ankur

Greetings fellow FTers!

I'm planning a return-trip from Toronto to Melbourne in January, with a 3 week stopover on the outbound journey in Mumbai.

Would this be feasible as a mileage redemption award with Lufthansa (I have 110K miles)? Does this constitute a 3 region *A ticket? Your advice is most appreciated.

PS. Ideally, I would like to have an extra side-trip to NZ if possible with the same award ticket.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Ankur

DownUnderFlyer

I don't think you will be able to do that with a three region award. There is no direct flight from Mumbai to Oceania.
I think this smells like a RTW award to me which is at least 180k miles.

El_Duderito

Welcome to FT ankur!

As per the M&M award rules I believe your award won't be doable. There are a few good threads on this topic, though.
Start off with the thread that lists successfully booked awards (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...+award+success) and then search for additional threads about award booking.

The routing you try to get may be something like this:
YYZ-FRA-BOM-SIN-MEL vv.

To validate/calculate miles required etc you have to look at the regions these airports are in. You can use the award chart (http://www.miles-and-more.com/online...1343&cid=18002) to match your airports/regions.

YYZ is in North America.
To get to BOM (India Region) you have to connect in Europe, i.e. in FRA.
This already makes your award a three region award: North America - Europe - India
MEL obviously is in Australia. I could not find a non-stop BOM-MEL so you probably have to connect in Southeast Asia (i.e. SIN).
This adds another region to your trip before hitting Australia (5th region!).

What you can do:
- look for 'direct' flights that have one flight number to get you across one region without transitting in them. Check the other award threads for possible flights.
- Try to get on extreme longhaul flights, i.e. EWR-SIN which will get you around the Europe region. Getting availability (in both directions) on these kind of flights (and this one on SQ in particular) is very hard
- pay for some legs, i.e. try to get to SIN from YYZ on the award ticket and pay your way to BOM.
- Round-the-World ticket (at 180k miles in Eco iirc)

Depending on the time of the year it might be easier to flight westbound. You could try to book 3-region award US - Australia - Southeast Asia, i.e:
YYZ-YVR-SYD-MEL-SIN-SYD-YVR-YYZ
Then get a ticket SIN-BOM-SIN out of your own pocket.
You will be limited in the number of flight segments allowed so YYZ-YVR-SYD-MEL might already be too long but on several occasions things like this were bookable.
Also bear in mind that you are only entitled to book a round-trip to one destination as an award. Part of that round-trip is a so called stopover destination at which you can get off the plane for 24+ hours either on the outbound or inbound.

Last but not least the difference between Economy and Business class is worth the money. A three region Business award is only 160k miles. Lots of airlines do not have a proper First Class anymore so the Business Class award would put you in the front of the plane for an interesting experience.

Unterwegs

A 3 Region Award is Region A - Region B - Region C (and back, not necessary via Region B, could also be a different Region as long as you don't cross the Atlantic AND the Pacific - then it is a round the world). Between Region A and Region B you are not allowed to connect in a different Region, same for B - C.

If you make Mumbai your final destination (i think you need to because this is the longer distance) you can fly Toronto to Mumbai with some connection (but not a stop) in one of the two Asian Regions.
Then you need to go (without a connection outside of India and South Pacific) to Melbourne. Don't know of any.
What you potentially could do (not 100 % sure if this is allowed on a 3 region): Go from BKK to MEL (Thai) and then MEL-back. This would also be 3 regions with an open yaw. Buy an extra ticket India-BKK.

htb

[QUOTE=Unterwegs;10583101...as long as you don't cross the Atlantic AND the Pacific - then it is a round the world...[/QUOTE]

Not quite. A round-the-world requires you to cross the Atlantic AND Pacific exactly ONCE. I've currently a reservation for a 3-Region award that crosses both the Atlantic AND Pacific TWICE.

HTB.

ankur

Thanks for some excellent pointers folks!

So, from what I understand ... my best bet is:
YYZ - YVR - SIN / BKK - MEL - SYD - YVR - YYZ (using 3 Region Award)
with a side ticket (SIN-BOM / BKK-BOM) on the outbound stopover in SIN/BKK

Make sense?

ankur

Given the direct AC offering from Vancouver to Sydney, would this be possbile as a 3 Region *A award?

YYZ-YVR-SYD-BOM-MEL-SYD-YVR-YYZ

with BOM as final destination and a 4-month stopover in MEL?

El_Duderito

I believe this is not possible as it is a triangle of YYZ, SIN and SYD.
Your trip needs to be a roundtrip, i.e. YYZ-SIN-SYD-SIN-YYZ.
You can still change the routing a bit but my interpretation of the rules is
that you at least have to cross the same regions on in- and outbound flights (please correct me if I am wrong).

El_Duderito

A quick search did not reveal any direct SYD-BOM flight. Thus you'll have to connect somewhere, i.e. in Southeast Asia (think BKK, SIN). This adds another region to your award.

This is the reason why I'd try to find a flight to SIN (or BKK) and then connect to India on your own dime.

Btw: Now that you somehow know your routing you should sign up for a ANA account (as in the ANA airline). Even if you don't have any miles with them you can search for award seats on all *A carriers.

DownUnderFlyer

There are a few problems with this. First, there is no SYD-BOM flight (there is, but it's on QF). Then there is no BOM-MEL flight. And then, there is no MEL-SYD flight on Star Alliance (there is but you can't book it when going to YVR).

What you could do is

YYZ-SFO-SYD-MEL-AKL-LAX-YYZ.

This is "just" 80k miles with MEL being your final destination and AKL being a stopover.

Then you do a side trip for 80k miles from MEL-BOM (via AKL/SIN). However, this requires you taking LH to court as they would try to charge you a three region award for this trip even so the chart says it's only 80k.

ankur

Thanks a million, El_Duderito and DownUnderFlyer!!!

Those are some great ideas, I should be on my way from here. Appreciate your help.

Cheers,
Ankur