Many dreams were shattered on 22 September. About 13 million people rushed to BookMyShow for the 150,000 Coldplay tickets available. The British band is returning to India after a decade, with a concert in Navi Mumbai scheduled for January.
In the resale market, a ₹6,450 ticket to the Coldplay concert is now selling for ₹36,647 (via Viagogo, a secondary marketplace for booking tickets; BookMyShow has cautioned against the sale of fake tickets in the resale market).
Some Coldplay enthusiasts who missed scoring a ticket for the Navi Mumbai concert are considering another option that might work out cheaper: flying to Abu Dhabi for the Coldplay concert in January.
“It’s peak FOMO,” said Rohit Mishra, who’s running a WhatsApp group for people who want to hop on for this trip. The group currently has 44 members.
Ticket pre-sales for the Abu Dhabi concert begin on 25 September (today), but you should have registered on the Coldplay website on or before 23 September to qualify for it. If you hadn’t, the general on-sale for the Abu Dhabi Coldplay concert begins on 27 September.
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Two Coldplay options
The first option is straightforward. If you didn’t get tickets for the Navi Mumbai Coldplay concert scheduled for 18, 19, and 21 January, you can try to buy tickets from the resale market. The lowest-priced resale ticket costs about ₹37,000.
If you are not from Mumbai or Navi Mumbai, factor in travel, stay, and other costs.
The second option is to book tickets for the Abu Dhabi Coldplay concert on 11 January. The lowest-priced ticket costs ₹4,411 (AED 195).
You must also factor in the travel, stay and visa costs.
MakeMyTrip shows that you can book an Air India Express flight from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi on 10 January for ₹8,529 and a return flight on the same airline on 12 January for ₹6,324, adding up to ₹14,853.
For your stay, you can book an Airbnb for another ₹4,000 per night.
As for the documentation, it would cost you around ₹2,850 to apply for a UAE Visa for 96 hours, as per Bankbazaar.
The total adds up to about ₹30,000 (for a two-night stay on a transit visa, and not accounting for food and commute).
For a 30-day tourist visa, the cost is ₹11,600 (AED 510), according to the Emirates website.
Indian citizens holding US visas, green cards, UK or EU resident permits can receive a 14-day visa on arrival in the UAE for AED 100 ( ₹2,274).