Originally Posted by
americanindian
this is what I have decided. I have to use the continental voucher before September, otherwise it will go waste, so will use it up somewhere...My plan was to do a round trip from Atlanta to Chicago with continental voucher and do round trip from Chicago to Del on AA by using BA miles. but some of you are right, too much hassle and I obviously wont get the AA miles, I do fly a bit domestic about 5-8 trips, based in Atlanta. but will go with the advice of trying to attain gold status later.
Do not break up the ATL-DEL trip as ATL-ORD-DEL yourself and pay separately for each segment.
People do that only when there is a super-special deal announced from some city. Let's say it was STL. If the deal was attractive enough, a FT'er would "position" himself to STL (ie, travel to/from there on his own), and then fly on that super-special ticket. Lacking such special promo, you are best off pricing ATL-DEL-ATL as one itinerary, either cash or awards.
Whether you use the CO voucher towards India trip, or for other trips, is in the end a personal decision based on your needs.
If, besides India, there are enough flights you need to fly, use up the CO voucher for those. Do a Platinum challenge to India (ie pay cash) if you care about elite status; fly on BA points if you don't. My gut feeling is that status will be of little immediate use to you.
If you don't require those extra flights, then use CO voucher towards your India trip. Pay the rest in cash and save your BA miles for a future trip.