Hi,
Am a noob so hope i dont get bashed too much!
I currently have around 84000 miles with United airlines. Recently got approved for the United credit card (50000).
But unfortunately United is not allowing me to use the miles for flights to India. I need to basically use miles to fly from LAX to BLR towards the end of the year. I tried DEL, BOM and my place BLR from LAX and SAN but none of these seem to work. Even tried the star alliance option. Anyone had any success booking flight through united for travel to India?

I tried to apply for the continental card but chase rejected my application as i just recently got the United card. They said i had too many requests for credit. The continental did have flights to BLR for 80000 miles roundtrip when i checked their site.

So now i can either try for the AA advantage citi or Amex card for 75000 miles or get the Delta card for 50000 miles.
I noticed that Delta has flights to BLR but it is asking for a ridiculous 105000 to 120000 miles no matter what date i choose.
I already have around 13000 delta skymiles currently


With AA i observed that there were flights to DEL but none to BLR. I could go to delhi and book a local flight to BLR. But this will be an additional expense. I am getting 25000 additional miles for the AA credit card as compared to delta. I am getting roundtrip for a more reasonable 90000 miles. But i currently do not have any AA miles.



I also have a business trip upcoming where would need to travel to HKG. I heard there is a promotion for double miles on Cathay pacific. Would that bonus be available on the AA miles too?

So looking at these factors which card would be recommended?

Thanks!

Delta is useless, forget them. However, AA is a good program to collect miles in.

AA has something called All-Airline awards, which are point-to-point and you can use their partner airlines as well. (Jet is a partner in India, Kingfisher will be when it joins One World.) You need to call AA and ask for an award from LAX to BLR. They'll figure it out. Besides AA (or any partner) to DEL and Jet to BLR, you can also connect via London. IOW, there you won't need to buy an extra DEL-BLR ticket.

However, the London route will have high taxes---and thus better availability ---and should be reserved as the last option.

Re CX bonus, each airline has its own programs. The CX bonus will not be available on AA. If you can, you should definitely fly CX to HKG. It is a HKG based airline and one of the very best in the world. You can't possibly do any better.

PS. Welcome to FT!

You could go with the AA 75k bonus. LAX to HKG return will get you approx. 14520 miles, and the 4k spend requirement on AA Citi/Amex will net another 4000 bringing your total upto 93520 which should meet your target of 90k.

Just remember to book oneworld airline for travel to HKG and give your AAdvantage number for your travel.
Since CX is a oneworld airline, you should be able to earn miles in you AA account for travel in CX.

I would recommend you to use your United mile to fly. The United website (aka .bomb) only list United awards along with some Continental and U.S. Airways. You need to look up available space within Star Alliance using a award search tool like ANA, ExpertFlyer or KVS and called United with the information to book.

Check out the "American Airlines Card 75,000 signup bonus" thread in this forum (MilesBuzz).

I would apply for 2 personal AA cards. (Amex & Visa) to get 2 times 75K for 150K total. (I did last October--150K miles posted ^).

Wait 95 or so days, then apply for the business card. Another giant signup bonus.

As for ongoing use as a long term card, it depends if AA works for you. For a couple of relatives, I told them to keep the cards for 11 months and cancel. Their nearest AA airport is about 60 miles away and it is served by AA eagle.
For them getting 300K miles (150K times 2 people) worked well for them. A trip to NZ/Australia plus 2 domestic trips. They have enough miles left for 1 more domestic. ^

Bottom line: Apply for 2 personal AA cards. Do them one after the other but on the same day.

United is easily your best bet to get to India. Their website does not work however as it will only search UA, US and CO. United and US does not even fly to India. Try using the continental website to find availability and then call UA and ask for the exact same flights.

UA miles are good for CO, they're both in Star Alliance. So if on CO you see the flight you want, call UA and demand it.

As per getting miles quick just do the best promos for each card as they come up until you've eventually gotten (and cancelled) them all. There's an easy fee-waived 500K or so in promos floating now that may have to be spaced out over 2-4 months.

After you've done all the best promos and can't churn much, settle on one or two low fee or free cards for all purchases, balance paid in full automatically each month from your checking. (You also get a month's float on life this way). SPG ($65) and Fidelity AmEx (no fee- 2 Air Canada miles per $1 spent) are peoples usual favorites for everyday spending.

And don't be timid about including some dollar coins in your spending.

Thanks a lot guys for all the suggestions and options! I think since I already have the United Miles, I will try first calling United as suggested and give them the continental airline flights that I see on the CO website and see if they can book that for me.
I will also apply for AA credit cards as those seem to be better than getting the delta airlines card. I hope AAmerican CSRs can do a good job of getting a flight all the way to BLR via alliance partners in case the United option does not work out.

I never thought of calling and asking them. Thanks a lot for that heads up!! I assumed that whatever is available online is the only option we have. This is very good to know