Germ of an Idea ...

We just got back from a weekend in Switzerland. Although this is not a travel post, I thought I must let the common populace know about a fascinating arrangement that a local low-cost airline has developed to fill their flights.

OK - lets think about your standard spur of a moment weekend trip. You know when you need to go and and when you need to be back, you usually have an overall budget that you're willing to extend your airfare upto (this is assuming that the place you want to go is out of bus-able or train-able range, or unless the distance is such that you will be able to just make the train / bus to and fro with time thrown in for a sandwich at your destination). Most of the time (at least in my head), I am mostly iffy about the destination - I don't mind going to something a little out of the ordinary ... or maybe violently touristy ... the point being - I really don't care where I go as long as its an interesting place. And of course, I am not willing to pay Rs 5000 for a one-way ticket to say ... Amritsar. And although I know a lot of people who may disagree with me, I think most places in India have things to see and places to eat at that could comfortably fill up a weekend. So your costs are fixed, your dates are fixed. Its your destination that isn't.

And that's exactly what German Wings (low-cost airline - that is TRULY low-cost ... Spicejet & Go - you are low-cost - you cannot charge 300 rupees lesser than a Kingfisher / Jet flight) Seriously - AUKAAT.

So they have this fantastic thing on their site called 'blind booking'. Now in blind booking, you get groups of 6-7 cities, all under different banners, such as 'Shopping' or 'Culture' or 'Nature' and the like. So umm ... in 'Shopping' you could have cities like Milan, London, Barcelona, Berlin etc. So you choose an overall banner, fix your dates and then make your payment. Now, your payment is also fixed - its 20 euros one way per person (approx Rs 1200, so a return ticket is 2400). You also have the option of 'removing' certain cities from the banner you've chosen - so for example, we removed 'London' since we'd need a visa, and 'Bologna' since we weren't interested. This happens at a really modest cost of 5 euros per removal. And soo ..... after you've made your payment, they then tell you where you're going! So until you finish the booking, you don't really know where you're going - fun but at the same time, not too wild since you have some kind of idea of the destinations you may get.

So which is how we landed up with return tickets to Zurich - trip details to be enumerated in next post. But I thought it was a simply fabulous idea, and especially for airlines to fill up their empty flights, and people to make random trips. I hope SOME airline / online agency comes up with this soon - if anyone thinks there's already something like this ... do let me know!!!

Cheers, and pics in the next one.
Sush