Originally Posted by uastarflyer

Lufthansa in coach is brutal, I did it to MAA via FRA a few times and decided to fly UA via SIN to get to India from then on. If you are still a Premier Exec (Gold) in July I'd highly recommend flying United in E+ (CO airplane may or may not be converted by then, but you could fly to FRA via ORD or IAD). But then you still are faced with a miserable LH FRA-MAA that dumps you in MAA at midnight along with a bunch of other flights, sheer sweaty chaos. The return flights out of india also leave at ungodly times like 1AM....though you are back in the US the same day evening.

Just for fun, I priced Singapore Air for your same dates, and you can go from LAX to MAA and back to LAX from BLR for $1700. Zero penalty for itinerary changes. Full mileage accrual. But you are in Coach all the way there and back.

Another option would be a 2 carrier strategy like UA to SIN and Jet air to MAA (which I've done, very pleasant) or UA+CX via Hong Kong.

Option 1 or 3 do have upgrade options, the nice thing about United via Asia is you can upgrade all but the last few hours with just "one" upgrade fee.