Business Class Questions
 

These questions are about Business Class travel.

1) What is the difference between C, D and Z classes?

2) A rather ill young lady from Bombay (Mumbai, India) needs to come to the United States. Given her health, she needs to fly Business class, which she can barely afford. What is the cheapest U.S. airport to fly into from Bombay?

3) I will be performing complicated surgical procedures on her free of charge. Her return date depends on the outcome of the surgeries and her recovery, so is uncertain. She may have to stay here anywhere from 4 months to a year. From what I understand, her initial visa will be issued for six months max but can be extended. What is the best business class ticket for her to buy moneywise and from the visa point of view (i.e. non-refundable but extendable, fully changeable, etc).

Thanx

Welcome to Flyertalk, surgeo. I am moving this over to the FT Airlines of India Forum. I believe that you will find the answers you are seeking in that forum.
Good luck to you and your patient.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Tix to NY are usually the cheapest, but considering her being in bad health, you might want to bite the bullet and get a direct flight closest to the destination.

Considering you would like to be flexible and have a long validity, your options will be limited and pricey.

Perhaps you can be more specific to which city she needs to go to fro the procedure?

The surgery originally called for me (most junior and inexperienced of the physicians) and three other specialists (two from Dallas, one from Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles) to fly down to Bombay. But that plan was scrapped when we realized multiple procedures may be called for and everything turned out way too expensive. We will need to make arrangements with a local hospital in the States that has the facilities, so it can be any major city in the U.S.

Given a choice, I would like her to be flown to Dallas of course but it could be anywhere in the USA.

AI has a BOM-LAX J fare for 2805US$+tax with no restrictions:

Considering AI flies BOM/DEL-LAX with one short halt on the same aircraft and with language/food that is familiar to her, this would be your first choice. Fares to DFW are aprox 6000US$ plus tax.

Just looking at the dates in Orbitz I get this priced out on AI 137 for a total of 3600 incl tax.

Thanks Oliver for your efforts! A professional affiliated with the hospital searched flights all over the country and found EgyptAir offering business class flights between Bombay and JFK (New York) for as low as $2,189 INCLUDING TAX (Round trip, business class)! For this price, I think we could get one more kid in for surgery.

Orbitz and the other engines apparently don't throw up this option:
EgyptAir 969 from Bom to CAI and 985 from CAI to JFK
EgyptAir 986 from JFK to CAI and 968 from CAI to Bom.

I don't think any other airline can beat $2,189 round trip inclusive of all taxes for business class, so my search has ended. Thanks to Oliver and everyone on this forum.

Maybe I'll use this forum for myself henceforth since I am always traveling!

Please note that the cheapest is not always the best, so beware of MS and Ai service when things go bad due to weather, mechanical etc. Also note that airlines usually are not eager to transport medical cases. Have you tried contacting organisations like the Help Alliance run by LH employees?

I am not sure the EgyptAir option is the best. More than likely she'll have to change planes and possibly terminals, being in poor health this may be a bad thing. Also, if her flights happen to misconnect she may be stuck in CAI, resulting in the need for a visa.

I would also recommend picking AI over Air Egypt (I cant believe I am actually recommending AI!!) But the new Business Class on the BOM to NY will be operated using the new 777 with the new lie flat seats (thats my impression, someone with more knowledge of AI or this route please feel free to correct me). The seats, language, food should make the experience a lot more comfortable for your patient.

Good luck!

Quick Search on AI's site shows ~INR 200K on a code share with MH to LAX (transit at KUL).

Just thinking out aloud here:
- could the FT community possibly pitch in with something more than ideas (not that any of these ideas aren't useful)? Could be anything - a mileage redemption or just pitching in to book the ticket? (I have ~95K SQ miles that I'd consider well used for something like this and am also open to pitching in to buy the ticket)
- would it be of any help in contacting any of the airlines? Some airlines have a 'donate your miles program' (LH springs to mind) - what do they do with those miles? SQ's did the whole first A380 flight for charity - right? Can't harm asking them for more?

TK = Turkish has J class for INR 59,741 plus taxes, etc. (base is cheapest, MS (EgyptAir is 64,991/-). But this is only a one-month fare.

However, she may be better on the way back, hopefully, so you might be able to fly her in economy! :)

Thus, you could price a one-way outbound in business and the return in Y...

SU = Aeroflot is INR 74,807/-. (to/from JFK) All-in is: 2348.40 USD, as per their website, possibly not the cheapest fare....

MS is in between....

Edited to Add: Jagmeets also has a point - you could buy a Y ticket and use someone's miles/vouchers to upgrade, such as UA SWU's to standby upgrade on LH...confirmed upgrade using miles on an SQ ticket (albeit not a very low fare)...

You want to avoid EgyptAir if at all possible. Service / logistics are shaky and their hub in Cairo is unpleasant. All these factors will be exacerbated if there are irregular operations due to weather, mechanical delay, etc. Even economy on a US carrier will be more reliable and of a better standard.

Given what sound like the humanitarian aspect of this, have you approached the airlines to see if they might help.