Dear all,

I am planning for my wife to enter US in August. Since she is coming to US for the first time, I want to accompany her. But I don't want to go all the way to India because I have to go again shortly afterwards, for my sister's wedding. I am thinking of going up to London, join my wife and enter the US with her.

When I talked to my travel agent in US, they said they cannot buy tickets for my wife from US because the journey is originating in India. They can buy tickets for Air India, but I don't want to fly Air India because of operational/logistic issues.

I have often flown the following route in Delta-Emirates combo flight and really like it: Atlanta-London-Dubai-Trivandrum. My ideal plan would be:

1. My wife buys one-way ticket from Trivandrum to Atlanta and flies Emirates-Delta combo in the Trivandrum-Dubai-London-Atlanta route.
2. I buy a two-way Delta ticket for Atlanta-London-Atlanta trip.
3. Miraculously, I and my wife are in the same Delta flight from London to Atlanta.

How can I make this happen? Have you been in this situation before? Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
hurryup

Try googling with keywords "airfare", "air travel", ...; there are lots of such sites, such as Orbitz, Expedia, LastMinuteTravel, ...

Or, just DO the booking(s) on one of those sites.

I would look for another agent who doesn't get kick backs for selling Air India tickets.

Hurryup

I investigated the same options. It is quite possible that you meet your wife mid-way in the London and come back with you r wife to USA.

I think the travel agent is fooling you that you can't buy your wife's ticket from USA. This is absurd. I bought my fiancee's one-way ticket from USA.

I ended up going to India to accompany her during her k1 interview. We came back together.

Try to find a good travel agent - they will find options for you. Interestingly, I also looked at London option. See the options in British Airways,

OK, Orbitz actually turned out to be lousy when I plugged in the airports (the fare it came up for the TRV-ATL one-way using DXB-LGW intermediate stops was $6,300)--so I tried the airline sites directly for a "dummy" departure date of 2008/07/07.

For wife:

• Emirates TRV-LGW (via DXB) lv 2008/07/07 21:55 arr 2008/07/08 07:20 fare Rs. 24,275 (about $625)
• Alternate TRV-LGW (via DXB) lv 2008/07/07 04:45 arr 2008/07/07 19:35 fare Rs. 24,275 (about $625)
• Delta LGW-ATL, lv 2008/07/08 11:00 arr ATL 15:30; one way, £622 ($1,244), return (dummy date 2008/07/14) £631 ($1,262)

shell-out of about $1,900

For yourself, add fare of $2,221 for ATL-LGW return-fare departing flight 2008/07/07 17:25, return flight 2008/07/08 11:00

Total fare: roughly $4,100

Thanks CherryXS, pbgirl and bengalilover for your valuable suggestions .

Wow CherryXS, thanks for going that 'extra mile' with the research !! I truely appreciate you spending time on this.

By the way, I had also tried those myself !! Here's an extra thing I found - on Delta, if you have a Saturday stay in London, then the fare drops from $2200 to $1300 !!

I think it is very annoying that there is no straight forward solution for this AND it is so expensive.

hi,

Tough situation... i dont think so its a problem if she comes alone... its not that much of a problem, the money you save on flight costs of yours by not accompanying her, you can take her to a long holiday in USA

Jigi

go to airindia.com they are running a promotion right noe TRV- O'hare i paid 1200 RT 4 in April .... one way ticket is not much cheaper that RT ...but in my experiance the chepest ticket (search engin) i found are through www.vayama.com, www.cfares.com

On 8/7/2008 ...TRV to JFK .... $816 including tax on www.vayama.com

[quote name='anish and lijy' date='Jun 27 2008, 07:36 AM' post='1967732']
go to airindia.com they are running a promotion right noe TRV- O'hare i paid 1200 RT 4 in April .... one way ticket is not much cheaper that RT ...but in my experiance the chepest ticket (search engin) i found are through www.vayama.com, www.cfares.com

On 8/7/2008 ...TRV to JFK .... $816 including tax on www.vayama.com
ON 8/7/2008 TRV---ATL ---$1012 OW including Tax ...

now i don't know why you are avoiding airindia because i went to TRV 4 months back .... and i have flown air India 5 times ... since i came to U.S their service is far better that what it used to be ,..... now form trv .. the flight leaves 2:30 AM and connect in BOM @ 8AM ... basically and stop over that is all ... i suggest you flyto NYC to meet your wife .... i am sure there are plenty of mallus traveling during august .. its peak time ..more flight options and direct flight are available from COK … I know its 5 hrs frive from TRV

just my 2 cents

Thanks anish and lijy for your research and response. I flew Air India once and having heard bad opinion about their service, my expectations were low. But I was pleasantly surprised once inside. It was a good flight.

I am open to any airline, but in an order of priority!! My miles are building up in Delta and Emirates, so I thought that should be the first preference. Secondly, the travel agents told me that you have to change airports in Mumbai for Air India, which I thought might be a hassle. Well the good thing about Air India is you are in the company of desis and it is a great advantage for first-time travelers. In addition, you don't have to change planes in Europe.

Now one thing I have still not come to terms with is allowing my wife to face US customs/immigration at POE on her own. So meeting her in JFK may not be an option. I will still need to catch her somewhere in between.

Your 2cents are worth $1 to me !!

Anish&Lijy, I think I understand hurryup's logistical issue; he wants a flight which comes straight-in to ATL--so that customs/immigration clearance is done @ end-journey.

I have the exact same issue flying to Calgary, so I cannot use Air Canada for such a flight.

just my opinion.... POE at JFK and ATL ... i don't think will make huge differences ... as i read somewhere in Visa Journey .JFK is the only POE that will stamp your passport so you can work ASAP without going through AOS.. VJ member ELW did this as I read somewhere …. .

Temp EAD only applys to K-1; but OP's case is K-3, so on temp-EAD.

Also, OP lives in Atlanta area; so landing at ATL means his wife clears, and is basically done--no issues of catching onward connexion...

Try makemytrip.com for tixs from/to india and pay in us dollars

i use it all the time

Thanks chintan. I will try it out.