thanx to all. i called up UA 'til i got an agent willing to make the booking (had an INFURIATING conversation with a US 'team leader' in the interim, which i don't wish to have to recall...)

ok. so, i managed to get it sorted (a bit cheekily, i'll have you know... ticketed now though.)

UA 60k award, BSL - MAA:

BSL - FRA - SIN (7 day stopover) - MAA - xFRA - BSL

this is considerably better than the 70k award i was looking at for BSL - CMB. and from SIN i have a 450 EURO flight SIN - MEL - SIN, and from MAA i have a 150-odd EUR MAA - CMB - MAA

so, i have my visit home, my india holiday, my singapore business stopover, my evening in frankfurt and my colombo wedding for about EUR 600 + 60k miles.

the moral of the story? call the Drecksau (see: dict.leo.org and put it in the plural) till you get one that will book it for you.



efato