Transfer in Kuwait and Muscat?
 

I am travelling from MSP to Bangalore, India in a couple of weeks. There are two itineraries that are available on nwa.com: MSP-AMS-BOM-BLR and MSP-AMS-KWI-MCT-BLR. They are /approximately/ the same price, same total travel time and same miles.

The first is all NW flights and the second is all KLM with the last leg from MCT-BLR on "Oman Aviation 811".

Questions:

1. Would I get miles for the segment on the Oman Aviation 811? I have never heard of it and it is not on the worldperks list of partner airlines. But it is on an nwa.com flight so maybe it really is a partner?

2. Has anyone ever flown the second itinerary though Kuwait and Muscat? I have flown through Mumbai before and I'd really rather not layover there for 4 hours. It would be another connection for the KWI-MCT itinerary which would be bad on one hand that it could be delayed, but good that I could get out and stretch, etc. I think it would be fun to go through another place too and can it really get much worse than transferring in Mumbai?

I'm arriving the day before I really need to be there so I'm not worried about any delays.

You will not earn miles for the Oman flight. So if miles is what you're after then go with the all NW/KL itinerary.

-RM