Originally Posted by
Bruno16
Thanks. I'll definitely check out Qatar and Singapore airlines. I have no issue using any of the alternate Los Angeles-area airports you mentioned, but I'm not clear on how that would help. I'm operating under the assumption I need to take a transoceanic flight on a US carrier (to Tokyo, Singapore, London, Frankfurt, Paris, etc etc), then maybe have the option to connect from there to India on an international first class (Emirates, Ethiad, Qatar, Singapore, etc.) for the remaining budget under the cost cap. I would expect those transoceanic flights to be less numerous and more expensive out of the smaller airports... what am I missing?
I think you are thinking about it in a sound fashion..... Looking for a US carrier to a major intl destination, and then switching to a premier carrier for the rest of the way to BLR. I'm not sure if it qualifies, but if you booked your flight through a carrier of choice (for example EK or SQ) and they used the first segment with a US carrier, then you could book your trip all on one reservation and get some leverage if there is any disruptions along the way.
I was curious about your situation, and so I looked at a route of LAX to Tokyo on UA, and then switching to EK for Tokyo to BLR in F. The UA flight was showing around $4.500 in Polaris, then EK flight was around $11.400 (both RT costs).... so you would be out of pocket a little bit of money, but you would have two long segments in F on EK on an A380... of course the total flight time is extremely long, but you get to experience EK F (think Hennessy Paradis in F)..... and if you don't want to have any out of pocket cost, then you could also do Business class on the EK flights.
I would just keep searching all alternatives using LAX for starting point, and then major intl hubs for first leg destination, and then see what premier airlines fly from there to BLR.... by process of elimination you should find several options, then you can evaluate which options give you the greatest amount of "special experience" that you are looking for.