I posted this message couple of days ago in AMEX MR forum but did not get much response there, hence posting it here now. Hopefully I will get some pointers or advice -

Looking for 3 award tickets from CMH - DEL, depart ~ 11/16, return ~12/0, dates flexible by +/- 2 days, want to minimize taxes/surcharges

I have ~110 UA miles, ~110k AA, ~250k Amex MR plus some loose change in other accounts

Option 1 - UA donot charge taxes/surcharges anymore on award redemption. I need to figure out best way to use MR towards UA standard redemption (no Saver awards on UA site for entire Nov for these cities)

Option 2 - AA shows some options in combination with BA however taxes are high. Is there a way to reduce/avoid these charges?

Any other options ?

Try to fly CMH to HEL and HEL to DEL by AA and Finnair I have done it costs 90 K per person and taxes are under $ 100 per ticket

Have you searched on Aeroplan also?

Also, have you tried searching from ORD and/or EWR for possible multi-stop connections?

You can use AMEX points to redeem on US Airways, by transfering to Aeroplan and then from Aeroplan to US Air through points.com. The rate is something like 1/.8 so it would be about 150k AMEX for a business class ticket to DEL. Of course, US Airways has basically the same availability as UA.

Really quite simple to plan this trip. There should be all kinds of NH, OZ, UA availability TPAC and then connecting to DEL. There are 3 seats open ORD-NRT in business on the 17th. The NRT-DEL NH flight is also wide open, so the connections are simple. Search it segment by segment and you will have success

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

AA has many airline partners whose award-seat availability cannot be checked at aa.com. Several of these serve DEL, so a call to AA would be in order. In addition, at that time of year, you can get a one-way to India for only 40K AA miles, if you connect or stop over somewhere in Europe. As long as you avoid BA and IB, there will be no surcharges for redeeming AA miles.

Both AA and UA offer one-way awards.

OP doesn't have enough MR + UA to do 3 tickets in J on *A.

OP - if you want to fly Economy and have any other international trips planned, I would NOT use miles to India as economy redemptions to India are generally some of the worst redemptions. Buying tickets will cost $1,422 per person on the dates you prefer - use ITA Matrix to price it out. At best, you'll get 1.35 cents/mile when you include oppotunity cost and taxes/fees.

MR transfer partners AC and NH will hit you with YQ (fuel surcharges). Transferring to US Airways via the route suggested will not yield enough miles for business class redemptions though will give you enough for two economy redemptions.

Finding 3 economy redemptions on the same flights to DEL will be very hard. If you see availability on UA, then go ahead and book one via UA (80K roundtrip) and then get the other two via US Airways but you'll have to move fast so availability doesn't disappear.

For AA, you don't have enough for even 3 one-ways (45K miles each unless you transit via Europe which would be 40K miles each). Going through HEL on AY involves a very long stopover anyway. You don't want to fly via BA to avoid YQ and APD and availability on EY via AUH or RJ via AMM is not that great. Don't even waste your time on a GF redemption as that would require 3 stops between CMH and DEL. You will have to call for availability. Avail on 9W via BRU is also pathetic.

Sorry for the bad news.

Is it possible to book this ticket through BA Avios and still avoid the surcharges? or can it be done only through AA? I realize there is a 35% bonus for MR to Avios transfer these days.

Thanks!

^ Avios without surcharges would need availability on Royal Jordanian. Or maybe Malaysian.

The surcharges are BA-levied for the BA flight segment LHR-India so booking through Avios points on BA will not avoid the fees.

To avoid fly RJ via AMM, Avios will cost:

CMH - ORD/JFK: 4,500 Avios each leg per person = 27,000 Avios
ORD/JFK - AMM: 30,000 Avios each per leg per person = 180,000 Avios
AMM - DEL: 12,500 Avios each per leg per person = 75,000 Avios

Total: 282,000 Avios = 209,000 MR transferred (have to do 1K increments)
***If you just go one way, it's 141,000 Avios (105,000 MR transferred).

So yes, you have have enough MR to get enough Avios to pull this off. Go to BA's Executive Club website and search for availability. My experience with RJ availability to DEL is that it's quite challenging mainly due to the AMM - DEL sector.

Your best bet is to fly partner airlines using United miles. As long as you avoid UK, your taxes should be mini. use any other airlines but BA...If you have enough miles between UA and AMEX, buy business class, I just came back from India trip using miles for business class. (regular 80K per ticket, business 120K)