Question about going to Madras on a RTW ticket
 

We are interested in going to Madras this December and are thinking of doing it on RTW business class tickets if possible. I wasnt sure where to post since we could do either *Alliance or Oneworld. Any suggestions on routings into and out of Madras? We would probably like to come in from Europe (preferably London) and exit towards HKG. Or is it easy to fly into BOM and get to MAA from there on another carrier, then return to BOM and carry on with the RTW? I havent been there before and it is a blank to me at this point. Thanks for any suggestions.

On *A the following airlines fly to Chennai (Madras)
SQ from SIN
TG from BKK and DXB
LH from FRA

On OW the following airlines fly to Chennai
BA from LHR

So a One World Explorer would require a surface segment (cant do LHR-MAA-LHR), while a *A RTW there are several options (plenty of flights from SIN/BKK to HKG).

Since Mumbai is mentioned as well, here are the *A flights to Mumbai
TG from BKK
LH from FRA
SQ from SIN

and OW flights to Mumbai
CX from HKG via BKK
CX from DXB
BA from LHR
QF from SYD

This can be easily done on Star Alliance: Lufthansa has a direct flight to Chennai (Madras) from Frankfurt. From Chennai to HongKong you can take Singapore Airlines, another Star Alliance member.

Thanks. By surface segment do you mean something like going JFK-LHR-MAA :BOM-HKG-JFK?

Yes - travel between MAA & BOM (or somewhere else served by CX) on a separate ticket or non-airline transportation.

You can do CMB-HKG on CX with OneWorld
 

One of my friends and his wife are currently doing exactly what you want on a RTW OneWorld Business Class trip doing the LHR-MAA on BA and then continuing from CMB to HKG on CX. They are using a non-partner airline Air Lanka for the MAA-CMB hop but on a seperate paid ticket.

I just flew RTW via India; arrived in DEL on AC and left from MAA via SQ to SIN and then to HKG. DEL, BOM and MAA all offer *A flts going east with either SQ or TG. I used 9W(Jet airways) for in country travel as they have a good pass program for my needs in India.

Did you buy the travel pass/"visit India"-type pass program in India or before you arrived in India?

(For another Indian carrier, some of these travel passes have to be bought outside of India and/or are sold only to residents of India in India.)

Bought it ouside of India...one caveat. These passes are regional and I couldn't use mine until BOM, so my DEL/BOM was a separately paid ticket.

Air Sahara has a pass system issued overseas or to residents of India that is based on segments and not routes (with some noteworthy exceptions).

Jet's pass, as you noted, is geographically-restricted.