Hello FT'ers,

I am planning to send my wife to India(BLR) in Oct(any date is fine but mostly between 10th-18th) from IAH. planning to send in business or first class.

She maybe staying for 2 months or so.Possible travel back date somewhere between Dec 1st week -dec 2nd week to miss the peak travel season.

I have 235k DL miles .I just moved 100kMR miles using promotion and got 25k MQM's.Don't know if this will be helpful to book tickets to her or not.

I was looking at DL but it has connections in ATL or DTW and then again in Paris and then blr.

So i thought if i book using AF it will be only halt in paris.

So how do i book this ticket using AF or DL or any other options i might have missed or any other websites which show easy availability of reward tickets as DL doesn't show reward tickets for some dates.

Thanks
Uday

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If your only miles are with DL, then you are limited to the redemption options that DL offers you. It is possible that a DL agent can offer you better redemption options than those shown on the DL website, as I believe that some partner carriers do not show up on online award searches.

I also have 50k continental miles and 50k chase ultimate rewards.50k southwest and will get 150k for AA in a month.

In my experience, it is much easier to get availability to India on Star or oneworld than on Delta.

150K AA miles is more than enough for a business roundtrip on AA. You can go via ord-lhr-blr. You will have to pay fuel surcharges, though (~$300 per BA segment). You could also try for Jet from LHR to BOM/DEL and connect again to BLR.

Or you can transfer the Ultimate Reward points to CO (before Sep 30) and use them for a coach award (80K) to India (not what you wanted but does increase your options).

Using AA miles, you may be slightly better off using a One World award in biz. May depend on where your wife is leaving from.

For example, AA award to India from US in biz is 135K round trip. We just went West Coast-Hong Kong-Delhi-Bangkok-Tokyo-West Coast on JAL & Cathay for 130K biz each since One World Award is distance based. So you can save a few miles (and fly on airlines which many would say provide a better in-flight experience).

If you only have DL miles then a Oneworld award obviously isn't going to be possible.

Look for Air France business class availability on the Flying Blue website which should be booked with DL miles.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

A oneworld award would not be cheaper in the OP's case: he is starting from TX, not CA, and he is going to BLR, not DEL. (BLR has fewer oneworld-carrier options).

And most importantly, he only has DL miles

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

But he's getting 150K AA miles next month. (See Post #3.)

That's why I should read the whole thread

Still, IMO DL miles are still the best for this award, through either AF or 9W. Opportunity cost also plays a part here- DL miles are generally considered to be "worth less" than AA miles- so use DL miles whereever applicable since AA miles are going to be more versatile and offer better awards to greater number of destinations.

cool thanks guys ..let me see how it works out with DL or AF and will post it in a while..

Maybe--or maybe not. Great Circle distance between BLR and HOU is 8567 and the 130K biz One World award allows up to 20K miles RT.

Apparently, both BA and Cathay Pacific serve BLR.

So, OP could save 5K AA miles. But, 5K is 5K. Plus the One World award is a lot more flexible with date changes (no routing changes) after ticketing.

Not pushing One World. Guess I'm just happy about getting our tickets to India for 130K as opposed to the 170K AA wanted for a regular award.

i had similar situation few months ago. don't rule out one way flights using different alliances, sometimes that turns out to be cheaper/comfort with routing. best bet is do a detailed search to/from bombay and get a dirt cheap fare to banagalore with indian websites like yatra/make my trip etc.
use MR travel site and UR travel search to figure out your best options. This way if you are able to find some flights say on continental or AA segment and use either the UR or MR site, you would even earn miles. Delta is fine too, mostly with air france options. delta flights from india to US are cheaper so if you are looking into doing 2 one way. with continental (EWR) or AA (ORD) you can get easily good options non-stop to delhi avoiding europe and surcharge.
even if that means you use your delta or other miles to get to EWR or ORD, with silver medallion you may get upgraded. again CO one way can work out to be great , mixed class (first class US to india, economy us segment) in 60k points, gives you the liberty to do do 2 different alliances if you have points scattered. and with chase UR points you can book that flight with points and earn miles on continental.
You can even do a status challenge with CO using your delta silver medallion and earn the required miles for silver with CO till 2013 with a little planning.
hope this rambling gives you ideas and resources.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

The Great Circle Mileage between IAH and BLR is irrelevant. What matters is the total mileage for the combination of segments required to get from IAH to BLR and back, on a routing that satisfies the requirement of using two oneworld partners. You cannot construct such an itinerary for under 20,001 miles. IAH-LON-BLR-LON-IAH does come in a little under 20,000 miles, but it does not satisfy the two-partner requirement. (And of course, if you use BA from IAH to LON and/or LON to BLR, you'll pay huge fuel surcharges.)

Booked 4 RETURN tickets in coach HSV to HYD for 80K miles each (22Nov11 to 04Dec11).

Just booked 10 days before travel.

Best use of my miles in my opinion.

Changed tickets twice without any penalty (platinum medallion).

My urgent need to travel coincided with their lowest points period. Can't be happier.