icspres

I really appreciate any help, thanks in advance. I have about 160,000 miles with AA but need to send my wife to India next February and we can't figure out how to get her there with AA short of three plane changes. I did some searching and don't see an easy solution. I'd trade most or all of my balance to get her there and back business class. Appreciate any ideas.

If this should be posted in a different section, please advise. than

SeeBuyFly

You have posted in the right place. However, your subject line is inconsistent with what your message says you want.

You cannot convert AAdvantage miles to Air India. You also cannot use AA to get to India, with three plane changes or even a thousand, because AA does not fly to India.

However, you can use 140,000 miles (without converting them to anything) to book a business class round trip on Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Qatar or British Airways, all of which fly to one or more airports in India, along with domestic connections on AA if necessary. How many stops it will take is a matter of where you are starting from and where you are going to---there is actually no airport called "India", you have to choose a specific airport.

Admittedly it will be hard to find an award ticket for February; but it's not impossible. Please do some reading on how to redeem AA miles; it requires work. It is not as easy as paying cash.

JDiver

You can not convert AA miles to Air India easily, and you don’t have to.

Please read the Wikipost at the top of the page here: HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance.

(And you can’t trade them here, either. )

We have Rules here we all agree to hew to, including prohibiting cross posting. Click on Help in the blue menu kind above, then Rules, to take you there.

JDiver, Moderator

sbm12

From where in the US? Does Qatar Airways have award space available? What about Royal Jordanian? You may have to call to find the award seats but those are probably your best options for getting her to India without paying the exorbitant BA fuel surcharges or other significant fees.

SFO777

I'm guessing Northern Virginia.

MSPeconomist

IAD-XXX-India should be one connection, for example at LHR, but where in India? It might be a small airport served only by Air India and LCCs.

Red Raider LV

Just as an FYI, Royal Jordanian frustratingly doesn't serve India. But you've got some other great choices out of IAD.

no1cub17

Depending on your origin and destination, 2 or even 3 connections can be a standard trip to India.

aztimm

If going between major airports such as IAD and DEL, one connection should suffice. Heck, I flew DEL-LHR-AUS back in September, and AUS is certainly not a major hub (but we are lucky to have BA nonstop service to LHR).

no1cub17

That's why I said depending on the origin and destination. Between major metros of course one connection. But from AZO to NAG (for example) it's a minimum of two connections. That's why I qualified what I said.

Shawn02139

And don't forget about the new non-stop IAD-DEL on Air India, no connections from northern Virginia.

No idea how to get Air India miles. But they are star alliance so amex to aeroplan might be an option, if you have amex.

sdsearch

For Star Alliance (and thus Air India), you can also transfer Chase UR to United or Citi TYP to new partner Avianca.

Within AA, DOH is a valid transfer point for single awards to the Indian Subcontinent. So QR (Qatar Airways) USA<->DOH<->India can be a single award. You have to search for QR award availability on other oneworld airline sites (or on www.awardnexus.com, which can search through BA and/or QF using the same user; singup is free for FT users, just click "more signup options" under the green Purchase button). You can't search for QR availability on aa.com.

pogonation

As others have pointed out you cannot convert to Air India. You can use your AA miles for flights on their partners though (the majority of which are significantly nicer than Air India).

In addition to the airlines the other members have pointed out, I would recommend Etihad as the best option. Assuming that washington is your nearest airport then you can do an easy one-stop flight in Etihad business class for 70,000 AA miles each way. The best thing about etihad is that a) they have an incredible business class seat (search etihad studio on google for pictures) and b) they have loads of availability on IAD-AUH-DEL in February in business class.

There is not much availability for DEL-IAD but you could check other options like QR, BA etc.

To check etihad availability then use this part of their website: https://www.etihadguest.com/en/fligh...#flightbooking anything that shows as 'guest business' should be bookable with your AA miles.

To search oneworld members like QR and BA then you can use BA executive club online booking facility. When you search try to search for each sector individually.... e.g. if looking for QR hen search for DEL-DOH and DOH-IAD separately rather than just DEL-IAD.

unregistered1

I just did the an award booking on AA for AUS->LHR->HEL->DEL then DEL->LHR->AUS on the return in Business Class. Total was 140,000 miles for each award ticket. It was on BA though so some heavy surcharges around $1k+ per ticket.

no1cub17

Jeez - nothing at all available on EY, QR, or CX? There is pretty much no reason to ever pay the BA extortion for an award ticket to India.