Hello flyers and talkers!

I am planning a trip to India for Oct of this year, and I have enough *A miles to get there and back. But, I've never tried to use miles for international travel before, and I don't really know where to start. Just from looking at flights it appears I can take United or USAir from USA to Germany and then Lufthansa from Germany to Delhi. Can I book the flights through the Star Alliance website? should I call a *A rep, or maybe a rep from USAir or United?

I dunno, but I'm hoping you do. Thank you.

chris

You don't have *A miles. You have miles with a *A carrier. Or carriers. Call the carrier you have miles with to book. Or check that carriers website to see if they offer online booking.

Oh, how many miles do you have and with which carrier/s? Where are you starting from and what is your ultimate destination?

Right. I have 185k miles with United. I hope to leave from Charlotte (CLT) or Greensboro (GSO). I could leave from Raleigh (RDU) if I need to. I am flying into Delhi.

so my best bet is to book through United, then? when I try that online, I find nothing available. Would I perhaps have better luck on the phone?

thank you

IIRC you should have no problem booking this on UA. (Not a UA flyer myself.)

Read through some of the threads on UA. There are some good threads on various options.

Other options you can consider are UA non-stop from Newark to Delhi, or European connections Zurich to Delhi (with Swiss), Vienna to Delhi (with Austrian) or Istanbul to Delhi (with Turkish).

In other words, there are lots of potential routes. Now it's just a matter to see which ones have availability for your dates.

What dates are you looking at? I've found availability (just used some random days) on various routes out of GSO including the 748 on LH via IAD and FRA, or westbound connecting onto NH in ORD.

not sure yet exactly, but somewhere in the 15th - 22nd range. I will know dates for certain in 2-3 days.

For a round trip saver award, you'll need 120,000 in business or 160,000 in first which you have. Eastbound is probably more "normal" for this trip but as others have said, you have lots of options including Air Canada, US Airways and SAS for the transatlantic leg in addition to those already mentioned by vroom and others. the least complicated would be US to Frankfurt or LH to Munich followed by LH to Delhi or UA/US to EWR and then UA to Delhi (2 legs). If you add a third flight, then there are usually even more options: from North Carolina to any North American gateway, tons of carries over the Atlantic, and then the last leg from Europe to India.

One of the things that you may need to do is wait a bit. Star Alliance award availability is best far out or close in. I tried a search from both CLT and GSO for the week of Oct 15-22 and only found one flight with availability in first or biz (CLT-IAH-PEK-DEL). But for next week there are nine flights available on LH, Swiss and others. So you may have to wait to book close in if you're willing to take the risk. Part of the problem is the domestic connection. From ORD that week I also see Austrian via Vienna, Asiana via Seoul and ANA via Tokyo but no good connections from NC to Chicago.