sharmaflyer

Hi,

Please help with advice on bookings to/from lax - del/mum. especially the return as I think I nailed down the going to india part

me:
AA: 171,000
Chase UR: 120,000
United: 40,000

spouse:
AA: 150,000
Amex MR: 25,000

Family of 4 (2 kids , 10 yo); prefer business/first. can split 2 and 2 on difft flights

depart 3/17/2016; booked 4 business; qatar; LAX --> del

points leftover after above flight (I'm using 270,000 AA):
AA: 36,000
chase UR: 120,000
united: 40,000

spouse:
AA: 17,000
amex MR: 25,000

return: leave ~ 3/28/2016 with 2 day layover anywhere in europe.

any thoughts? I obviously don't have enough points but can signup for cr cards as I am due to pickup new ones.

also, for this trip, I want to use points for hotels.

thanks in advance

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Since AA no longer allows free stopovers anywhere on their awards, it would cost you 80K AA miles per person to fly India-Europe-U.S. in Business (30K + 80K). (Also, Business Class departure taxes are particularly high on long-haul departures out of the U.K. and France.) AA does have several partners that provide service between India and Europe, including 9W, QR, EY, GF, AY (I think), and BA; but AA assesses high surcharges on BA redemptions.

You face a similar problem with UA miles, as UA one-way awards do not permit free stopovers. (And UA charges higher redemption rates on Business Class redemptions on partner airlines.)

Your best bet might be for you and your spouse to sign-up for Citi/AAdvantage credit cards, and purchase more AA miles, if you can catch one of the periodic mileage sales at aa.com. Of course, if you can find two J-class seats on UA metal from Europe to LAX, you have enough UA/UR points for that too, and could purchase additional UA points when UA runs a sale.

sharmaflyer

thanks for the reply.

Should I cancel my current tix and concentrate on a 4 united roundtrips with free stopover? My trip from lax --> del is on hold for this week. I haven't ticketed. Also, if I ticket and cancel in the future, I think I can recollect my points for $150.

dukerau

AA charges $150 for first passenger + $25 for additional passengers. It looks like you've booked your LAX-DEL as two awards of 2 passengers each, so you'd be looking at $350 to redeposit. Not sure if AA is flexible in considering all of your 4 seats across 2 reservations as 1 award and just charging $225, but I wouldn't expect it.

Whether you should give up what you have on hold in hopes for a United award with a stopover is up to you. It sounds like you have a pretty nice award if you got QR J for 4. No guarantees you'll find anything as good as that. Also, consider that UA charges 80K each way for J India-US, or you could do India-Europe for 45K and Europe-US for 57.5K (on United metal). So 22.5K extra for a stopover. But you're paying 67.5K AA for your J one way vs 80K UA that you would pay if you switched to UA. So you save 12.5K.

In other words:
160K UA for round trip with stopover
or
67.5K AA + 45K UA + 57.5 UA for 3 one ways

So at worst, if you value UA and AA equally, you pay 10K more miles for the 3 one ways. And you can keep your QR award.

or
67.5K AA + 30K AA + 50K AA for 3 one ways

Or you can just get more AA miles and find awards to come back via Europe. Cheaper than UA miles and you can stay in Europe as long as you want since they're separate awards

JDiver

You mean BOM (Mumbai) presumably, not Mumias, western Kenya, right? I'll ask a moderator to retitle.

If the OP merely has tickets on hold, there's no cancellation fee.

But imo, four award seats on the same flights is not easily achieved, o do consider all the options before releasing the hold (which will expire anyway if you do nothing).