mbece

Hello,

I'm trying to get a ticket for my sister to travel from MEX to BLR. She's flexible with her departure and return dates but she should leave between Oct 28 and Oct 31 and return between Nov 28 and Dec 2. For reference, this trip costs ca. $1,350 USD so I am not even sure burning miles on it makes sense.

I bank my miles with AA/USAirways, but have flexible points elsewhere that I could transfer (MarriottRewards, UR points and Amex points). From my initial research, I see two main options:

• Star Alliance through MileagePlus: doing something like MEX-IAH(or EWR)-BOM-BLR and BLR-FRA-MEX on the return for 90k miles and ca. $200.
• oneworld through AA. The best option I see in here is MEX-ORD-LHR-BLR or something similar, always forcing British Airways which triggers super high fees (over $900 ).

What would you recommend? She's pretty petite, so I'm not too worried about her having issues traveling, for example, in cramped seats on economy on United. I'm happy to hear suggestions -and do let me know if you believe I'm better off paying cash for the ticket.

dd1612

Have you looked at using the Middle East airlines?
Etihad, Emirates and Qatar?
One can get regularly round trip tickets from lax/ord/jfk/IAD to BLR/HYD/BOM for < $600 all in.

I would not use miles for coach class redemption.

mbece

Yeah, I've been monitoring prices from ORD, JFK, EWR, IAD and DFW but haven't found anything under $850. The MEX-US ticket should be around $350 (maybe more due to Thanksgiving) so I don't think it's worth breaking the reservation into two separate tickets to save $200. My sister is not a frequent flyer so I think it'd be easier to have everything under a single reservation in case of IRROPS. If i find a ticket for $600 or so, I'll definitely talk to her about it.

mbece

I've been monitoring prices for the last week, I haven't found anything under $850 out of the U.S. Or $1350 out of MEX.

If anyone has other suggestions, let me know. I'm not really familiar with travel to that region and I may be overlooking options.

UA Fan

I have not seen it so low. The lowest I think is $760 once. Otherwise it is mostly 850ish in low season.

ramkashyap

I personally prefer not to redeem miles for Coach unless the prices are exorbitant.
For your travel, when looking in itamatrix, I saw RT for $1011.
Mostly on Delta/AF/KLM Combinations.

Sample Attached

Indelaware

The lowest I find is MEX-IAH-FRA-BLR-FRA-IAH-MEX on UA/LX for US$1081 RT a.i. from a consolidator: http://tinyurl.com/klbfcla


While one should always weigh the cost of a cash ticket when considering the use of miles, there are many who would never redeem miles for anything other than coach for the same reason that we would never use cash to purchase a ticket in other than coach: the added value (space, food, additional checked baggage) pales in comparison to the surcharge demanded by airlines.

It is fine that you like non-coach travel, but it is rather assumptive to suggest that a given poster places any premium on so-called premium service.