Originally Posted by
ftbargain
We (2 adults/2 kids) are planning to use our AA miles to fly from IAH- <any Ethidad US destination> - AUH- COK (India). Preferably, IAH-DFW-AUH-COK
Our dates are flexible (in coming spring) and I can see many dates with available award seats on Etihad website (Guest Economy). My issue is with connection from IAH-DFW which, I believe, AA will add for 'free'. In the AA website, award seats are NOT available on the minimum 12.5K miles but are available on 20K/25K/30K miles.
Can someone educate me whether AA will add those expensive award tickets for free for our domestic connection from IAH to DFW ? OR, is it like, they will do it only if the lowest expensive award seats are available ?
Appreciate advise. Thanks.
Qatar flys from IAH-DOH direct. You could try going via DOH instead of DFW/AUH. One less stop for you.
Edit: As sample dates, I checked the outbound March 9th to March 18th, and the return March 25th to April 7th.
On the outbound, 4+ seats are available in economy from the 9th to the 16th (nothing the 17th/18th). The 9th has 3 seats in business, the 10, 11th, 16th each have 4 seats in business. Outbound Flights are:
QR0714, IAH-DOH, 19:16-17:45(+1) (overnight flight, arrives next day)
QR0514, DOH-COK, 19:45-02:30(+1) (arrives next day)
Total Travel Time: 20h44m
For the inbound, 4+ seats are available in economy on the 25th, 27th, and 28th, with 4 seats in business available the 25th, 30th, 31st, and 1st. Inbound Flight details are:
QR0515, COK-DOH, 04:00-06:10 (arrives same day)
QR0713, DOH-IAH, 08:30-17:00 (arrives same day)
Total Travel Time: 23h30m
Personally, I think it is worth it for business on this route for 67.5k miles each way vs 45k miles each way in economy (135k vs 90k R/T). An economy ticket on Qatar can be purchased for ~$1,000 for this same route. I am not sure it is the best use of miles at this price for economy, but that is ultimately your decision.