moretimeoffguy

A colleague of mine is interested in getting into the Miles and Points hobby specifically for family travel to India (typically in August). Which miles currency would be best to accumulate for travel from the US (specifically Raleigh, NC - RDU) to India? And what are typical Economy / Coach Award amounts RT to India?

As far as cards, she already has the Chase Sapphire Preferred (per my initial recommendation) with 50K UR. Her husband, herself, and two daughters each have 13K AA miles (possibly from prior trips to India on BA, earning on AA).

United:
Part of me wants to recommend United--I've had great success with Economy / coach redemptions with United partners for travel to Europe. But I have no idea about which United partners travel to India and what availability would be like in August. And I'm not seeing the Typical Known Good 50K United Mileage Plus Visa sign-ups lately.

American Airlines:
Part of absolutely wants to recommend bulking up on AA miles because of the CC sign-up bonus opportunities:

* Citi AAdvantage Gold, AA Platinum, and AA Amex - something like 30K, 50K, and 25K best sign-up bonuses?
* Potential transfers from SPG
* Any others? Never owned an Amex MR card so don't know if AA is a transfer partner

... and partly because of AA travel partners like BA and Cathay-Pacific. Problem is, does AA Award travel redeemed with BA incur the dreaded ~$500 Heathrow tax per ticket? I believe her last trip to India on BA metal was routed through London...

I personally *love* Cathay-Pacific. But their hub is HK. Would award travel using AA miles with CP cause her to be routed through HK (if so, she's not interested as that's an overreach). What would the tax situation be like for Award travel from the US to India on CP using AA miles?

British Airways:
Good 50K BA Visa offer and possibilities for transferring to BA from CSP UR points. However, it seems she'd likely be routed to India from RDU via London--and if that incurs the huge tax, then I'd rule that out.

It's been more than 3 months since she got the Chase Sapphire Preferred. So I'd like to structure two small app-o-ramas for Q1 2014 and Q2 2014, with the specific goal of getting her family of 4 to India. Suggested cards for those two app-o-ramas? Don't need hotel stays, just airfare for 4. I believe we could do His and Hers app-o-ramas as her husband also has good credit. But the feeling is that she may be the one who needs to drive this thing--don't know if her husband can be convinced to apply for several cards.

RFLP

I would get the United Explorer card and fly LH or UA. I have flown LH on UA miles to India, works well, just one stop over at FRAQ.

moretimeoffguy

Thanks RFLP. So United miles on Lufthansa or United. Any other United Star Alliance possibilities in case there's an issue with availability? Not sure the 50K United Miles credit card sign-up bonus is active at the moment (this is what I always insist on for the United card--see a lot of 30K offers presently). So I don't know if my colleague can amass sufficient United miles in time to book RDU to India to cover four RT tickets for an August 2014 departure. Thinking Saver awards may be gone by then if August is peak-season for travel to India. But I will pass this on.

Too bad the Lufthansa 50K card offer just expired.

Anyone know of American Airline partner possibilities for RDU to India? I ask because of the CC sign-up bonus possibilities--the three Citi-branded AAdvantage cards (AA Gold MC, AA Platinum Visa, AA Amex) X 2 spouses = 6 AA bonus sign-ups forAA miles. Possibly add in two Starwood SPG cards where each spouse gets 10K on 1st purchase, one spouse moves his or her 10K SPG points into the other's account, then gets a 5K transfer bonus by moving the whole 20K into AA for a total of 25K AA miles from SPG--assuming AA is an SPG transfer partner. Am I missing other possibilities for accumulating AA miles here?

JPG3392

LH flies there from MUC as well as FRA, and both UA and LH fly from IAD to MUC as well as FRA. In addition OS flies from IAD to India via VIE. There may also be flights via ZRH using LX.

moretimeoffguy

Thanks JPG.

One thing I forgot to ask initially--are one-way United award tickets, being half the miles of a RT, also possible on partner airlines like LH? I ask because I'm guessing it could take quite a number of United miles to redeem four RT tickets from RDU to India. May not be enough in time. In which case, I'm wanting to potentially propose getting four one-way awards from RDU to India. Then purchasing the least expensive revenue tickets one-way from India back to the US.

If there aren't enough United miles for four RTs, would another good option be to redeem for as many Award tickets as possible (2/4 tickets for example), then purchase the remaining seats required?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

There is no huge LHR "tax" for connecting via LHR. There is a huge surcharge for redeeming AA miles on BA TATL flights, and for redeeming BA Avios on AA or BA TATL flights.

Using AA miles for travel to India will require finding "SAAver" award seats on AA and its partners. That can be challenging for AA TATL flights during the Summer -- especially if multiple award seats on the same flights are needed.


AA has several partners that fly to one or more Indian cities, including Jet Airways, El Al, Finnair, Royal Jordanian, Qatar Airways, Etihad, and Gulf Air.

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Both AA and UA offer one-way awards, even on their partner carriers.

moretimeoffguy

Thanks guv.

JPG3392

As long as you use UA miles to book the award, UA's rules for award travel apply. So their one-way award tickets can be on any partner. Note, however, that stopovers are not permitted on one-way award travel.

moretimeoffguy

Thanks jpg.

MSPeconomist

Where's the destination in India? Some alliances have flights to slightly smaller airports, potentially avoiding horrendous connections at Mumbai or Delhi.

Also, do they have Indian passports? If so, think twice before routing through countries that would require a transit visa or not permit them to leave the airport during IROPs. It might be low probability but there are horror stories of people not being able to leave the terminal for several days until there's space on another flight.

Mwenenzi

There are question templates in
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

These threads on a very similar topic here in information desk
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...u-asia-us.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...e-away-dl.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...f-program.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...stuttgart.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...d-yyz-dfw.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...ssistance.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...do-2014-a.html

moretimeoffguy

Thanks MSPe. Don't know the destination--will have to get back to you. Believe parents are naturalized citizens but don't know for sure.

Let's presume for a moment that there isn't any Award availability on any airlines for August travel from the US to India. What would the next best strategy be for reducing the cost? How about:

* If husband and wife both have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, could they combine UR points into a single account (I believe this is possible), then use the UR travel portal (or whatever it's called) to purchase one or more flights using UR points? I know Citi ThankYou points can be used to purchase "regular" revenue flights. Thinking each spouse could also apply for the 20K Chase Freedom card, moving the points from the Freedom to the CSP, then concentrating points in a single spouse's account.

* Have both spouses apply for the annual-fee-waived first year Barclays Arrival card. This would get them a combined 80K points (~$800 statement credit total; $400 each). Then they could use that to purchase a heavily "discounted ticket" to India. Don't think the Arrival program has a Family Account, so they'd have to either use the statement credit to each purchase separate tickets. Or somehow find a way to purchase a ticket using multiple forms of payment--easy to do in a retail store (e.g. put the first X hundred dollars on this card and the remainder on another card).

There was a semi-recent Frugal Travel Guy blog post where his and hers Barclays Arrival card apps paid for RT flights (~$800 or so) between PPT and Bora Bora--where this evidently couldn't be done with miles. Great idea.

Any other sign-up bonuses out there offering large statement credits? I had a feeling availability for any overseas travel in August would be lousy. I try to always travel during low and shoulder seasons--but then I don't have kids who can only travel during the summer.

mrahul

With AA miles, you cant redeem to India through Cathay or over Pacific for that matter.However, you could try to use Explorer award for that. But it could all change with the merger with US air in march. We would not know which charts will be used post merger. Because US air has a much more flexible award chard.

user2013

Hi All,

Have a similar issue on hand. Parents are travelling to US ( India citizens ) and I was planning to bring them here in May using my reward points ( have over 110k on AA , 50 K on delta , 56 on CSR , 110K on southwest ).

Any pointers is much appreciated.