Flight to/from Pakistan
 

I hope it's ok to create a new topic for this; all the existing threads seem fairly specific to the OPs.

I've never used rewards miles to fly anywhere, so I'd like some advice on my first attempt. I currently have over 80k Continental Onepass miles, and hope to have 75k or 150k AAdvantage miles (I think I just made it in on the Citi offers).

My family is planning on taking a trip to Islamabad (ISB) next year, probably some time around March. My family will be traveling there separately from me, but I was hoping to use CO miles to get there (one ticket, possibly on Turkish, or possibly on a United partner like Emirates), and use AA to get back with my family (up to three tickets, on Etihad or Gulf). My dates are pretty flexible, but I'd like to stay there for around 2 weeks.

Now, how likely is it that there are even tickets available for this itinerary? Also, how early should I try to book these tickets? Our plans are still tentative right now, but I should have a solid range of dates soon(ish).

Any specific help or general advice would be appreciated.

My general advice is to look at Continental's award search (ok engine), ANA's award search engine (much better), and at British Airways search engine (difficult to use but does the job). You'll get better advice in the specific forums but do indicate where you are traveling from also.

Almost impossible
 

Welcome to flyertalk. I see very little hope (didn't mean to dissapoint you) for what you have described mainly because no star alliance or oneworld airline fly directly to ISB. In 2008 I was able to use BA miles (BA used to fly ISB) but that also up to LHR and on-wards I had to purchase the tickets. I have tried a couple of times to use AA miles on Gulf but have never been successful. So good luck on your quest. Personally I have come to the conclusion to use US/Europe awards if you have any miles and for ISB go on Etihad with the family. Since they allow everyone to pool their miles into family membership, you can combine them all. For example from SFO to ISB, each member will earn around 18,000 miles. Since we are five people travelling so X 5 will be 90,000. This will get you pretty close to one free ticket.

if there's nothing to islamabad on Turkish. Thai has a flight 3X p.week from Muscat to Karachi then get an internal flight. The problem is getting back using AA miles

I'm planning a trip to KHI in Feb at the moment.

Availability on TK is tough in Biz, possibly in Econ. Availability on GF shows up according to KVS, but the one time I called AAdvantage I was told there is none - I have not tried a second call yet. EY is not an AAdvantage redemption partner.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I'll be flying from Boston, or possibly JFK, if there's a good reason to. I'm also open to flying back from KHI, since we probably will have to go there anyway. However, that doesn't seem to add many options, only Cathay Pacific. (I really thought there would be more airlines flying to KHI, it's a big city).

It does look like using AA could be an issue if Gulf has low availability. (Looks like Etihad is an earn only partner).

I tried using Continental's award search, and I have some more questions. Are the itineraries purely availability based? The reason I ask is because a couple searches resulted in crazy 46 hour journeys. Other searches had more reasonable times, but only certain classes. If I call in, will they have more flexibility?

If I can't find flights all the way, how much of a hassle is it to use awards for part of an route and pay for the rest?

Emirates is no longer a partner with United, as of May this year.

Suggest you use your miles to get you to DXB, and to then buy a cheap ticket from DXB into Pakistan and back. This usually works for me. You can buy the DXB-Pak tix off Expedia, or one of the UAE travel agents (eg, DNATA).

I second mapletree. After years and years of trying to figuring out a way out, I think under the present circumstances, this is the best strategy.

If you go a lot, another good strategy is to buy a one-way ticket (or other creative way to do a one-way trip), and then start buying RT tickets originating in Pak. The cost arbitrage is fantastic, especially if you are willing to pay a bit more for a C/F ticket.

I have burned well over 2 million miles over the years flying family from Pakistan

Unfortunately a lot of great options are gone - AA miles on Swiss from Karachi - UA miles on LH from Karachi and Lahore and BA from ISB

Best bet on CO is Thai and Turkish
On AA - Cathay flies from Karachi to LAX via Hong kong (and Bangkok)

ET flies to ISB right? They will soon be a burn partner of AA as well. I thot LH flew to ISB.

If you mean Etihad, do you have more information? All the info I found says Etihad and AA are accrual only partners at the moment. (I did see a couple blog type posts saying redemption partnership was in the works for later this year, but nothing that looked official).

Also, it seems that no European or North American airlines fly to anywhere in Pakistan. (BA and LH, at least, used to).

As far as I know Etihad is only mileage earning partner with AA. In theory you can earn award flight on Gulf with AA miles. The reason I said in theory is because Gulf is not one world partner so AA has to submit in writing a request and reply comes in 5 days. I have tried multiple times this option but was never successful. In fact one AA rep told me that in his carrier of 3 years he has never seen any request ever successful which was pretty disappointing. So once again in theory this is definitely a possibility.

Etihad and AA Redemption Agreement

Looks like you were spot on, UA Fan. This is good news, although a little soon (for me :p ). Hopefully there will still be some availability by the time I'm ready to book.

Good catch. However I am not sure if this is true or the AA web site needs to be updated.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...nes/etihad.jsp

Finally I see that on AA web site. Great news. Etihad is not yet one world partner but looks like award availability is very generous.

http://aa.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=3361

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/

For Star Alliance, Turkish , Thai and Air China fly into Karachi...
Qatar Airways is a partner of many of Star Alliance airlines like United etc... so you can also travel on Qatar but it has to be booked Round Trip ... No Mix and match airlines allowed...
For OneWorld, Cathay Pacific and Etihad/Gulf Air (for AA members) are the best bet ..Although CX does not have good connections from US West Coast usually 8-10 hour stopover from West Coast to KHI. Malaysian will be joining OW from next year..
For Skyteam members, Saudi Arabian airlines will be joining from next year.. For now Delta Skymiles members can redeem miles on Malaysian airlines...

I hope more international carriers start flights from Pakistan soon.....

I somehow missed Air China to Karachi, thanks for pointing that out.

The problem is that no North American or European airlines fly to Pakistan, which really limits options, especially from the east coast.

Well, they all used to go there but there's no point anymore. There's not enough traffic to sustain it that even BA pulled out. KHI isn't really in a great place for connections to anywhere (except India... but obviously that doesn't work), PK is a poor airline at best, and the political situation in Pakistan is too dangerous for most people to consider transiting through there. That would be almost like asking people on the street if they'd like to transit through KBL. That's not to mention the meteoric rise of DXB and other ME airports in the last 10 years.

Check CO search engine. I was easily able to redeem F award (75k pp each way) from IAH to Islamabad. You need to get to BKK and then ISB. Getting to BKK can be through Europe (I am doing IAH-FRA-LHR-BKK-ISB in early Nov '11 - still trying to get the direct flight from FRA to BKK but no luck yet).

You will be looking at LH, UA, CO, LX etc. to get into Europe and then most probably TG to BKK.You can even try ANA, CO , OZ, UA to get a routing to BKK over the Pacific. There are options to do that and I am doing ISB-BKK-NRT-LAX-IAH on the way back. Note that this option would not have been available on UA but CO is much more flexible in the number of miles traveled and routing one way over the Atlantic and back over the Pacific as a R/T Award and not RTW.

I have booked the same itenary for my family from DFW in march this year on one world by calling in DFW-LHR-BAH-KHI without any hassle( i was about a week flexible).And i have already booked on star alliance in business for next summer DFW-LAX-BKK-KHI. Yes layover in BKK is 7 hrs but i think i can live with it if i am travelling in business.

That first itinerary is with AA miles? And BAH-KHI would be on Gulf? If so, you're the first person (admittedly in my very limited experience) who reported redeeming on Gulf.

That's good, I guess, although I will still try for Etihad.

I don't mind going to BKK if I'm traveling by myself, but with the family (2 small kids) I think it would make the journey too long.

And surprisingly it was only 1 month in advance i guess it was the time when the political situation in the GULF region was starting to deteriorate and they just wanted some activity.
As far as Etihad yes i would prefer that too but right now thats not an option.
With BKK option, i am traveling with 5 YR old too but traveling in business makes it lil bit easier with all the perks you get, but yes thats the only part i am worried about but thats the only feasible option at this time for us and plus we are quite familiar with the city so we don't mind going for a nice thai lunch and come back.

And yes the first itenary was on AA miles, i tried to redeem on CX but no availabilty even for 2 months and then CSR presented me with that option otherwise i was ready to go to DXB on AA miles and then buy my ticket on Emirates from DXB as some of the other ppl have suggested in the earlier post.Try KHI rather then ISB i think you will get better results.

I'll iterate what others have said....

Getting to DXB/AUH/KWI/BAH is a good back up plan since from those hubs you should be able to find flights onward to Pakistan...

Let us know what you end up finding... I've read Etihad availability to AA members is pretty good....

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...ption-partner/

^^^ Awesome news

I assume you want to go to BKK, and not just going there to get to ISB on the ticket? It's a great fare for 75k pp, but a looooong way to go just to make the routing work! (though it is in F)

I doubt anyone cares or even remembers, but I thought I'd report back for posterity's sake. (http://xkcd.com/979/)

I was able to use CO miles to book 3 of us (not including the baby) on TK: BOS-YYZ-IST-ISB (first leg on AC). Using continental.com, the booking process was very easy, but they screwed up on the infant ticket so I had to call in anyway. The infant ticket was much more expensive than I thought it should be, but I'm still pretty satisfied overall.

For the return, I adjusted my plans a little and am now stopping in Saudi for a couple days. I used AA miles to book myself JED-AUH-ORD-BOS on Etihad (last leg on AA) in J. I went with business class mainly for the experience, hopefully I don't get spoiled. Booking the ticket on the phone was easy, but I did some thorough research before hand. Had to pay the phone booking fee even though there is no other way to book. I'm pretty excited for this flight, even though it's longer than necessary.

I've got YYZ-JFK-AUH-KHI//AUH-JFK-YYZ booked in First on Etihad for 3+infant. That infant fare was kinda crazy.

Funny though that we have to "sidetrack" opposite ways to get the flights we need.

Thanks for keeping us updated! My friend's cousin's just got engaged in KHI so there is a good chance I will be trying to do something similar...try to help them figure out how to get to KHI using points/miles!

That xkcd comic is a classic!

Did you use AA miles on Etihad or just Etihad miles. The reason I am asking is that you need much less AA miles to use on Etihad as compared to using Etihad miles for the same route. Did you call for this reservation?

AA miles. It came to 90K each way per person. You have to call to book anything using AA miles other than awards on AA/AS metal.

Pleasantly surprised to see AS awards bookable on aa.com. When did this start?