Thank you again for the some really amazing perspectives from those who have far more experience than I will ever have.
OK I feel I am going out on a limb here but here you go:
I travel TUL-PNQ twice a year. Is there anyway to help pay for these using hotel points (not just hilton, any brand)? I rather keep my WN CP for domestic travel rather going with a legacy carrier for domestic travel and then use points for the international flights. I typically get lowest united/lufthansa K-class fares for about $1K to $1.2K.
My current preferred routing is TUL-IAH-FRA-PNQ. But the FRA-PNQ leg is getting canceled October end. So my new routing may be TUL-(any etihad getways cities like DFW, ORD, IAD)-AUH-PNQ otherwise I accept one more stop like TUL-DFW-LHR-BOM-PNQ and I would take it over traveling by road the 100 mile BOM-PNQ journey as that can take 4 hours and tire you out more than the flights. Also these flights are much more expensive at $1.8K.
May be I should post this in another thread. Please advise.