Advice for Upcoming India Award Booking
Jun 8, 23, 2:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 233
Advice for Upcoming India Award Booking
Greetings FTers.
In late July or early August I'm planning to fly from SFO to Delhi and then in mid-August fly from Mumbai back to SFO. My plan was ideally to use United miles to fly Air India (their nonstop flight would be best of course), however, I'm not seeing any Air India availability in either direction. I also spoke with United MileagePlus to see if they could find any availability, but the agent couldn't find bookable Air India seats. I'm looking at Economy availability, and the best option using United miles seems to be 49,500 miles each way flying on United and Vistara with an 8+ hour layover in London.
If anyone recently booked award travel to Delhi/Mumbai and recommends a better option, I'd greatly appreciate the suggestions.
In terms of balances across award programs, I'm United Gold with plenty of miles. I also have quite a few AA miles and Amex MR points. I have some Delta and Alaska miles. I also have Marriot Bonvoy points I'd be willing to transfer to airline partners.
Thanks!
In late July or early August I'm planning to fly from SFO to Delhi and then in mid-August fly from Mumbai back to SFO. My plan was ideally to use United miles to fly Air India (their nonstop flight would be best of course), however, I'm not seeing any Air India availability in either direction. I also spoke with United MileagePlus to see if they could find any availability, but the agent couldn't find bookable Air India seats. I'm looking at Economy availability, and the best option using United miles seems to be 49,500 miles each way flying on United and Vistara with an 8+ hour layover in London.
If anyone recently booked award travel to Delhi/Mumbai and recommends a better option, I'd greatly appreciate the suggestions.
In terms of balances across award programs, I'm United Gold with plenty of miles. I also have quite a few AA miles and Amex MR points. I have some Delta and Alaska miles. I also have Marriot Bonvoy points I'd be willing to transfer to airline partners.
Thanks!
Jun 8, 23, 2:13 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 28,559
For 40K AA miles and $42 in taxes, you can get SFO-DOH-DEL in Economy on QR on August 2 or 3.
I have not checked return options, but you can, of course, use AA miles in one direction, and UA miles in the other.
I have not checked return options, but you can, of course, use AA miles in one direction, and UA miles in the other.
Jun 8, 23, 5:35 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 233
So far when checking MR transfer partners I haven't found any better options.
If anyone has been able to book Air India using UA miles I'd be curious to hear how far out you had to book to find anyway availability.
Jun 8, 23, 5:43 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 28,559
Jun 8, 23, 6:29 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 28,559
I'm seeing the AI BOM-SFO nonstop available in Economy on certain mid-August days via Air Canada/Aeroplan. But they are asking 70K miles plus $126 USD. Not a great redemption.
Jun 11, 23, 2:40 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 233
Paying cash definitely crossed my mind. However, with constant devaluations across mileage programs, I tend to try to use miles when I can so long as the redemption is at or near the saver level.
Jun 12, 23, 4:31 am
#8
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 8,970
