Air flights from USA to India and return from Nepal

Posted by geovagriffith on 01/19/25 01:33 PM

We are looking at booking a Gate 1 Travel tour to India and Nepal for next Winter.
We usually like flying Delta and their partners, which would work for RT from JAX, Fla to Delhi, but adding Katmandu, comes up with either no flights available or an outrageous cost or return flight via Korea with many changes.

We can go with Gate 1 Travel's option to book flights with them, but not sure what airlines we would be on. It appears that only American Airlines and Air India have direct flights from the USA to Delhi.

Has anyone purchased flights from the east coast of the USA to India and returning from Nepal, that you can add some wisdom to our choice?
If anyone had booked a similar tour with Gate 1 Travel, how did it work out and what airlines were you on?

Posted by Arnold

Denver, CO, USA

01/19/25 01:55 PM

1620 posts

United too has daily flights to India flying nonstop from Newark to Delhi. The flights to Bombay no longer operate due the closure of Russian airspace to US carriers.

If flying back from Kathmandu makes the tickets v expensive then buy a one way KTM-DEL and return home from Delhi. This is what my next door neighbor did last Nov. He combined two different tours, one covering N India and another to Nepal and booked his flights separately.

Keep in mind that from Kathmandu, connections back to the US will be very limited, generally requiring you to make a connection in SE Asia or Northern India

Posted by shoeflyer

Chicago

01/19/25 02:45 PM

700 posts

What Arnold said.....

If you try to search for a full one-way from Nepal back to the US, the limitations on
airlines to fly that combination may make arcane flight pricing/combinations come
into effect. Breaking it into pieces gives you more options. But it also does bring
the need to plan your itinerary so that you have enough (e.g., overnight) time between
flights #1 and #2, since you would not be protected by the airline in the event of
flight #1 being delayed.

Posted by geovagriffith OP

01/19/25 05:11 PM

8457 posts

Thanks for the info.
Arnold, I considered booking separate flights from Katmandu to Delhi. I don't want to spend an extra night just for that reason.

I did send Gate 1 a message asking if the fight from Delhi would be direct or have one or more stops. Also, I asked what the likely airline would be. No response yet.

What I really would like to do is what we did 10 years ago when we flew from the USA to Singapore, by have a 1 1/2 day layover in Paris CDG, it reduced the jet lag at the end. I tried such a plan list time and the fare was sky high.

Posted by renee

Minnesota

01/19/25 06:35 PM

585 posts

In 2020 (before the pandemic!) I took a Gate 1 tour in south India and then flew to Kathmandu for a volunteer trip. I did my own arrangements because Gate 1’s proposed itinerary was very expensive. I did a multi-stop itinerary on Qatar Airlines: MSP to ORD to Doha to Chennai (beginning of tour), and returning from Kathmandu to Doha to Boston to MSP. To get from India to Kathmandu, I booked a separate one-way ticket on Air India.

I am returning to India in a month for another tour (Road Scholar), again booking my own flights. This tour begins in Delhi and ends in Kochi. I actually found that two one-way tickets gave me a better itinerary (with a good price) than a round trip, so you might try searching one-way tickets. In this case I will fly Delta/Air France from MSP to CDG to Delhi, then return on Singapore Air from Kochi to Singapore to San Francisco to MSP.

To find a list of all nonstop flights on all airlines serving a particular city, you can look up the Wikipedia article on almost any airport, for instance Delhi or Kathmandu (look for the article on the airport, not the city). When you scroll down the article, there will be a chart that shows all the airlines and their nonstop destinations. This is how I discovered my upcoming flight on Singapore Air that will get me home.