Wandrlst88

FTers, please help, I've spent at least 12 hours researching this over the past few weeks, using all the tricks I've read about to no avail.

Goal: 2 Business Class Seats JFK-DEL on 1/12-1/27 (flexible dates)
Alternative: JFK-MLE but wanted to route via India, BKK, instead of SIN

Used:
1. Airfrance Search Tool - no availability
2. Tried EF - but new at this so not positive the O availability I saw was just for the JFK-CDG leg for both AF & KL
3. Called DL agents multiple times searching for a gem, no luck

I'm guessing I am not using EF correctly but expert flyers out there, please help. Is there just zero availability? Any other routing suggestions?

Thanks in advance!!

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

If Maldives is the destination I would get an award to somewhere in Germany or Italy and then book a total package trip from there or perhaps to Athens and then see if there is a biz deal from Emirates.

Wandrlst88

Thanks KLM, I should've mentioned I have award stays already booked at the Conrad Maldives so just looking for an airline ticket...

I can route through BLR, HYD or BOM as well but am not well-versed at EF to understand if there is anything available.

foofiter

See if this helps:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim...tional_Airport

That lists all airlines that fly there, including SkyTeam Partners, and where they fly from.

Good Luck,

Foo

mtkeller

Welcome to FT!

Can you please clarify your desire to route via India? There don't appear to be many good options for getting to MLE from India without making a connection. If it's that you want to visit both India and the Maldives on the trip, that's not unreasonable. However, otherwise, I'd say it makes more sense to try to get there directly on SU, MH, MU, or CZ. An open jaw award with one end in India and the other in MLE might also work if you can find a revenue one-way you like.

Post EF results if you want help clarifying them. Other partners to India that you might call and ask about are 9W and IT. I think 9W inventory might be checkable by signing up for their program.

Wandrlst88

Thanks, MTKeller, I was hoping to visit India en route to MLE...

Option
1) Direct Flight to MLE: I could not find any availability going direct on SU, MU or CZ to MLE.
2) Via India (DEL/BLR/HYD/BOM): I could not get anything from CDG to anywhere in India so tried a third option.
3) TATL-Transpacific: JFK-CDG-KUL-DEL (lots of fly time, I know!)
I had success booking MH KUL-DEL but it was pricing at 375k miles (MH was not showing anything from JFK-DEL either, just CDG to DEL). Agent said it was because the JFK-CDG leg was at the medium level so I went to EF and saw low level availability on AF but the agent still could not price the flight (she said the system wouldn't let her).

Is there a trick to piecing together this AF-MH segment on low level miles (this isn't considered RTW is it)? Is there any other routing option you might recommend?

I tried to paste screen shots but it is asking me for a link which I tried with no success. Any help is MUCH appreciated -- I've been online and on the phone literally all day today trying to make this work and my hair has turned white.

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

Male is not an easy destination to snag with miles ever, especially with Skyteam "the alliance of leftovers" and especially in a period that is still peak holiday travel season for its primary European clientele.

Can't you find availability to India via AMS?

You might be better off visiting Sri Lanka instead of India and booking a revenue ticket on Sri Lankan to Male. IMO in Sri Lanka the curries are better, the place is more hygienic, it is easier/friendlier for the first time traveler and it is a short hop from Colombo with frequent service to Male.

mtkeller

You're probably going over the MPM (don't have time to check myself, but you can run it into EF) by going to KUL first. Thus, it would price out as two different awards. Did you ask about 9W and IT? See about getting creative and routing via LHR or BRU (or anywhere else they fly in the EU) if necessary.

pbarnette

Honestly, you may be asking the impossible. MLE is very, very poorly served by any alliance. Most of the volume is from leisure carriers or the unaligned Middle Eastern carriers.

Skyteam specifically... Going through Moscow would be the ideal routing, but there looks like nothing as far as awards on the SU flights to MLE. So that doesn't leave you with a whole lot of options.

The best option might be booking an award to DXB and then buying a separate ticket. AF seems to have availability to DXB on 1/11, 1/13, & 1/14 for the outbound. For the return, things are tougher, but you can fly out of DXB to CDG on 1/25 and then stopover in Paris, flying back on either 1/26 or 1/27. Or you can do it all in one shot with KLM on either 1/24 or 1/30.

[Caveat: I have no idea whether this is a legal ticket.] You could also try to route through China. Bear in mind that China Southern only flies to MLE on Thursdays and Sundays. The timing is a bit funky too. But, they have availability on 1/12 & 1/15 to MLE, and back on 1/26 and 1/29 (to/from CAN).

The problem, of course, is getting to CAN. Not a whole lot of great options, but you could try to go with China Eastern to PVG on 1/12, landing on 1/13. You then use your transit visa to stay 2 nights in PVG and see the city. Then hop on the China Southern flight on 1/15 to CAN and connect onto MLE.

Getting back is a bit more of a problem, I can't find anything that will let you do it in the same day. Pretty sure you only get one stopover and you would have used that on the way out. So the option I see would be to play around with the definition of stopover. You could take the flight from MLE to CAN on 1/27 and connect to the afternoon China Southern flight to ICN on 1/27, which would put you in at 21:30. You could then eat some Korean BBQ and catch the 19:30 KE flight on 1/28 back to New York, staying under 24 hours and avoiding the 'stopover'.

Obviously, neither of those ideas are optimal, but it is what it is. MLE is in the middle of nowhere and I suspect that the yields are awful, so the big boys leave it to the charter companies. Even going with the best Emirates option, you are still looking at over 40 hours of total travel time.

GUWonder

Even economy class package trips may work out from various places in Europe. If neither of the above, then the following is something to consider:

Some package deal prices from DEL and BOM are pretty cheap too, but trying to use DL miles at that time of the year to travel between the US and India is no walk in the park when it comes to the traditionally most marketed kind of mileage price levels.

Wandrlst88

KLM, I know what you mean. Just my luck to aspire for one of the "impossible three"! At this point, I'd be happy to just get to India, or even CMB but I have tried a few routing to CMB with no luck. Any tips I should consider? I am all for better curries!

And no luck to India via AMS either.

Wandrlst88

Mtkeller, this is what I got when I tried MPM on EF, but don't know what this means (I only have a trial membership so apologies, never used this tool before).

I searched 9W on EF and showed no availability but have earmarked several hours this afternoon to call Delta and ask about both of them. Does 9W generally not show on EF?


Calculated Sector Mileage
NYC DL PAR DL KUL DL DEL DL KUL DL PAR DL NYC /12JAN12 *** - CONTAINS RETRANSITTED INTERMEDIATE POINT********************************************* **************** CTY GI TPM CUM MPM EMS DED LAST NEXT 25M NYC 1 1. PAR 2 AT 3635 3635 4362 0M 0 0 727 5452 2. KUL 3 AT 6471 10106 12388 0M 0 0 2282 15485 3. DEL 3 AT 2396 12502 9550 EXC 0 564 EXC 11937 4. KUL 3 AT 2396 14898 12388 25M 0 32 587 15485 5. PAR 2 - 6471 21369 **** 6. NYC 1 - 3635 25004 ****

Wandrlst88

Pbarnette, I know what you mean. Please, manna from heaven, rain on me!

Thank you so much for all the wonderful, very helpful suggestions! I am trying all of those now to see what can work. I know MLE is very, very tough so was hoping to just get close enough in the Pacific --- either any airport in India, CMB and now even BKK/KUL (by the way, is it true that Delta only allows you to go TATL to get to the Pacific???) -- then just buy a ticket from there.

Hopefully, I get lucky today.

DLATL777

You can get to KUL with partners. There is a KUL-MLE flight by MH that operates some days a week.

Wandrlst88

Thanks, DTATL, I got the MH leg to KUL but was pricing at 375k. My routing was JFK-CDG-KUL-DEL. MH was not showing anything from JFK-DEL, just CDG to DEL. Agent said it was because the JFK-CDG leg was at the medium level so I went to EF and saw low level availability on AF but the agent still could not price the flight (she said the system wouldn't let her).

Is there a trick to piecing together this AF-MH segment on low level miles? I can't figure out how to get to KUL without going through Europe and it's eating up my miles...