Some tips for cheaper flights:
- long-range direct (non-stop) flights are mostly more expensive
- sometimes flying mid-week is cheaper
- flying out of season (avoiding holidays) is much cheaper
- flying when kids in both countries are in school is always cheaper
- get many quotes and compare many services
- make sure the end (totally inclusive) price is quoted
- the shortest/quickest way is rarely the cheapest
- always ask about special deals. Who doesn't pays more!
All airlines that fly in/out of Europe and USA are very safe, consider any such airline even if you have not heard of it. I had doubts but was pleased with services like that from Air Egypt, Emirates or Balkan Airlines and others, all fly with top aircraft and via good facilities often for as much as half the price of the BIG ones!
I am not sure about the USA but in Europe we also have charter flights that offer prices for flights with hotel accommodation mostly cheaper than the fly-only fares of the major airlines. Example: Spend a week in Goa from Germany, all costs paid, for only €983 pp found at http://cp-reise.de
There are many flight booking machines on the web. Each country may have a few special ones. The most popular are NOT the cheapest, use Google, Yahoo and Altavista to find them using keywords like "flight", "fly" and the destination name.
Are you on the west coast or east coast of the USA? That might also decide which way you fly, eastwards or westwards to India or even around the world?
