be separate tickets.

This goes against what I normally do. I traditionally always book direct with the airline on one booking so that it's the airlines problem to get us to our destination / back home.

endofrainbow

December 2021 schedules/fares would not be available until January so unsure where you're getting your pricing from ?

JohnCleary

endofrainbow wrote: »

December 2021 schedules/fares would not be available until January so unsure where you're getting your pricing from ?

As December is usually peak times, I was booking as if we were doing Dec 2020 - Jan 2021. It's not the price itself, it's the difference I was more interested in as at the moment it's all academic.

As an example DUB - [Forget what carrier, so either Abu Dhabi / Dubai] - DEL is approx twice the price of LHR - DEL with Virgin (Okay, you have to factor in LHR - DUB x 2).

To be honest, i'm not too pushed about price as we'll be flying Economy. I just want the most hassle-free way to get to Delhi.

One real bugger is that you can't pre-book (and pay) the bulkhead seats in Economy... we know this, always been the way incase of infants etc.

We actually don't have an issue booking J Class with Virgin Atlantic, but I don't like the layout of their A330 Business Class (there's 2 of us, we like to sit together) hence the main reason for not bothering with that option.

JohnCleary

Scrap the OP - When I was checking Skyscanner, Emirates wasn't showing up for some reason.

I can do Multi-City with Emirates no issue, as my inbound departure point will be different.
Planning on...
Dublin - Dubai - New Delhi
Colombo (Sri Lanka) - Dubai - Dublin

It will be a kick going back to Economy, but going on average savings, meaning for a 1 month trip we can increase our nightly hotel budget from €100 to €200 so for the sake of a few hours of torture, we have a month of luxury.

OP, have you ever flown business class, I don’t think you mentioned if you have.

Edit, actually you have mentioned it in probably 50% of the posts you have ever made on boards. We get it you have flown business class a few times and you are really cool and have loads and loads of money, you don’t need to keep talking about it.(unless that the reason you flew business class in the first place). It has ZERO relevance to your question here (and most other times you bring it up), you don’t need to justify why you are lowering yourself to fly economy class, we still think you are absolutely fantastic and really rich

JohnCleary

Mayo_fan wrote: »

OP, have you ever flown business class, I don’t think you mentioned if you have.

Edit, actually you have mentioned it in probably 50% of the posts you have ever made on boards. We get it you have flown business class a few times and you are really cool and have loads and loads of money, you don’t need to keep talking about it.(unless that the reason you flew business class in the first place). It has ZERO relevance to your question here (and most other times you bring it up), you don’t need to justify why you are lowering yourself to fly economy class, we still think you are absolutely fantastic and really rich

Thanks

Really helpful post regarding assistance with logistics.

Anyhow, sorted via Multi-City so India / Sri Lanka trip can be done with no backtracking.

theguzman

Flights are being cancelled all over the shop at the moment, I had 7 flights between mid Nov and February and all were either cancelled or changed in timings or even airports.

I had one flight cancelled three times so just gave up and took the refund. I think you should increase the flight budget and just book maybe within 2 weeks or travel albeit at probably a higher price. Virgin Atlantic will not exist within 6 months. Don't even dream of booking single tickets on multiple carriers as you are sure to get roasted, this happened to me but luckily or not every flight just went down like dominoes and instead of missing flights I got a refund.

The whole thing is an absolute horror show and god knows when I'll get my refunds, I got offered €49 out of a €150 claim since last March, it took Multi-trip Blue insurance 5 months to process my claim and that was only after I started hounding them on the phone. I literally have no patience or energy to fight these things anymore. I was due to go to Southern Spain next week and that was canned also, we were actually debating driving down with the UK and chunnel but could not be bothered