India to USA: Best Program
 

Hello guys,

I am Sahil and I am from New Delhi, India. I am going to be going to the USA for college this fall. I am most probably going to Sarah-Lawrence College which is located in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, 15 miles (24 km) north of Manhattan.

This will be my yearly plan for the next 4 years:

1. Go in August and come back in December
2. Go in january and come back in May
3. Repeat for the next three years

I am a part of the British Airways and Lufthansa mileage program.

So my question is: What is the cheapest and best way to travel from New Delhi, India to New York, USA. With which program will I get the cheapest ticket and the most points? I plan to start going in Economy and upgrade when I have points...

Anything else I should tell you?

Thanks
Crazysah

Can someone help me?

Two roundtrips annually between Delhi and NYC will net you around 30K elite miles, so you'd qualify for silver (low-tier) status on virtually any airline you choose. Based on the fact your end destination point is Yonkers, I'd suggest Continental as they have a direct DEL-EWR flight.

In regards to cheapest, that will change from one trip to the next.

The question I was asking as to which airline should I take where I will get the most benefits of being a part of their miles program and be the cheapest if this is the trip I am taking. I don't like direct flights so don't recommend those.

Then do Air India.. they will be part of Star Alliance :cool:

So you're saying I will get the most points taking Air India to the USA in economy?

I also travel to India quite often and normally go with airlines offering bonus miles. Emirates many times during the year gives 50% bonus miles. You have to come back and look at flyertalk for mileage run deals.

I see you're only planning on two round trips per year - so approximately 30,000 elite miles. If you maybe upped this to three and flew AA via Chicago, you could get close to AA Platinum.

I would recommend Jet Airways. They have good FF program and tickets price are reasonable.
Since you are joining Sarah-Lawrence College, JFK is a better option than EWR.
Jet Airways flies to JFK via Brussels from DEL.

I cannot up it to three. Though I may take a third flight in the year to somewhere in Europe from India...

So, you are saying that Jet Airways would be the best option for me in terms of price and miles? Or should I go with some other airlines? What about BAor Lufthansa or some other?

Emirates doesn't fly from IGI to JFK?

Yes, I would prefer Jet airways if one-hop flight to USA is not an issue. Also, you can redeem the miles for your family members in India for domestic travel too. Economy class of Jet Airways is way better than the one in Lufthansa or BA. The VOD entertainment has way too many choices on Jet Airways.

Emirates does fly IGI->DXB->JFK

The number of miles/points you get depends on routing and the class of your ticket. By class, I don't mean simply economy or business or first. In some programs the number of miles also depend on the fare basis.
You can maximise your miles by taking a circuitous route pprovided the cost does not go up too much.

As it has already been pointed out two RT's between DEL and NYC will get you about 30,000 miles, if you travel in a class that will award you 100% of the miles. In some programmes, miles expire. Unless you have plans to use your miles, miles will be credited to your account and then dropped off as they expire. At 30K miles a year, you can get silver status, which does not get you much these days.

IMO you should join an airline that's a member of star alliance. Air India is not already in star alliance. Star alliance gives you lots of choices to travel to India. LH, TG,SQ, LX,AC,CO,SA,SK,SN,TK,OS and BD are some of the airlines that serve Delhi.

So therefore I should fly Lufthansa from IGI to JFK?

@honeysunny - Why Jet Airways... it isn't part of a good alliance is it? Plus it doens't get you enough points for an upgrade will it?

What alliance is Emirates part of? Is it worth it?

There are no known IGI airport (is probably Indra Gandhi International, you are referring to) it is called DEL in airport codes.

One of the good option, will be to fly via the Pacific, instead of Atlantic. You could add an additional stopover in either BKK/SIN/HKG. You could use UA MP to collect all miles and start your trip from one of this cities to NYC. Getting to any of this cities are usually very cheap on the regular carriers or even some LCCs.

If you're going to do that, I would join AC Aeroplan to get *G status for 35,000 miles. Then you can get lounge access for all your trips, even the domestic ones in the US. Just credit all your *A flights to Aeroplan. This gives you the option to fly either LH, LX or CO TATL to India (and a bunch of other *A, too).

IMO, JetPrivilege is not ideal due to high redemption rates and YQ fees. Unless you plan to do a lot more flying than 2 rts a year, I would avoid the program.

As for Air India, your redemption (and earning) options will be rather limited until/if they join *A. And then... who knows. And in the (unlikely?) event that they do join *A, you can then credit those flights to Aeroplan :D