Glad to hear of the hopefull competition, you try booking a scheduled flight from the UK to India as I tried to a few months ago.
At the time Air India wanted £1500 return , Lufthanansa was even higher, ended up booking a 2 week holiday to goa for £460 and a connection flight from Jet Airways to Calacutta. So a business trip I expected to last a week will now two, its a hard life, aint it!