First post here, though Ive been a lurker for years. I am headed to Chennai in a couple of weeks and I know I cant get directly to MAA on delta/skyteam. Any suggestions on best route using skyteam partners that gets me close or at least convenient? I am GM on delta and at 40K so far this year, so wanting to make sure I get majority of mile on skyteam.

I think the best you can do is to fly to BLR, which is served by AF. From there, you may be able to take a train (not sure), or you can take Kingfisher, Jet, or a couple of other Indian airlines. I don't know about BLR, but at BOM and DEL, you need to take a bus to transfer between domestic & international terminals, so be sure to check and factor that in if necessary.

KLM.com gives a routing from US of XXX-AMS-BOM-MAA, with the last leg on Kingfisher. If you have flexibility in timing, prices go down a lot from mid-September onwards. From JFK, as an example, early September prices are really high ($4000+), dropping down to around $1200 in mid to late September or October.

You'll get Delta miles flying both IT and 9W, but you won't get MQMs. So I'd either fly DL to BOM or AF to BLR to maximize MQMs and then fly IT/9W to MAA to get some miles.

Thanks for the replies, I'm now looking into a train from BLR to chennai, though I must admit I would be a little nervous with 4 hours on a train (first time in India). I will have a look at AF routing as well.

Everything you ever wanted to know about India trains as a newbie is here. The trains are a reasonable way of getting around, but if you're not actually planning to stop in BLR I'd just try to fly into MAA to avoid the hassles (and there will be hassles) of ground transfers.

I'd personally go with 9W over IT, but that's because IT canceled a flight without bothering to notify us. First time I'd ever bought a walk up ticket (on 9W -- it was actually slightly cheaper due to currency fluctuation!)

I was in Chennai last January for business and will be there again in February. We started in northern India and just got a domestic Jet Airways flight to MAA.

On the way home, I Kingfisher MAA-BLR, then caught Air France BLR-CDG-MSP-MSN. It worked out really well.

Just make sure you are not on the last MAA-BLR flight of the evening, so if a flight gets cancelled, you don't have a disaster (esp with Kingfisher, though we used them several times to get around southern India on the ATR72s, and they were reliable for us).

Since we had 7 hours to pass, we went to the Royal Orchid Resort and Convention Centre, maybe 15min taxi ride from the airport, and caught a nap, a shower, and a nice dinner, before heading back to BLR for our flight home.

Actually you can directly to MAA 1-stop from the following US cities on Skyteam:

LAX/IAD/JFK directly to MAA on SU via SVO (you could also use DL out of ATL-SVO as well).

This more than likely will require a visa as connections at SVO are anything but simple or convenient from my understanding, however the OP asked for direct service to MAA and this is available.

120k in J w/ caviar to boot.

Thanks again all, this is why flyertalk is awesome! SVO is doubtful but interesting all the same. It looks like my best bet is BLR or BOM them hopping on a domestic rather than a train . I will post my final route when I have it. My main concern is coordinating the connection when I reach India whatever the destination will be. It looks like I get in late no matter where I go. I am headed out of MCI though obviously that matters little when it comes to connections.

thanks again folks, you have all been more than helpful.

My connection fears are abated to a certain point thanks to the royal orchid comment. Basically I am trying to keep this as simple as possible. I would possibly arriving into BLR at 10:25 PM, make it through customs and spend a night at Royal Orchid, take a SIMPLE flight to on kingfisher to MAA at 7, 8, 9, or 10am. This seems like a reasonable solution. Thanks!

Since you already decided on a plan this probably will not matter. You can also go TPAC on Malaysian airlines to Kualalumpur and there are direct flights to MAA from there. Also the train from BLR to MAA takes lot more than 4 hours. Dont know about it now but 15 yrs back I remember it took almost 12 hours. If you fly to BOM, you get in around 11PM and typically you have 3AM flights to other major cities and that 4 hours is a good time to get out of immigration/customs and getting to the domestic airport terminal.

In theory you are right about not getting MQMs on IT

No MQM on MH, however.

Finally got it set, MCI->DTW->AMS->BOM->MAA and the same going back. Going jet India from BOM->MAA. Only concern now is I just noticed I only have an hour in AMS to catch my flight to BOM. I've been through AMS before but never that close of a connection. Do I stand a chance?

As long as your inbound is on-time and you don't dawdle or stop to get food, 1 hour is fine in AMS. I've made 1 hour connections in both FRA & LHR, both of which are much bigger and require the same security re-clearance.