In an attempt to make your trip more seamless and efficient, Continental Airways and Rustic Pathways tickets you from the closest airport that Continental flies out of, then to Newark and onward to India. To find the appropriate price, first find the state you would like to fly out of, this price will include round-trip costs to India. Also, please remember that this booking includes the cost of your plane ticket but does not include taxes and surcharges imposed by the airlines or the governments which are billed separately.

After their travels in India, some students return to different states than they departed from to visit family and friends (i.e. depart Connecticut, return California.)

We are able to arrange this in almost all cases as long as you are beginning your trip in one airport served by Continental Airlines, and returning to another airport serviced by Continental Airlines. When you do this, the airfare is 50% of the airfare listed above for your departure airport, plus 50% of the airfare listed above for your returning airport. If you would like to leave from one airport and return from another airport, please indicate this on your application form. If you have questions, please contact us at India@rusticpathways.com.

Example: Departing Newark and returning to Chicago would be estimated at the following price
$722.50 ($1445 at 50%)
+ $772.50 ($1545 at 50%)
-----------------------------------
$1495.00 (Estimated round trip airfare for EWR-DEL-ORD)

Canadian students have the option of beginning their trip with Rustic Pathways from their home airport in Canada (Continental Airlines operates flights from Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Halifax and Quebec – although the number of flights and the timing of those flights may create serious connection issues) or making their own way to any US city served by Continental Airlines and beginning their trip there. Students who book their own flights are subject to restrictions on what time they can arrive into New Delhi, India and what time they can depart New Delhi. Students booking their flights outside of the established time frames will incur a minimum of $120 transportation fee each way. If you are a Canadian student and have questions about your options, please email us at India@rusticpathways.com.

To ensure that our programs operate in a safe and orderly manner, Rustic Pathways makes all arrangements for students’ international air travel from the time they leave North America until the time they return at the end of a successful adventure. Our programs span the globe, and the logistics of moving groups of young people safely and efficiently around the world requires that we control their flight arrangements in all but exceptional cases. The safety of our students is always our primary consideration. We do not allow parents to make their own air travel arrangements as this causes very real logistical problems for us, and puts their children unnecessarily at risk.

Rustic Pathways tickets all students traveling to India on Continental Airlines from Newark.

Rustic Pathways has responsible flight leaders who serve as escorts and chaperones on almost all of our international group flights. We have very high standards and requirements for our flight leaders. A typical international travel day is as follows: the Rustic Pathways' student meets their groups and flight leader at the Continental Airlines flight counter (your adventure has officially begun!), then travel overseas with the group and flight leader. This ensures that all students are accounted for and escorted out of and into the US on a Rustic Pathways' group flight and by a Rustic Pathways' flight leader.

Rustic Pathways also employs an Airport Coordinator in each of our regional hubs, whose main job is to reinforce the Flight Leaders with support and assistance for our students should any unforeseen issues arises.

We have tried our hardest to have a staff member on every flight, thus it speaks volumes that there are only two exceptions when there will not be a flight leader from and to one of our gateway cities:

Students who live outside North America (OR students who are arriving from destinations outside of North America) may be asked to arrange their own international air travel. Our Travel Desk will work with you on these details and advise you on all of your travel details. Once you have finalized your travel details, it is imperative that you send us all of your flight details.

Students who apply very late in the season may be required to make their own airfare arrangements when group seats on escorted flights are no longer available. We often try to accommodate late applications but please beware that spaces on programs fill up very quickly and the price of flights often increase the longer you wait to book your ticket. If you are a late applicant and we do not have group seats, our Ohio office will contact you and inform you of this prior to processing your application.

Within 12 hours of students reaching their program destinations, a safe arrival email is sent to their parents confirming the students' safe arrival overseas. Just one more way that we try to increase transparency and help you understand that your son or daughter is just as important to us as he/she is to you.

Every year, many of our students realize, once their trip has begun, that they want to stay overseas longer. While we try to accommodate these extensions whenever possible, our summer programs are almost always full and only limited trips have room for these extensions. The limited availability of airline seats is also a factor in determining if a trip can be extended. Students that want to extend their stay must first get permission from their parents. This parental permission must be communicated to Rustic Pathways through the change/revision link located at www.rusticpathways.com/revision. Rustic Pathways will then check availability on the trip itself as well as seat availability with the airlines and inform the appropriate country director, staff and parent of the status of the change. If the trip is full or the new flights are not available, the student must return on his/her originally scheduled flights. All costs for the trip extension (see below) must then be paid in full prior to any changes being made.

If a student is able to extend his/her trip, the following fees will apply and must be paid before changes to the student's trip can be made:

o The full cost of the program being added
o $150 administrative fee if the student extends once they are overseas, OR $200 administrative fee if the request reaches our USA office less than 3 days (72 hours) prior to the student's scheduled return flight.

Any change fees or fare increase imposed by the airline prior to Rustic Pathways extending the trip and reissuing the student's airline tickets.

If you choose to wire payment for the extension, there is an incoming wire fee ($15) charged to Rustic Pathways by our bank that will also be assessed.

Payment of these fees either by personal check, bank check, or wire to Rustic Pathways, must be made prior to any changes being completed.

Please contact us for additional details at 1-800-321-4353.

If you request a change after the issuance of your acceptance letter, but more than 30 days prior to your departure date you will be assessed a $100 administrative fee. If you request a change 30 days or less prior to your departure date, you will be assessed a $200 administrative fee.

In addition to the administrative fee, all other fees associated with the changes will be assessed to the student's account. This may include, but is not limited to: gas prices, airline fees, courier fees and other general price sensitivities. These fees apply regardless of whether the ticket is in your possession or in the possession of Rustic Pathways.

Rustic Pathways works hard to accommodate late season applicants whenever possible. Quite often, low cost group seats on our flights are no longer available when bookings are made late in the season. In this case, Rustic Pathways offers parents the option of accepting higher air fares or making their own flight arrangements and paying the standard $ 100 deviation fee. Please apply for your summer program as early as possible to avoid higher airfare costs. Late sign-ups may also incur additional fees such as for the overnight shipping of your child's t-shirts.

Every student originating in the USA MUST BE TICKETED BY RUSTIC PATHWAYS on our overseas escorted group flights which depart from their program’s appropriate gateway city (New York-JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Houston.)

It is also the responsibility of the parents and the student to ensure students arrive with sufficient time to recover and recheck their baggage and connect with the Rustic Pathways escorted group flights.

Students traveling to India are responsible for getting to Los Angeles or New York on their own. Due to frequent domestic airline delays pertaining to weather or mechanical problems, we recommend you MUST arrive in Los Angeles or New York a MINIMUM OF 4 HOURS PRIOR TO THE SCHEDULED DEPARTURE TIME OF THE GROUP FLIGHT.

Students traveling to India should check their bags at their home destination all the way to New Delhi, India.

Rustic Pathways works with some of the very best airlines in the world including Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Air Pacific, Continental, Air China, China Eastern, Dragon Air, Thai Airways, South African Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, Virgin X and Virgin Blue. We have contracts with these airlines, as well as long-standing relationships with many of their overseas offices.

One of the coolest things Rustic Pathways offers is the ability to visit multiple countries in the same summer. Many countries have been specifically designed to interconnect, while others take a bit of work. If you are connecting programs in different regions you will probably miss a minimum of one (1) full program day due to travel times. Please contact us if you have any questions about combining programs.