Incognito mode does absolutely nothing for your flight prices. I’ve sat there with two laptops, one on a VPN and one on my home WiFi, refreshing the same Delhi to Bangalore route on MakeMyTrip for three hours, and the prices moved exactly zero rupees in response to my clicking. It’s a myth. It’s a placebo for people who want to feel like they’re outsmarting a multi-billion dollar algorithm. We keep repeating it because the alternative—that we have no control over the pricing—is too depressing to accept.
The Tuesday at 3 AM lie
Everyone has a cousin who swears by booking on a Tuesday at midnight. I actually tested this. Last October, I tracked 42 different flight paths across India (mostly the heavy hitters like Mumbai-Delhi and Bangalore-Kolkata) over a six-week period. I checked prices at 10 AM, 4 PM, and 2 AM. Do you know what the average price difference was between a “prime” booking time and a random Tuesday night? 184 rupees.
That is not a hack. That is a rounding error. You’re sacrificing your sleep and your sanity to save the price of a mediocre airport samosa. What I mean is—actually, let me put it differently. The only real way to get cheap flights in India is to be okay with flying at 4:45 AM, which is a special kind of hell that involves smelling other people’s morning breath in a cramped metal tube while the sun hasn’t even come up.
I hate Akasa Air’s seat colors
I know people love them because they’re the new kid on the block and the tickets are often 500 rupees cheaper than IndiGo, but I can’t do it. The seats are this aggressive, violent shade of orange and purple. It looks like a cheap highlighter exploded in the cabin. It makes me physically anxious. I know it’s irrational to pay more just to avoid a color scheme, but I’ve done it three times now. I’ll pay the “not-looking-at-neon-orange” tax every single time.
Speaking of things I hate, let’s talk about the “Convenience Fee.” It’s the biggest scam in the Indian travel industry. You spend an hour finding a 3,200 rupee flight, get to the final screen, and suddenly it’s 3,800 because you dared to use a credit card to pay for a digital service. It’s a tax on hope. I once got so angry at a 400 rupee convenience fee on EaseMyTrip that I closed the tab and didn’t book the trip at all. I stayed home out of spite. I missed my friend’s engagement party because of a fee that costs less than a Gin and Tonic. I’m not proud of it, but I’d probably do it again.
The secret to cheap flights in India isn’t a website; it’s being okay with a miserable schedule.
The actual things that (sometimes) work
- The 21-day rule: In my experience, prices in India don’t actually drop as you get closer to the date. They only go up. If you aren’t booked 21 days out, you’re already losing.
- Skip the food: Never, ever pre-book the meal. The “Magic Upma” or whatever they’re calling it this week is always a disappointment. Eat a massive meal at home and save the 600 rupees.
- Credit Card Points: This is the only real “game” left. I use an HDFC Infinia card, and the 1:1 reward ratio for flights is the only reason I can afford to fly home for Diwali. If you aren’t using a travel-specific card, you’re basically donating money to the bank.
- Google Flights: Stop using the aggregator apps first. Start with Google Flights to see the calendar view, then go to the airline’s direct website. Often, SpiceJet or Air India Express will have a “web-only” fare that doesn’t show up elsewhere.
The part nobody talks about
I used to think booking six months in advance was the move. I was completely wrong. In India, airlines change their flight schedules like I change my socks. If you book a flight for June in January, there is a 90% chance that by the time June rolls around, your 10 AM flight has been moved to 6 AM or 11 PM. And because you bought the “super saver” non-refundable ticket, you’re stuck with whatever garbage time they give you.
Anyway, I went on a bit of a rant there. But I digress. The point is that we’ve commoditized travel to the point where we treat it like a stock market. We spend ten hours of our lives trying to save 1,000 rupees. If you value your time at even 200 rupees an hour, you’ve already lost money on the search. It’s a mental sickness.
I remember one specific time in 2019. I was trying to get from Pune to Delhi. I found a flight that was 1,200 rupees cheaper if I flew from Mumbai instead. I thought I was a genius. I took a local bus from Pune to Mumbai to save that money. The bus got stuck in a massive jam on the expressway near Lonavala. I watched the minutes tick by, sweating in a non-AC bus, clutching my backpack. I missed the flight by ten minutes. I had to buy a last-minute ticket at the airport for 9,000 rupees. I sat at Terminal 1 and cried into a very expensive burger. Total failure.
I might be wrong about this, but I think the era of truly cheap flying in India is over. Fuel is too expensive, and the airlines are too tired of losing money. We’re all just fighting over the scraps now. We look for the 10% discount codes and the bank offers because it makes us feel like we have some agency in a system that mostly just wants to squeeze us into smaller seats.
Is it even worth the stress anymore? I don’t know. I still find myself opening six tabs every time I need to visit my parents. Maybe it’s just a habit. Or maybe I’m just cheap.
Stop overthinking the search. Book the flight, pay the stupid fee, and move on with your life.