Originally Posted by
vickh
Thanks! Important criteria would be least # of miles/ connections to avoid rechecking bags
BOM-LHR-PHX would be best except they need a british visa?
Ability to book online would be great!
BOM-LHR-PHX on BA and BOM-EWR-PHX on CO would be your only 1-stop itineraries, I think. CO would work out to 120K miles r/t in J, and ~$100-$150 in taxes, but availability on BOW-EWR is hard to come by in J. BA will probably have lots of availability and has a good J product, but expect to spend upwards of $700 per person, in charges. If you have a lot of BA miles, BOM-HKG-LAX/SFO-PHX on CX would work nicely too (you will have to pay fuel surcharges on CX awards too, unfortunately. We recently paid ~$300 for a one-way trip, ORD-HKG-DEL on CX F).
If that is too expensive, you could consider LH (two stops, via SFO/DFW/DEN/LAX/IAH) - although LH has really started to restrict award availability (until about 2-3 weeks out). Plus, the J product is nothing to write home about (although I ended up booking my parents on that as well, due to lack of availability on other carriers).