1

First up if you're really keen on India then don't let them talk you out of it. Then flights are now a lot more expensive than just a few years ago, fuel, taxes, duty... have all gone up.

One thing you could consider is getting a flight to Delhi with Jet Airways or the like, then look into budget airlines from there - Air Asia from India to SEAsia, and a couple options for SEAsia to Australia/NZ.

Good luck

2

I'd do it exactly as Toad suggests.

Get a one way from London-Delhi,as cheap as possible.You should be able to get that for about £300-350 or so.

When you are ready to move on from India then look at budget flights..like Airasia etc.You can use budget airlines all the way down to NZ.

3

Lucas,
If one hasn't yet bought an onward ticket from India, might there be problems upon arrival at immigration control if they ask to see onward ticket? I ask cause I'm planning a similar trip in january 2013.

To OP, a suggestion: look into the price of an Open Jaws ticket, ie, London-Delhi, combined with a return ticket NZ-London or Sydney-London. Sometimes this yields pleasant surprises cost-wise and then, you can fill in the gap with cheap Air Asia etc flights once there.

4

As long as you have the correct visa,it should be no problem.

Certainly Indian immigration don't care.The only ones who might create a problem is the airline (as they are legally responsible for taking you back to your departure point if you are refused entry...and as they want to make more money by selling return tickets ;-)

Usually no-one will say anything.At worst you might have to buy a ticket out on the spot(ie in London)....I'd buy the cheapest Airasia (or other budget airline) flight possible and then just throw it away.

5

My problem with buying one way flights is that I need flexibe dates. The multistop tickets I'm being advised on have free date changes built in. I've just been quoted £1494 for:
London - Changi - Delhi - Changi - Christchurch - Changi - London
The problem being that I don't really want to go to Singapore!

They're now suggesting that I fly into Bangkok from London, do my overland travel there and then get a cheap internal flight to Delhi then back to Bangkok the Bangkok to Christchurch. Which sounds ok, a bit 'out of order' but it wouldn't bother me if the price was right.

6

I'm not sure what an open jaws ticket is.. could you explain? Sorry!

7

I'm not sure what an open jaws ticket is.. could you explain?

Open-jaw ticket

In your case, the legs would be: Outbound: London-Delhi. Inbound: Christchurch-London. Take a look also for fares with the inbound leg out of Auckland (i.e.: Auckland-London) as they could be cheaper. In addition to the open-jaw ticket, you would need to book separate tickets from the Delhi-Bangkok leg and from the Singapore/Kuala Lumpur-Chirstchurch leg.

Some tips:
1) You can look for the fares of open-jaw tickets in webs like Kayak or Expedia or Orbitz... Use their multi-city (or multiple destinations) tool and type London-Delhi for the first flight and Christchurch(or Auckland)-London for the second one.
2) Emirates could be a good option to get an open-jaw ticket for that route so, if you don't get a quote for them in Kayak or Expedia or any other similar web, look in the web of Emirates for the price of an open-jaw ticket for that route.

It's a pity Air Asia doesn't fly to Christchurch anymore as it was the cheaper airline to Christchurch from Malaysia.

8

Even if you don't want to go to Singapore (why not though?..Its a great place to spend a couple of days,especially if you like food)....you can fly out of there on Airasia or Tiger very cheaply.Or you can overland to Malaysia in an hour.

9

My problem with buying one way flights is that I need flexible dates.
This is exactly the beauty of single flights, you don't buy them all in advance, you buy them as you go along so have complete flexibility to change your mind, stay longer, less long, go somewhere else.....

Edited by: ToadofToadHall

10

This is my first real jaunt and I'm on a tight budget. I'm also travelling alone. There's some great advice here, and I'm sure I could save some money by just getting a return to DEL and then making individual onward singles at the time I need them but for me it's too risky financially. I need to know how much I have left before I set off.
The best I've got at the minute is a Quantas walkabout. I'm having to drop India from my plans in order to make it work really, but I've realised I'm not too upset as I teach meaning that I can travel northern India virtually any summer holiday for 5-6 weeks.