Yatra.com Blog

Meet Stars of the movie NewYork!

Swapnil — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:24:58 +0000

For a majority of summers we were deprived of Bollywood blockbusters in theatres. Thankfully the prayer of you movie enthusiasts has been heard in more ways than one. After the good news that the stand-off between multiplexes and Bollywood industry has ended here comes another great news from Yatra.com.

You would be delighted to hear that Yatra is giving you an opportunity to meet Katrina, John or Neil – stars of the blockbuster movie NewYork. If you book your travel between 21st June and 9th July on Yatra.com then you automatically qualify to be considered for this exciting opportunity. You could also win a free audio CD of the movie.

So don’t wait any longer, just go ahead and book your next trip with us. What will stand out in your memory few years down the road would not be “Yatra.com offered me the best deal” but rather “That conversation with John or Katrina was memorable”.

For more details of the offer click here

Watch IPL-II in South Africa - Free!

Swapnil — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 04:10:13 +0000

I had once heard somewhere that if you really want something intensely then the nature starts working to make it happen for you. I can see this coming true for some cricket fans this summer.

For the cricket buffs who would do anything to watch IPL matches; here is the God-send opportunity - to watch Delhi Daredevil play in South Africa this summer. All you have to do is purchase any travel on Yatra.com, answer three simple questions and you could be on the next flight to Cape Town. More details Here…

Some cricket fans were understandably disappointed this year because of the shifting of IPL to South Africa. But Yatra.com would ensure that IPL fans have something much better to look forward to:

• To fly to South Africa and Stay for Free
• VVIP Seats for a Delhi Daredevil match
• Meet the cricket stars and lead the Toss
• Special packages to South Africa - Click here for more details
• Hundreds of other gifts - special tickets to the matches, free membership to
Delhi Daredevils club, Gift hampers for Delhi Daredevil merchandise

Watching IPL in India is a great experience but to watch in South Africa in the midst of amazing beaches, picturesque stadiums, great food & weather is something else. So book your tickets now and get a cricket-filled vacation of a lifetime.

Yatra.com Launches Next Generation Web Interface

Swapnil — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:01:40 +0000

Yatra is pleased to announce the launch of its next generation travel website.

We at Yatra believe that Customer is the king and that our web site should reflect our caring attitude and efficacy. We don’t get a chance to meet all our customers but our endeavor is to ensure that when they visit our website they feel the ‘Vibrant Yatra’. We understand that the website should evolve continuously to match up with the changing tastes, preferences, behavior and needs of our customers. The loyal customers of Yatra who have used the previous versions of the website since August 2006 would realize the quantum leap of the new interface during this time span as also the evolution of their expectations.

An indicator of our intent can be gauged from the fact that Yatra engaged a UK based Agency to conduct extensive usability studies across India to come up with the most popular interface prototypes. Subsequently we zeroed in to the current interface which will give Yatra’s customers a delightful and a lively experience which is reflected by the all new Aqua Blue color.

Listed below are some points of differentiation:

- New improved search engine – Now customers can search flights, hotels, trains, holidays from the yatra.com home page itself

- Domestic and International searches have merged – this is to cut down on the steps to make the search. So you can perform search for international flight/hotel from the same page

- Intuitive Search – the city will appear by typing in just the first 3 letters

- Easy to locate ‘Retrieve Booking’ section – to make it easy for the customers to print, cancel or track their bookings

- Clearly marked modules on the page

- The placement of key functionality uses the concept of user’s eye path to ensure the most relevant content is viewed first

- Extensive usage of latest Ajax technology: This in turn ensures that the user has to go through lesser steps to perform the same function

We would like to believe that our new web interface is the best in class. However, the jury is not out yet and we would invite you to give your feedback either by commenting on the blog or by filling out one of our surveys on the website.

Happy Buying!

Alternative Summer Break

Swapnil — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:03:26 +0000

Wouldn’t you be interested in sending your kids to a very rewarding, enjoyable and enriching holiday where they make new friends, enjoy the time off and most importantly have real-life education? If this looks appealing then read on…

“Alternative” is the buzzword these days whether used with “Therapy”, “Music”, “Yoga”, “Medicines”, “Apparel” etc. Here is one more to add to the list – “Summer Breaks”. And this one definitely deserves more attention than most of its illustrious peers.

The traditional residential schools in India - Gurukul’s used to train students not just in academics but also ensured their overall development by inculcating an attitude of service, respect, compassion etc. This was done by assigning them household jobs at the Gurukul. These mundane jobs would ensure that the students irrespective of their social standings would imbibe the virtues of hard work, self service in their lives.

The idea behind “Alternative Summer breaks” is similar though not full-time – to expose the kids to social projects where they can contribute to the society in their own small but meaningful ways and at the same time be sensitive to the needs and problems in the society. Moreover, they make new friends and have a fun holiday that they remember for a long time. A byproduct of this vacation is confidence which is very essential as they grow up to take bigger challenges in life.

Imagine the possibilities – the kids in India volunteer a week to rebuild the homes of people who have lost everything because of natural disasters like earthquake in Bhuj or Tsunami in Andaman Islands or because of Floods in Orissa and West Bengal. These kids would become more sensitive to needs of others and in the process help in uplifting of the society. More than two birds with one stone…

I feel its worth sending kids to one such vacation. What do you think?

–Swapnil

Yatra.com launches Rail Bookings

Swapnil — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:24:57 +0000

Last week Yatra.com added another feather to its cap by launching the online train bookings on the website. With this it would take the giant leap and increase its reach amongst the masses.

The users of Yatra.com would have the luxury of booking their tickets through state of the art interface and easy to use navigation. The key highlights of the site are:

• Allows users to check the availability for the next 5 days on the search results page without searching again. Moreover you can choose the next date with availability and proceed to booking directly from that point on. This would save users a lot of time.

• You can get the complete route along with the arrival/departure times for any of the trains on the search results page with a quick overlay; this makes it easier for someone planning a multi-city travel.

• For the same search criteria you can also tab around between classes and check the availability instead of searching again.

• The search results are concise and would not require you to scroll down too much even when the list of trains grows to more than 10.

Such achievements are never possible without a dedicated and hard working team and we at Yatra are fortunate to have some of the best people in the industry who are very sensitive of the user experience and would go out of the way to make it happen. The long tiring nights at work, intense discussions (read conflicts) and focus to deliver are some the highlights that made this launch possible.

Someone once said “It’s possible to achieve almost anything as long as you are not worried about who gets the credit.” Well, the team at Yatra.com is definitely worried about the end result and not about deriving credit out of it.

Way to go Team Yatra!

What causes the budget airlines to hire so aggressively in 2009?

Swapnil — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 05:07:27 +0000

In times like these when downturn has hit everyone hard there is nothing like getting a great travel deal to help you beat the trend and fulfill you and your families’ vacation desires. So it was music to the ears that most of the airlines in India have slashed the fares across all sectors. The drop in oil prices was the obvious reason for this phenomenon. Interestingly the budget airlines were the first to drop the prices and quite aggressively too. The Full service airlines are crying foul. This development is quite amusing because the big fishes are getting nervous of their small counterparts; an unseen trend. Typically predatory pricing is adopted by the big companies with deep pockets to clean out competition in the market as they can sustain losses for longer periods. However in this case the supposedly big pocketed companies are on the defensive. One can argue that they charge premium for the full service flights they offer and that majority of consumers in India are sensitive to the price and are not interested in paying the premium. But this does not explain the aggressive hiring of the low cost carriers in 2009. On one hand they lower their prices to levels where profitability is hard to achieve with the kind of occupancy they are running at and on the other hand they start hiring in a big way and add new routes and flights. Whatever might be the reason, but the key take-away for the travelers is better value for the buck at least in the near future.

Swapnil

The Hot Trend: Spiritual Leisure

Swapnil — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:50:26 +0000

Ever heard of Spirituality in India? I bet 95% of us already know a fair deal about it or would claim to know. If you don’t have an opinion on Spirituality then you probably haven’t lived in India long enough. Indians are globally acknowledged to be “Spiritual”; faith and devotion are visible in every aspect of life here. However we ourselves perceive that spirituality is meant for Sadhus/Saints who are supposed to stay in Himalayas and should not enjoy the “material” life. Till recently there was a concept of compartmentalization – material life and spiritual life as being separate with no overlap. But, there has been a definite shift off late in this regard. With heightened competition professionally and in education, more demanding personal lives and more stressful lifestyles people feel the need for a more rejuvenating and long lasting break with elements of spirituality embedded aka “Spiritual Leisure”.

I remember from the years I had spent abroad; we needed an additional day to recover from the hectic and frantic schedules during a vacation long weekend. A four day weekend would effectively get converted to a 5-6 days with an additional day for recovery. However the evolution of vacationing in the last few years has been quite noticeable not just abroad but also in India - from being an action packed schedule where the idea was to see as many places in one go to a more relaxed and focused vacation. People are now ensuring that their holiday destination is such that the time spent in traveling by road/air is significantly less while the quality time spent on actual leisure is more. Some prime examples of such trips include*:

Amrtisar - Golden temple pilgrimage can be clubbed with Wagah Border/Jaliawala Bagh
Tour of Puri temples can be clubbed with a wild-life parks, Sulphur Springs of Bhuwaneshwar
River Rafting in Rishikesh can be clubbed with Scenic sightseeing in Dehradun, Mussorie and with Ganges dip in Haridwar and Rishikesh

As you would notice that these places are geographically close to each other and cover more than one aspect for a vacationer and that makes it even more tempting - the historical significance of a Wagah border along with the spiritual aspect of Golden Temple OR the scenic beauty of Dehradun/Mussorie with the Ganges dip in Haridwar. Spiritual leisure is here to stay; so don’t be left out, experience it for yourself by planning such a trip for you and your family.

All the best for your upcoming vacation!

Swapnil

* The list is not limited to the places mentioned below. You can get as creative as you want.

Terrorism or Tourism?

Nikhil — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:33:16 +0000

It is uncanny, how similar terrorism and tourism sound (homophones).

But off course, each has a completely opposite impact on us.

Terrorism makes you stay in home. Tourism takes you out of home.
Terrorism breaks bonds. Tourism strengthens bonds.
Terrorism is about fear. Tourism is about leisure.
Terrorism depresses. Tourism refreshes.
Terrorism gives nightmares. Tourism gives special memories.
Terrorists break in. Tourists break free.
Terrorism ends life. Tourism is about new beginnings in life.

Let’s not do what ‘they’ want us to do.
Let’s move on.
Let’s keep exploring. Keep discovering.
And let’s remember Rabindranath Tagore’s famous words…

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by Thee to ever-widening thought and action - Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

Fair Price Promise

PenDrive — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 06:45:59 +0000

Our regular customers and the thousands of new customers who visit us everyday know that Yatra.com is the one place where you will find the best and lowest fares. This is especially true for international travel, where our tie-up with the world’s leading airlines makes it possible for us to offer you the best fare deals on travel originating from India.

That is the Yatra Fair Price Promise - to make sure that you get the best fair possible for any outbound travel from India.

You already know we have the lowest fares for international travel. Next time you are travelling abroad, just search for flights to your destination (remember you can find the best fare using our Airfare Calendar to find the cheapest fares for a given range of dates).

After you have booked your ticket, you happen to find a fare for the same date, same destination, same airline, and same class, that is cheaper, send us the details (along with your Yatra Reference Number) and we will refund the difference to you.

Winter Getaways

admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:04:33 +0000


The cold winds have finally arrived, bringing with them the start of the winter season. Its time to take out your jumpers, snuggle down cosily in blankets, and enjoy eating savories that make winter a delight. But, why not make this winter different from the rest – plan a vacation, a weekend break or a break that extends a whole week or more?
	India, being a land of contrasts, has countless vacation options to choose from – right from sizzling Goa to the cultural delights of Kerala to the snow-lovers abode - Shimla. Take your love for winters one step further and head to the hill stations such as Shimla and Manali. Watch the snow flakes swirl around you as it descends
from the heavens. Step out of your hotel and savor the breathtaking views of the snow-covered mountain slopes - a picture perfect postcard indeed! Head to the skating rinks or ski down the slopes.

	For those who wish to take a break from the cold dismal days, bring the sunshine into your life with a vacation to Goa or Kerala. Bask in the warm sunshine as you lounge on the sun-kissed Goa beaches, experience the thrill of water sports and revel in its ‘never-ending party culture’. Drift lazily through the backwaters in a kettuvallam, partake in the Cochi Carnival and cheer on the racers of the Indira Gandhi Boat Race.

There is something for everyone, especially in December, when hotels and resorts across India offer vacationers a chance to let go of their busy schedules and indulge themselves with special Christmas and New Year packages.