India Travel
 

Need suggestions -

I travel to India twice a year on an average. Once for work and once on a personal visit. I generally fly out of IAD. I generally fly to Bombay or Bangalore for work and to Ahmedabad (AMD) for the personal visit. Qatar seems like a good option to travel to AMD. Can anyone suggest strategies to maximize miles for personal travel. Also can miles accrued on StarAlliance/OneWorld/etc be used to travel on Qatar Airways?

Thanks for the help.

there has been some discussion of this on the United forum. You'll probably have more luck there. Last I checked, while you can get miles on Qatar, it was difficult to use miles on Qatar.

My own experience on Star Alliance --and flying business class--not coach was that the simplest choice to earn or redeem was some combination of United, Swiss, Austrian and Lufthansa. But that was last October

one of the web pages on the united forum is

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=11426

but there are several others

As far as I know Qatari miles are useless. Flying to AMD on Singapore Airlines probably (check S/pore airlines website) gives you a choice to accrue miles on US based Star Alliance partners (United) which are easier to use. S/pore flies from LAX to AMD. Don't know about its connection from IAD.

1. On which Airline (not any alliance) do you normally accrue miles?
2. Are you traveling coach or business class?
3. What is your normal itinerary?
4. Do you have to fly out from IAD or can you transit from NYC?
5. Do you go AMD and return back to BLR or BOM/
6. Are you interested in just more miles or lowest fare or best connection?

I can suggest alternatives based on your replies.

Take care.

I've booked a similar journey for business in July, with an IAD-FRA-DEL itinerary on UA-LH, with domestic connections on Jet Airways / Kingfisher for the short DEL-AMD segment.

I looked at this a lot of different ways and getting to AMD on *A carriers seemed to be a difficult proposition. Next best alternative was a IAD-DXB on UA with the AMD segment on Emirates. This saves a connection but the return had a 13 hour layover in DXB.

Emirates offer a great FFP Program, skywards, I have never had any difficulties upgrading or booking award seats, its easy to earn miles and they usually have offers for double/tripple miles and frequent half price miles for using them too.

They have many connections from DXB to all major Indian cities, there service between USA and DXB is ok, not frequent, but their serviecs from DXB-India is very often (6 flights a day to BOM etc.

If you can get the connection, then go thought YYZ or JFK. YYZ-DXB is on the new A380 and there is talk of it coming back on the JFK route come November.

1) Generally accrue miles on UA and AA
2) Business for work, coach for personal
3) IAD-FRA-BOM or IAD-DOH-AMD depending on business visit or personal
4) I can transit to NYC but would rather avoid the extra hop
5) generally fly out of AMD
6) More miles and more free personal trips (not at the expense of convenience though).

Suggestions:
1. Stick with UA or AA, not both. Then you can build status and more mile on one airline, instead of splitting up into two.
2. You can do IAD-BOM on EK, LH, QR
Then surface to AMD
And if you are taking EK or QR, then you can go out from AMD
instead of transiting in BOM
3. CO will be joining Star Alliance soon and you can accrue miles on UA.
Their NON-stop EWR_BOM is very good. They also interline AI, so you
can do domestic India legs at no-cost or a marginal extra cost,
depending on the purchased class of ticket.
4. You can also do USA to India on AI. Their NON-STOP business class is
extremely good. AI will also be joining Star Alliance soon and you will be
able to accrue miles on UA. AI also periodically runs BOGO schemes. So
if you are travelling with a companion then the total cost can be
brought down significantly.

Hope this helps. Take care.

If you think you can achieve 50,000 miles in one year, then I would suggest stick with UA mileage plus and fly a mix of UA/LH to India.

a) You would earn 2X miles across the Atlantic regardless of whether it is on UA or LH aircraft, and of course LH miles go towards status. I don't think BA gives such a benefit to an AA mileage holder.
b) Redeeming a free ticket to India using UA is cost effective versus other programs. For example, only 80,000 miles in coach (will be on a mix of UA, LH or even perhaps AC).
c) Don't let intra-india travel affect your decision on whom to take for the big flights...not enough miles to be a factor.
d) Jet airways flights earn miles on United Mileage Plus.

I wouldn't recommend AI or Emirates if your motive is to gain lots of useful miles as quickly as possible.

Re. Qatar, you seem to be evaluating an option that avoids connecting within India. Personally, I'd suffer the connection within India and focus on maximizing accumulation on the long flights. YMMV.