Help with planning my trip
 

Hi,

Here is my planned itinerary which is slightly flexible (by a few days here or there)

IAD to DEL on Dec 11th
DEL to BKK or CNX on Dec 24th
BKK to IAD on Jan 3rd

Please advise how can I make the most use of my miles.

I have about 150K SPG
300K+ United
150K AA

Thanks!

What options have you found already?

If your dates are not very flexible, then you may only find a limited number of award flights available.

OK I can be flexible. I have not found anything worthwhile so far!

Since you have AA and UA miles, a starting point would be to use those websites to find availability and build an itinerary. AA will have some partners where you need to call in for help (for example Ethiad). You might first try individual segments on either website since it may be that one alliance is more useful for one journey than another. IAD/BKK seems an obvious *A candidate, for example.

AA website would not be very helpful because your 2 best choices - QR and CX - don't show up on its searches.
You should be looking for availability on BA.com.

One option frequently overlooked is Korean Air. Very generous availability, and incredible hold times (I just booked JFK-ICN-CNX that I kept on hold for 6 months!)
They are SPG transfer partner (and Chase).

I would focus on using AA miles for IAD-DEL if possible (as above, search ba.com for QR and CX availability, and use Etihad's website to search EY availability). For the rest, look to United - TG flies DEL-BKK non-stop, and United has lots of partners that could fly you BKK-IAD. Another good option for BKK-IAD is via HKG and another US connection on CX/AA with AA miles. What cabin are you looking for?

+1

Also try Qantas website for oneworld availability. In my experience it has been a little faster than BA.

Note that Qantas will show Emirates availability which is not bookable with AA miles. I'm not a fan of using Qantas' website for premium cabin searching because it shows tons of mixed cabin options (where a small piece is in J/F and the longhaul is in economy).

This itinerary seems perfect for a *A itinerary using UA with an allowed stopover.

IAD-XXX-DEL can be LH/UA, even ET. DEL-BKK on TG or AI. BKK-IAD - mix of options on UA/NH/TG/etc.

If DEL-BKK gives you fits on miles, just buy the one-way, and use UA miles for the rest.