complex trip - need help
 

friends,

i am planning for complex trip, and need help.

1. planning to visit nrt,hkg in dec 2013 or summer 2014 from ord, using miles. i have about 300k miles and need 3 tickets.
2. ord->hkg, 5 days, then nrt->ord and stay 5 days in nrt. between hkg and nrt, i want to visit india, but not using miles, i will just buy the tickets from hkg->bom, stay for 3 weeks in india, then bom->nrt, again not using miles.
4. but from nrt->ord, i want to use the award ticket.

so i want open jaw or layover for 3 weeks between hkg and nrt. is this possible, and can i get these tickets for minimum 70k miles and what would be the best time dec 2013 or summer 2014 to visit?

thanks in advance. i know this way in future but i want to start getting good handle on miles needed and timeframe for advance planning.

I'm pretty sure you can open jaw, but not certain.

Some advice having booked two award travels to HKG & NRT for 2013

- They won't release award availability for 2014 yet. I think it's something like 300 days out they start releasing (you can check other posts, blogs, or award calendar)

- You will have difficulty findings 3 tickets together on Delta It appears (from my personal experience), they release low level award tickets individually, or in pairs. but never had any luck getting 3/4 together. (you could get 3 for medium).

- You might want to try one of Delta partners like Korean Air/China Southern/China Eastern to get you to asia. Partners are always "low level", and might release more tickets together (I once got 4 award tickets on Cathay to HKG)

- Summer 2013 was easy for me booking about 10 months in advance. plenty of availability to NRT and HKG. seems to be be tightening up a bit now we are 7 months away.

- I think Dec 2013 might be harder because the holidays. More demand. However, I'm sure you could try in a couple of months, and if it doesn't work, try for 2014.

- Did you consider getting business class. Low level is "only" 120,000 points and more bang for the buck, if you have enough miles.

You can currently do open jaw award tickets with DL miles providing that the unflown portion is shorter in distance than the flown parts of the triangle.

ADDED. In fact, you can do open jaw and one stopover, so the award ticket would take you one way to India or enable an additional stopover.

Are you a platinum/diamond medallion, and will you be when you can book next year? One possible problem is that as award seats open up for the outbound, you won't be able to book them until 4 weeks later while you wait for the return flights to become available to book. If there were 3 awards available, it will be very likely that they will disapear by the time 4 weeks rolls around.

If you are a diamond or platinum, then you can just book the outbound as a one way from ORD-HKG. It will cost the same miles as a round trip, there is no half price for one way awards. Then 4 weeks later when you can book the return, if you find something that works you can call and have them add the return on to the itinerary without losing what you already have booked.

I am silver medallion, and not going to get higher status. i would really like to get some pointers and sample trips that covers those destinations, and rest of them i will figure it out on my own. i am not sure how to do this with partner airlines and stuff.

i have around 240K miles right now, and will try to get around 300K-325K by the time i have to book the tickets.

Here's a good place to start:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...er-thread.html

Sadly this is not quite enough for three BE RT ticket USA-Asia, even in low. Can you get to 360,000 miles? Or would you consider putting one or two in BE and one or two in coach on the same flights? Doing this would at least get some lounge access, more checked bags, SkyPriority lines, etc.

I am gonna try that to get 360K miles, it would be awesome to try 1st class from ord->hkg->india->nrt-ord. gonna charge 5K per month using VR.

but i need some pointers on how to book this itinerary, start from delta or partner sites, some tips would really be appreciated.

You need to book the trip via DL either on the website or by phone.

The website will be sorely lacking here. Do not count on the date search function (the award calendar) to work. It might, and it also might be a "hint" as to when to search. Partner availability on dl.com is sorely lacking.

On can learn how to fight through some of these issues, but it take a good bit of effort.

Do check the DL site for partner blackout dates. Even though DL does not blackout, the partners do and DL abides by such on their mettle. This will tell you that it is likely impossible to find tickets that return late in Dec (but early Dec is often fairly open).

Research your potential dates and ITNs well, then expect some long phone calls

Excellent suggestion from MSP. Meanwhile, if you don't have enough miles for 3 r/t award tickets in C then you may want to book one-way in Y (ORD-HKG) and one-way in C (BOM-NRTso-ORD).

Can one really ticket US-HKG BOM-NRT-US as a low award for 120C/60Y ?

I thought India had to route via TATL, and also one might have an issue with open jaws spanning regions.

I do agree though that the OP should concider the concept of a layeover adding anothing destination to the ticket.

In theory one should be able to use KE's published CHI-BOM fare routed CHI-SEL-BOM to route over the Pacific. This is not always for the faint of heart, but I've heard that DL.dumb will properly price US-Australia via ICN (way over the MPM, but follows KE's published routing), so it should be doable. This is one of those rare instances where I think getting it done online will be easiest. However, routing via NRT is probably a no-go, since you'd have to follow the KE routing rules. SEL-TYO isn't such a hard thing to do on a separate ticket, however.

Definitely no problem with that. I've got OMA-AKL//HKG-OMA (connections suppressed, stopover in NRT on the return) ticketed. It's also possible to have a stopover in an intermediate region. (I've priced out things where one end of the OJ is in Africa, the other is in the Middle East, and there's a stopover in Europe on one direction.) The only hangup with open jaws for DL is to ensure that the unflown portion is the shortest leg of the triangle, as MSPeconomist noted upthread.