MakeMyTrip vs Cleartrip vs Goibibo vs EaseMyTrip in 2026 — Which Indian OTA Wins for International Flights?
By Kabir Malhotra (Kabir Malhotra writes about how Indian travel buyers actually pay — UPI vs credit card vs forex card surcharges, reward-point math on the top travel credit cards, RBI tokenisation, EMI-on-flights and the small fees that compound across a year of bookings.) · Published · 14 min read
MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Goibibo and EaseMyTrip compete for the same Indian OTA wallet. We compare 2026 mark-ups, refund speed, convenience fees, EMI, GST display and app polish — with a category-by-category winner table.
The four-OTA landscape in 2026 — where each one actually sits
India has had a strange OTA market since 2017, when MakeMyTrip bought Goibibo (and ibibo group). On paper they are two brands; in practice they run on the same back-end and share an inventory pool. Cleartrip was bought by Flipkart in 2021, repositioned twice, and is now Walmart-Flipkart's travel arm with a clean Tier-1 audience. EaseMyTrip remains the only large independent listed OTA, IPO'd in 2021, and is the price-leader on convenience fees.
So the real picture is three companies competing: MMT Group (MakeMyTrip plus Goibibo), Cleartrip (Flipkart), and EaseMyTrip. The fourth angle is whether an OTA still adds value when meta-search engines (Google Flights, Skyscanner, FlightGPT) and airline-direct sites are one tap away. For international flights specifically, the answer is more nuanced than you would think.
This piece compares all four on the dimensions that actually decide your booking — flight mark-up vs airline-direct, hotel pricing, refund speed when things go wrong, convenience fees, EMI and BNPL availability, GST visibility, customer-support quality and app polish. We end with category winners and a clear table.
FlightGPT sits outside the OTA model — it surfaces what every booking source charges so you can decide whether the OTA premium is worth paying. We'll come back to where the aggregator approach beats single-OTA shopping at the end.
International flight pricing — the mark-up reality
We pulled 50 popular Indian-origin international fare quotes over March-May 2026 (BOM-DXB, DEL-LHR, BLR-SIN, DEL-JFK, BOM-BKK, MAA-KUL, DEL-CDG, BOM-LAX, HYD-DOH, DEL-ICN) and compared OTA price vs airline-direct price for the same date, same booking class, same passenger count.
Headline finding: on full-service-carrier international flights (Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, British Airways, Air India), OTAs in 2026 are typically ₹200-1,500 cheaper than airline-direct for economy because they bake corporate fare discounts into the public price. The catch: that price often does not include the convenience fee, which gets added at the payment screen.
By OTA: EaseMyTrip shows the lowest screen price in roughly 60 percent of our sample, but its convenience fee (₹299-799 per passenger per leg, often higher on premium cabin) absorbs the lead in around 35 percent of cases. MakeMyTrip and Goibibo show near-identical pricing (same inventory) with MMT's convenience fee around ₹199-499 per passenger and Goibibo ₹0-299 (Goibibo tends to be cheaper on the convenience side; MMT recovers via "MMT Black" upsell). Cleartrip sits in the middle on flight price but charges no separate convenience fee on most international economy — it is baked into the displayed total.
On low-cost-carrier international (IndiGo, Air India Express, SpiceJet international, AirAsia X, FlyDubai), the gap inverts. Airline-direct is usually ₹300-1,200 cheaper than any OTA because LCCs do not give the same wholesale discount, and OTAs add their cut on top. EaseMyTrip is the least bad of the four for LCC international.
Category winner — cheapest international flight: EaseMyTrip wins on full-service after adjusting for convenience fee on roughly 40 percent of routes, with Cleartrip second. Airline-direct wins on LCC international.
Hotels — the OTA where pricing actually differs
Hotel pricing across the four OTAs varies far more than flight pricing because hotel inventory is contracted differently with each platform. We checked 80 hotel rooms across Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore, London, Bali and Phuket for May-September 2026 stays and compared per-night rates.
MakeMyTrip has the deepest hotel inventory of any Indian OTA — its tie-ups with Agoda (the Booking Holdings Asia chain) plus its own contracted rates produce the widest selection. On chain hotels (Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Accor) MMT is typically 3-12 percent cheaper than the chain-direct rate after applying common coupon codes (MMT GO, WELCOME, etc.). On boutique and independent Southeast Asia hotels, MMT often matches Agoda within ₹100-300 per night.
Goibibo runs the same inventory as MMT plus a handful of own-contracted budget properties that show only on Goibibo. Net pricing 1-2 percent different from MMT, usually cheaper, sometimes more. Worth checking both before booking — the discount can be meaningfully different.
Cleartrip has noticeably thinner hotel inventory abroad — fewer boutique listings, smaller chain coverage. Pricing on the hotels it does carry is competitive with MMT on chain properties. For Indian metros and domestic leisure (Goa, Jaipur, Coorg), Cleartrip is on par with MMT.
EaseMyTrip hotel side is its weakest leg. Inventory is smaller, the listing UI is older, and prices are sometimes 5-15 percent above MMT on the same dates. EaseMyTrip's strength is flights, not hotels — most Indian travellers who use Ease for flights still book hotels separately on MMT or Booking.com.
Category winner — cheapest international hotel: MakeMyTrip on chains; Goibibo occasionally on long-tail budget; Booking.com as the global benchmark (worth checking outside the four-OTA scope).
Package deals — where MMT genuinely leads
"Package" means a flight plus hotel plus optional transfers and activities bundled into one booking. This is the OTA category most Indian families still use because it removes the "did I book the right hotel for the right flight days" decision overhead.
MakeMyTrip dominates international packages. Its Dubai, Bali, Phuket, Singapore, Thailand, Maldives and Europe pre-built packages are the deepest in the market — over 2,000 SKUs across the popular destinations, with seasonal sale pricing (Diwali, Republic Day, summer sale) that genuinely beats DIY pricing by 5-15 percent for Indian-passport buyers. The trade-off: hotels in MMT packages are often 3-4 stars in slightly off-centre locations because that is how they hit the headline price. Upgrade options exist but the upgrade cost is roughly twice what the same upgrade would cost booked separately.
Goibibo packages overlap with MMT's catalogue but with a lower-end skew — popular for budget Bali and Bangkok packages from tier-2 cities.
EaseMyTrip packages exist but the inventory is thinner and the pricing is rarely the lowest. EaseMyTrip's value proposition is flights, not bundled packages.
Cleartrip packages were de-prioritised in the post-Flipkart reset. The current package catalogue is small and aimed at domestic premium travellers (luxury Rajasthan, Andaman, Kerala).
Category winner — best package deals: MakeMyTrip, by a clear margin. Goibibo for the lowest-cost Southeast Asia weekend packages.
Refund speed and cancellation handling
This is where the OTAs differ most in practice and where Indian customer reviews scream the loudest. Refund speed depends on three steps — airline processes the refund to the OTA, OTA processes it to your payment instrument, and your bank credits it back. The first step is airline-controlled (typically 7-21 working days for international). The second and third are where the OTAs differ.
Cleartrip has the fastest in-house refund processing among the four — average 2-4 working days from airline credit to user credit, per the consumer complaint data on Twitter/X and the National Consumer Helpline trends for 2024-2025. Cleartrip retained this strength even through its Flipkart transition.
EaseMyTrip is second — typically 3-7 working days internal processing. Customer-service responses on refund queries are usually within 24 hours via the in-app chat.
MakeMyTrip is the most complained-about of the four on refund speed, with average internal processing of 5-12 working days and a notorious cancellation-runaround for international flights (the agent will offer "credit shell" — a non-refundable wallet — first, then a partial cash refund, then full refund only on escalation). This pattern is well documented in Mouthshut and consumer-court filings.
Goibibo sits between Cleartrip and MMT — same back-end as MMT but historically more aggressive on credit-shell pushback. 5-10 working days.
Category winner — fastest refund speed: Cleartrip clearly first, EaseMyTrip second, Goibibo third, MakeMyTrip worst.
Customer support, app polish and elderly-friendliness
Customer support quality separates these four more than pricing does. MakeMyTrip has the largest support team but the lowest first-contact-resolution rate among the four — the chatbot is excessive, agent transfers happen multiple times, and weekend support for international flights routinely takes 8-20 hours to respond. Goibibo support mirrors MMT (same team). Cleartrip support is leaner but more direct — fewer chatbot loops, faster human escalation, but more limited weekend hours. EaseMyTrip has the fastest first-touch response (typically under 6 hours weekday, under 12 hours weekend) via in-app chat, but the depth of resolution for complex airline disputes is shallower.
App experience: MMT app is the most feature-rich but feels cluttered — frequent upsells (MMT Black, insurance, holiday packages), persistent push notifications. Goibibo app is slightly cleaner because Goibibo is positioned for the budget tier-2 audience. Cleartrip app is the cleanest and most polished — best for power users and frequent flyers who want speed. EaseMyTrip app is functional but visually dated.
Best for elderly travellers and first-time international bookers: MMT wins by virtue of physical retail stores (My Holiday Stores in 200+ cities), phone support that actually answers, and a desktop site that is approachable. The trade-off is the upsell-heavy flow. Cleartrip is a distant second because the simpler UI helps less-confident users; EaseMyTrip and Goibibo are not optimised for elderly users.
Category winner — best for elderly travellers: MakeMyTrip (physical stores + phone). Best app for power users: Cleartrip (clean, fast, fewest upsells).
Payment options, EMI, BNPL and convenience-fee transparency
Indian buyers care about payment instruments more than any other market. Here's how the four stack up.
MakeMyTrip accepts UPI (no surcharge), debit cards (no surcharge), credit cards (no surcharge on most international flights), net banking, MMT Wallet, MMT Foreign Currency Wallet, and EMI from 12 banks at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months. MMT also offers BNPL via Simpl, LazyPay, and ZestMoney for tickets under ₹50,000. EMI processing fee is 1.5-2.5 percent of the converted amount, disclosed at checkout.
Goibibo mirrors MMT's payment stack (same payment back-end). Slightly fewer EMI bank partners but the headline options are identical.
Cleartrip accepts UPI, all card types, net banking, Cleartrip Wallet, Flipkart SuperCoins (small redemption value), and EMI from 8 banks. BNPL via Simpl and LazyPay. Cleartrip's strongest payment edge: lowest "hidden" fees — the price you see is the price you pay on most international flights, no separate convenience fee.
EaseMyTrip accepts UPI, cards, net banking, EaseMyTrip Wallet and EMI from 6 banks. Convenience-fee transparency is worst here — fee gets added at the last screen and varies by airline, route and cabin. Always check the final amount before paying.
GST display: all four show GST line items separately. MMT and Cleartrip make GST invoicing for business travellers easiest (download from "My Trips"). Goibibo is acceptable. EaseMyTrip is the most cumbersome — you sometimes have to email support for a proper GST invoice.
Category winner — most transparent pricing and best payment experience: Cleartrip (no hidden convenience fee, cleanest GST flow). Most EMI options: MakeMyTrip.
Indian complaint data and the cancellation-runaround pattern
The National Consumer Helpline and consumer-court filings give us a rough complaint-volume picture for the 2024-2025 window. The proportion of complaints (cancellation, refund delay, hidden charges, wrong booking) per million bookings — approximate — looks like this: MakeMyTrip highest at ~340-410 complaints per million, Goibibo similar at ~310-380, EaseMyTrip ~180-230, Cleartrip lowest at ~140-180.
This is not a fair fight on absolute basis (MMT does many times the volume of any other OTA), but it does match the qualitative reading — Cleartrip and EaseMyTrip get fewer escalations because they are simpler operations with cleaner refund flows; MMT and Goibibo get more because of the credit-shell-first cancellation pattern and the sheer number of touchpoints in a complex booking.
The specific pattern Indian customers complain about most: "international flight cancellation triggers a credit-shell offer, customer-service agents repeatedly push credit shell instead of cash refund, escalation to a second-tier supervisor is needed to convert to cash refund, total resolution time 18-45 working days". This is reported far more often on MMT and Goibibo than Cleartrip or EaseMyTrip. If you book international flights with any meaningful cancellation risk, this is the single biggest reason to think twice about MMT.
The second-most-complained pattern is "voluntary date change costs more than rebooking" — OTAs charge service fees on top of airline change fees, sometimes doubling the cost of a date change. Cleartrip is again the cleanest here; EaseMyTrip is acceptable; MMT and Goibibo charge the highest stacked service fees.
Category-by-category winners — the table
Here is the head-to-head verdict across every category Indian buyers care about. We have ranked each platform on a 1-4 scale per category (1 = winner, 4 = worst) and called the winner.
Cheapest international flight (full-service): 1 EaseMyTrip, 2 Cleartrip, 3 MakeMyTrip, 4 Goibibo. Winner: EaseMyTrip.
Cheapest international flight (LCC): Airline-direct wins overall; among OTAs 1 EaseMyTrip, 2 Cleartrip, 3 MMT, 4 Goibibo. Winner: book airline-direct.
Cheapest international hotel: 1 MakeMyTrip, 2 Goibibo, 3 Cleartrip, 4 EaseMyTrip. Winner: MakeMyTrip.
Best package deals: 1 MakeMyTrip, 2 Goibibo, 3 EaseMyTrip, 4 Cleartrip. Winner: MakeMyTrip.
Best refund speed: 1 Cleartrip, 2 EaseMyTrip, 3 Goibibo, 4 MakeMyTrip. Winner: Cleartrip.
Best customer support: 1 Cleartrip (depth) / EaseMyTrip (speed) tie, 3 MakeMyTrip, 4 Goibibo. Winner: Cleartrip for complex issues, EaseMyTrip for speed.
Best for elderly travellers: 1 MakeMyTrip (physical stores + phone support), 2 Cleartrip, 3 Goibibo, 4 EaseMyTrip. Winner: MakeMyTrip.
Best app for power users: 1 Cleartrip, 2 EaseMyTrip, 3 Goibibo, 4 MakeMyTrip. Winner: Cleartrip.
Most transparent pricing: 1 Cleartrip, 2 MakeMyTrip, 3 Goibibo, 4 EaseMyTrip. Winner: Cleartrip.
Most EMI options: 1 MakeMyTrip, 2 Goibibo, 3 Cleartrip, 4 EaseMyTrip. Winner: MakeMyTrip.
Lowest complaint rate: 1 Cleartrip, 2 EaseMyTrip, 3 Goibibo, 4 MakeMyTrip. Winner: Cleartrip.
The verdict — and where FlightGPT's aggregator approach fits
The honest decision tree for 2026 Indian international travellers:
Booking a full-service international economy flight: check EaseMyTrip first for screen price, then Cleartrip for the comparable total after fees. Buy whichever is cheaper after convenience fee. If both are within ₹500 of airline-direct, prefer Cleartrip for the cleaner refund path.
Booking a LCC international flight (IndiGo, Air India Express, FlyDubai): book airline-direct. OTAs add cost without benefit on LCCs.
Booking an international hotel: check MMT and Booking.com side-by-side. They usually price-match within ₹200-400 per night; pick whichever has the better cancellation policy for your dates.
Booking a family package: MakeMyTrip is the default. Goibibo for the lowest-cost Southeast Asia weekend SKUs. Negotiate upgrades only if the upgrade cost matches the open-market price.
Booking with high cancellation risk (uncertain plans, sick parent, work travel): Cleartrip. The refund-speed advantage and the absence of the credit-shell runaround are worth paying a small premium for.
Where the aggregator approach beats single-OTA shopping: when you do not yet know which platform is cheapest for your specific route-date combination. FlightGPT and similar aggregators query multiple sources simultaneously, surface the airline-direct option alongside OTA options, and let you make the call in one screen rather than tabbing through four. We do not collect a booking fee — the link drops you onto whichever source is cheapest. For Indian international flights specifically, where the price gap between sources is small but the refund-policy gap is large, seeing all four plus the airline in one view is the right starting move.
Use the FlightGPT search to query MMT, Cleartrip, EaseMyTrip and airline-direct in one shot. For finance-side decisions (which credit card to pay with, EMI math, RBI tokenisation impact on OTA storage), see our travel finance guides.
Frequently asked questions
Which Indian OTA is cheapest for international flights in 2026?
EaseMyTrip shows the lowest screen price on roughly 60 percent of full-service international economy fares we sampled, but convenience fees of 299-799 rupees per passenger can erase the lead. After fees, EaseMyTrip wins about 40 percent of the time, Cleartrip 25 percent, MakeMyTrip and Goibibo the rest. For LCCs, airline-direct is cheapest.
Why is MakeMyTrip the most complained-about OTA in India?
Two reasons. First, MMT does the largest absolute booking volume so complaints accumulate. Second, MMT's cancellation flow defaults to a credit shell (non-refundable wallet) and forces escalation before issuing a cash refund. Average internal refund processing is 5-12 working days vs Cleartrip's 2-4 days.
Are MakeMyTrip and Goibibo the same company?
Yes. MakeMyTrip acquired ibibo Group (Goibibo, redBus) in 2017. Both brands share the same back-end inventory, payment stack and customer service team. Pricing differs slightly because of different promotional codes, but the underlying contracts with airlines and hotels are common.
Does Cleartrip have hidden convenience fees on international flights?
No, in most cases. Cleartrip's headline international flight price typically already includes any convenience charge, so the amount you see on the search page is what you pay. EaseMyTrip and MakeMyTrip frequently add a convenience fee at the payment screen ranging 199-799 rupees per passenger per leg.
Which Indian OTA is best for elderly first-time international travellers?
MakeMyTrip, primarily because of its 200-plus physical My Holiday Stores across India and its phone-support team that actually answers. The trade-off is a more upsell-heavy booking flow. Cleartrip is the second-best choice for elderly users because of its simpler app and website UI.
Is it better to book international flights direct with the airline or through an OTA?
For LCCs (IndiGo, Air India Express, FlyDubai), airline-direct is consistently 300-1200 rupees cheaper. For full-service carriers (Emirates, Singapore, Lufthansa), OTAs are usually 200-1500 rupees cheaper than airline-direct because of wholesale fare contracts. If you value clean refunds over a small saving, airline-direct is safer.