Originally Posted by
Efrem
Folks,
I'll be in Coimbatore for the Embedded Systems Conference at CIT, July 12-14. This will be my first trip to India. A few questions:
1. Does anyone else here expect to be at that conference?
2. Are there any other FTers there, leaving the conference aside, who might want to get together?
3. What travel recommendations do experienced FTers have BOS-CJB-BOS in economy? All things being anywhere close to equal, I'd like to earn bmi EQMs on *A flights. (My travel costs will be reimbursed. While I'm sensitive to my sponsor's budget and don't want to waste a lot of their money, I don't need a bargain-basement fare via Vladivostok and Almaty on Squirrel Air.)
4. If my plans were to include a stop-over in Mumbai, one way or the other but not both, how would that change those recommendations? Or should I just book nested round trips and return to the States from CJB?
1 and 2. not applicable
3. SilkAir flies into CJB. However, I have no idea if you can earn BMI miles on it.
Your easiest option is to fly into MAA, and take a domestic flight on Kingfisher, etc. Also, think of Paramount airways for MAA-CJB...its an all-business class (if your sponsor can afford that).
I guess easiest route would be BOS-FRA-MAA (LH) and then MAA-CJB on whatever domestic airline.
Other options include SQ to SIN (through JFK/FRA) and then Silkair.
Or connecting through BKK on TG, on to MAA on TG, then CJB.
If you fly into BOM, you will have more options. But, the painful part will be transferring to domestic terminal in BOM.
MAA international to domestic is super easy because the terminals are next to each other. There are also good hotels nearby MAA if you want to spend several hours.
4. I guess if you want to visit BOM, its not a big deal. just fly from CJB-BOM. and get any star flight out of BOM.
(You can do CO BOM-EWR-BOS, for example.)
Edited to add: Coimbatore is much more pleasant (weatherwise) than MAA, because it is hill-country.