San Francisco → Delhi flights

Target $471–$536 for SFO–DEL — patience cuts $165 off peak

Key takeaways

• Median fare is $536 across 17 daily snapshots of the cheapest cached prices on this route.
• Bottom-quartile fares hit $471 (p25), meaning roughly one in four searches returned a price at or below that level — a realistic target for flexible shoppers.
• The spread is 38% (low $463, high $640), indicating meaningful price volatility — timing your purchase genuinely matters on this route.
• The $165 gap between the floor ($463) and the ceiling ($640) suggests monitoring fares over several weeks rather than booking on first search.
• No single dominant carrier was identifiable from this dataset, so comparing across airlines — not just one — is especially worthwhile here.

30-day price trend

See full numbers and stats on the SFO → DEL price history page.

The full picture

San Francisco to Delhi is a long-haul route where fares swing more than most travelers expect. A 38% spread between the observed low ($463) and high ($640) is substantial — it means the difference between booking at the wrong moment and the right one is roughly equivalent to an extra night in a decent hotel. The median of $536 is a reasonable anchor: if you see fares meaningfully below that, it's worth acting. The p25 threshold of $471 tells you that patient shoppers — those who check repeatedly or set fare alerts — have legitimately found prices in that range within this 17-snapshot window.

On a route of this distance and complexity (typically 16–22 flight hours with at least one connection), prices tend to soften earliest when booked roughly 8–12 weeks out for the travel date in question. That general pattern holds across most transpacific and transatlantic long-haul routes. Fares frequently spike in the final three to four weeks before departure as remaining inventory tightens, which is consistent with the $640 high observed in this dataset. Setting a price alert at or below the $500 mark gives you a realistic shot at the bottom quartile without requiring you to stalk fares daily.

Because no single carrier dominated the cached fares captured here, it's worth running parallel searches across the carriers most common on this routing — typically those with hubs connecting the U.S. West Coast to South Asia — rather than anchoring to one airline's website. Small itinerary variations (different connection points, slightly different departure times) have historically produced the largest price differences on this route. One honest caveat: this analysis draws on 17 snapshots, which is a thinner sample than the 30-day ideal. Treat the numbers as directional guidance rather than a precise forecast — one promotional sale could shift the floor materially.

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