Happy

May be you would want to identify your objectives in more specific criteria.

1) Do you only want to visit Sri Lanka and on the shortest travel time? This seems to be your goal.

2) Do you want to take advantage to visit other interesting places along the route, and as some suggested to Maldives. After all, you are traveling thousands of miles to that part of the world already...

(Though you need to be prepared to pay A LOT for the short puddle jumper between MLE and the Atoll even though if you can stay "free" on points on the Atoll, and budget enough for the food and beverage.)

3) Can you get off the mentality of using only ONE single award to achieve your trip?

Quite often one can do a lot better in terms of visiting more places on a single trip, and find better availabilities by piecing several awards from different programs instead of using a single award, such as the great suggestions of using Avios for the short hops that would allow you to visit a lot more interesting places along the route.

If you want to use a single award then the AA's Explorer award is worth your effort to learn how this award works if you haven't used such before.

Else, UA R/T booking does allow a stopover and an openjaw. Although it would be a number of connections from where you originating.

So, it depends on your most important criteria on this trip. Identify such then concentrate your research under such criteria. The rest would then be irrelevant and being noise only - because what suit others may not suit you - for example most folks would try to visit more places even it would mean taking longer to reach the "ultimate" destination but this seems does not agree with what you have in mind - what you want is to arrive your destination on the shortest possible traveling time.

susiesan

I could use UR points and dump into UA. I am really wanting to use up my MR points and cancel all my AX cards before the hefty annual fees come due. If I don't have enough for 2 bus awards then I can dump some into a plan that accepts Starpoints. So I'm trying to find a way to get to Sri Lanka on an airline program with MR and *points. I know ANA will take MR and *point transfers. is there any other airline plan I could use?

susiesan

Very interesting option. Actually I hadn't even thought about the Maldives until SanDiego1K suggested it; I'm not even sure I want to go there as I don't know much about it other than it has nice beaches.

Happy: I started out only wanting to visit Sri Lanka for a week to week and a half with a 3-5 day stopover somewhere in Asia one way, probably coming home if the outbound could be the shorter routing on Jordanian. Our total vacation time window is at max 16 days away from work. I'm not trying to cram in multiple countries into one trip as we are able to take 2 international award trips a year. I usually go to 1 or 2 countries per trip.

ANA allowed an open jaw and stopover option when we went to China in 2011. I used ANA miles to fly over on UA/Air China to Guilin with a stopover in Beijing. We returned as an open jaw from Hangzhou on Asiana. I currently have 6K ANA points left over from that trip and will be able to add 205K MR from my account and 75K MR points from my Mom's to ANA.

UA Fan

May I ask what is attracts you to SL? I ask as I have seen people choose SL over India and always wondered why. My travelling style is to visit big countries and / or famous places and compared to SL, India has both.

Note that ANA will charge YQ.

glennaa11

Well, an option for your MR points is SQ as noted above. You can book one ways on SQ. You'll pay some sizable fuel surcharges though if you choose that option.

Happy

If you only have 16 days that I fully agree with you on minimizing the traveling time to get to your final destination.

Pick a stopover en route.

Maldives is a "trophy" destination in my book - it gives people bragging rights for being there as it is a very expensive destination and then people can brag about using pts to stay at the "aspirational" properties... What they conveniently left out is, it would cost you $450 or so for a r/t puddle jumper from MLE to your "aspirational" property on the Atoll. And then once you are there, you are a captive guest without much option other than dine at the property which of course would be quite expensive. The islands indeed have very nice beaches but that is pretty much about it.

Given it to us, we would go nuts on our 2nd to 3rd day there because most Atolls are so small that one can round the place 3 times in an afternoon... We dont fancy to fly thousands of miles to just relax on a terrace / beach staring to the sunset or reading a book - we can do this very close to home.

Of course to each their own. Though I really feel it is a "trophy" promoted by bloggers that this is a "must do" if you want "aspirational" trips. Though "aspirational" does not mean ultra-luxury but it seems in the bloggers' world, this is one and the same.

susiesan

My husband wants to go to India. I sort of do, but I hate Indian food-it is far too spicy and I'm afraid I would starve. We have met people from Sri Lanka, my sister recommends it, it seems similar to India,seen some travel shows about it, so therefore it looks like somewhere new to go. I am reading trip reports on Fodors and looking at other TA and LP. I'll get some travel books at the library. After my research I may decide I don't want to go to Sri Lanka. We usually do visit big countries with famous sites too. Perhaps we could combine a trip to Sri Lanka and southern India to appease my husband. That brings up a whole new search of using FF miles to get to both of those places.

Yes, I know about ANA's YQ. That's the downside of using them. But as I recall, because we didn't actually fly on ANA metal or through Tokyo they were around $150 each, not too bad.

SanDiego1K

I find Sri Lanka very different than India. India has more extremes, both good and bad, than Sri Lanka. Regardless, Sri Lanka's historical core has much to see and do for a week or so. Add some time along the coast and you have a satisfying trip.

Slow_Mustang

Emily of 'Million Miles Secrets' is on her sixth visit to India and seems to handle it well.

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2013/0...ing-in-bombay/

But, no one should spend time and miles to go to a place they have negative feelings about. That robs one of the expected enjoyment. BTW, there is no one 'Indian food', as it various tremendously from region to region.

ayya

CMB is considered part of Asia for CX awards using AA miles. You need 35/55/67.5K miles for coach/business/first one way. For India you need 2 seperate awards on CX using AA miles.

UA Fan

I have never been to SL but have always had the impression that there are lots of cultural similarities. Even more so with South India (where I hail from). I tend to get a tad jealous when I see people sing praises of SL. But I recently saw a picture of Sigirya and I will bite the bullet and admit that it appears to be a very intriguing place worthy of a visit. One thing I guess you could get in SL and not South India maybe Buddhist related sights.

UA Fan

I can certainly understand the food aspect although I am not sure how spicy SL food is. If you want to go India and SL I would suggest North India as I think SL shares more similarities with the South. Plus if you go to the North you could see the Taj. However if you do visit the South I will recomend the state of Kerala. I am from there so I might be biased.

The unique things you could do are a house boat or a train ride from Cochin to Trivandrum. You will pass an area near Quilon (Kollam) with lots of lakes and paddy fields. In the house boats they serve some vegetarian food that even a carnivore like me loves. The house boats go through backwaters and there might be a smell. If you do the train ride note that the AC compartments have thick windows that are tinted so taking pictures will be tough.

If you are into mountains and lakes I would recomend the Munnar/Thekkady lake on the eastern side of Kerala. After visiting places around the world I have felt India is a bit overrated, but I still would recommend a visit to Thekady lake.

There are flights from TVM to MLE, and then you could go to CMB and return to the States from there.

Happy

Agree.

Sri Lanka also seems less chaotic and gives a more tranquil feel.

Happy

Well, her husband the blogger is from India. He has a large family still lives in the country. What else do you expect?

smilinganddialing

If you're trying to hit "world famous" sites, you'll do better in India - you could focus on flying into DEL and exploring it first as you get over jet lag, going to Agra/Fatehpur Sikri, Amritsar, and Jaipur and you will have seen some of the major architectural and historical sites in North India. South India is very different and has its own set of amazing architecture, food, and people. You will get an extremely authentic experience by riding on trains in India - don't go 2nd class as that might be a little too much but go AC Chair Car and you'll meet lots of interesting people.

India has more "diversity" than all of Central and South America combined - 26+ national languages with thousands of dialects, the founding point of many of the world's major religions, extremely varied cuisines, etc. This also means you will have some extreme "highs" in India (first seeing the Taj Mahal, crashing your first wedding in Delhi, experiencing the wonders of Jaipur, walking around The Golden Temple in Amritsar at 4 AM, etc.) and some extreme "lows" (getting stuck in a traffic jam in any major metro, realizing foreigners have to pay 5x the price to go to tourist monuments as locals do, etc.).

I'm obviously biased, but hating spicy food should not preclude you from a trip to India and I'm not sure Sri Lankan cuisine will suit your GI tract any better. SL will likely be more serene and less congested due to the fact the entire population of SL is smaller than that of Mumbai but if you can handle traffic/pollution, I think you'll come away with a more varied and interesting experience in India. If you're worried about being overwhelmed, I would think SL is a much easier introduction to the subcontinent.

Good luck on your travels!