Following Donald Trump’s executive order imposing a USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visas, and Big Tech firms like Amazon and Microsoft instructing employees abroad to return by 9:31 am today, ticket fares from India to the US soared on Sunday, prompting many to rush bookings to avoid penalties.

With fares doubling from around Rs 40,000 to Rs 80,000, users on the online forum 4Chan reportedly tried to block Indians from returning ahead of the deadline by reserving seats without completing purchases, further driving the surge. Indians constitute the largest group of H-1B visa holders.

US-India flight prices soared sharply in the hours following President Donald Trump’s announcement overhauling the H-1B visa fee system.

Within two hours of Trump’s statement, the cost of a one-way ticket from New Delhi to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport jumped from approximately $420 (Rs 37,000) to between $794 and $908 (Rs 70,000–80,000).

4CHAN USERS LAUNCH ‘OPERATION CLOG THE TOILET’

Amid the travel rush, 4Chan users launched ‘Operation Clog the Toilet,’ a coordinated effort to spike airfares and block Indian H-1B holders from booking return flights. The campaign involved, thereby temporarily blocking others from booking.

A post shared on 4Chan read: “Indians are just waking up after the H1B news. Want to keep them in India? Clog the flight reservation system!”

The instructions advised users to search for popular India-US flight routes on booking platforms, begin the checkout process, but not complete the purchase, holding the seats for about 15 minutes.

The post further stated, “Don’t checkout. Leave window open for full 15 minutes,” encouraging participants to repeat the process. By exploiting the seat-hold feature, users could repeatedly block availability on high-traffic flights, intensifying the shortage and inflating prices.

The stated goal was to tie up as many seats as possible to hinder H-1B visa holders’ ability to return to the US. Some users booked tickets with the intention of cancelling later or holding seats without payment. One user claimed, “I got 100 seats locked,” illustrating the scale of the operation coordinated on the imageboard.

The White House clarified that the USD 100,000 fee was a one-time payment and would not apply to current H-1B holders abroad, but only after chaos over rushed travel plans.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X: “Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will NOT be charged $100,000 to re-enter.”

Major employers like Amazon, Microsoft, and JP Morgan instructed H-1B holders to stay in the US or return immediately, fueling the sudden surge in demand for US-bound flights from India.

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