let the milesgenius FTers help me
 

Here is my situation.
I have a Continental $900 ticket that i didn't use last year, basically as a voucher. I have to book before Sept 15th 2011. I will have to $250 for change flights and cant use it for anyone else or hotels or anything other than a flt tkt. I don't want this to go waste even if I have to pay $250 extra.
I am planning a trip to India to use this, dates flexible , Oct-Dec 2011.
With FT help I have recently acquired 100 k BA miles , 10 K starwood pts, 50k HHonors pts. I also need 9000 miles to gold status on AA (India trip would be 16000 miles RT).
I want to go one way on continental say EWR to DEL to use my $900 voucher and then comeback DEL-ORD by AA by biz class
when i was looking up the RT Chicago to Delhi trip is almost equal AA points as one way DEL to Chicago.
I can use my BA miles and add some 10 k starwood to BA as well and want to book on AA.
the question is how can I use my continental voucher without paying too much extra, fly biz class in AA using my BA points for a RT to India, don't care about stopovers/routes.
Thanks.

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I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what you're asking. Are you talking about two separate trips to India, or just one?

International one-way fares on many routes can be as high as roundtrip fares on the same route.

If you use BA miles to fly to or from India in Business Class, you will pay a small fortune in fuel surcharges, even if you use the ORD-DEL or DEL-ORD nonstops on AA. And you will not earn any frequent-flyer miles for travel on an award ticket, so if you want to reach AAdvantage Gold status, you will have to do some flying on AA (or a partner carrier) on a paid ticket.

I too am really confused by the post.

Couldn't you just sell the $900 credit (or book a fare for someone), and be done with it?

The whole thing sounds like more trouble than it is worth. Sell the credit, pay for a 1 way to India, and then book a return with miles (get your status first). Might cost you a bit more this way, so the alternative is to book the whole India trip with miles and then fly later the 9k to get Gold.

I'm not specifically familiar with Continental rules, but for other airlines I dealt with (AA and US Airways) your credit with an airline is locked to your name and cannot be used to buy ticket for anyone else - so unless you find your full namesake, this will not work.

As far as OP questions goes - if I were you, I would just forget about AA status and but a RT ticket with Continental using your credit. Seems like you will incur much more challenges trying to achieve both goals (AA status and using your CO credit) than you would get benefits. In my personal opinion Gold status is only worth it you heavily fly domestically which doesn't seem to be you case. Having Gold status and taking two long-haul international flights a year will not give you much. But YMMV.

Just wanted to throw this out there for OP consideration: if you have a AMEX Platinum card, that change fee might be a reimbursable expense under the $200 airline credit benefit.

Here are two threads with more info on that: Link1 Link2

Welcome to FT! That pleasant duty out of the way, I think FT has seduced you into biting more than you can chew. You seem to want to use up all your points and miles and vouchers in one go. :) As others, I find your questions unclear. The only thing I feel sure of is that you have this CO voucher and you need to go to India. Before I make my recommendations, here are a few points to keep in mind:

First, define your priorities. In your shoes, mine would be to use up the $650 value left in my CO voucher.

Second, one-way international tix are bad deals, AA ones very bad deals.

Third, achieving status on AA will be separate cash-paid trip(s). If you can't fly extra trip(s) this year, then leave it to next year.

Fourth, airline status matters only if you fly a lot. It has no value when you are in your own home. :) If you don't fly a lot, don't spend any money/effort on achieving status, at least not right away. Keep reading FT and you'll soon start flying unnecessarily and be elite everywhere. :)

Fifth, flying 9K miles to achieve gold is a bad deal anyway because you can fly 10K and get Platinum via challenge - and that means one year of Platinum and one year of gold. Read FAQ's, wiki's, etc. and the thread on challenges. Details are important, eg, you need to fly 10K in a fare class that earns 1 point/mile, and not all do.

So, here are my summary recommendations, assuming that you need to make that India trip:

(1) If you can fly extra trip(s), use India trip to earn AA Platinum via challenge, and use other trip(s) to use up the CO voucher.

(2) If you can't fly extra trip(s), then use up your CO voucher for the India trip. Learn about AA challenges and start one on/after June 16 next year. Once again, if you don't fly AA a lot, status is not very useful.

Award tickets bought with miles (BA or AA) won't earn you any AA miles/points. You can obviously have a great trip: I just want to make sure you understand that it won't help achieve elite status.

thank you for all your tips and advice. yes my post is a little confusing. but I think in summary this is what I have decided. I have to use the continental voucher before September, otherwise it will go waste, so will use it up somewhere. and , no i cant sell it (don't know how) or use it for anyone else, i spoke with continental.
My plan was to do a round trip from Atlanta to Chicago with continental voucher and do round trip from Chicago to Del on AA by using BA miles. but some of you are right, too much hassle and I obviously wont get the AA miles, I do fly a bit domestic about 5-8 trips, based in Atlanta. but will go with the advice of trying to attain gold status later.
No i don't have amex platinum.
cheers

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I hope you weren't thinking of using the CO voucher for ATL-ORD-ATL just to position yourself for the AA flight from ORD to DEL. If you were going to use BA miles to go to DEL on AA, it would cost the same number of miles to fly ATL-ORD-DEL as ORD-DEL alone. (Most frequent-flyer awards include connecting travel, if necessary.) If you were going to pay cash for the ORD-DEL flight, it's possible that ATL-ORD-DEL might not cost any more than just ORD-DEL; it's even possible that it would cost less.

Do not break up the ATL-DEL trip as ATL-ORD-DEL yourself and pay separately for each segment.

People do that only when there is a super-special deal announced from some city. Let's say it was STL. If the deal was attractive enough, a FT'er would "position" himself to STL (ie, travel to/from there on his own), and then fly on that super-special ticket. Lacking such special promo, you are best off pricing ATL-DEL-ATL as one itinerary, either cash or awards.

Whether you use the CO voucher towards India trip, or for other trips, is in the end a personal decision based on your needs.

If, besides India, there are enough flights you need to fly, use up the CO voucher for those. Do a Platinum challenge to India (ie pay cash) if you care about elite status; fly on BA points if you don't. My gut feeling is that status will be of little immediate use to you.

If you don't require those extra flights, then use CO voucher towards your India trip. Pay the rest in cash and save your BA miles for a future trip.

Having been to India, I would use the 900 voucher for a roundtrip on CO to Europe. Much more to see closer together and less time/money wasted getting from one cool site to the next.

Just my $0.02