sharkshooter

In January I plan to go to Colombo, Sri Lanka for a couple weeks, leaving from Phoenix, AZ. What is the best routing I should look for? Which Star Alliance airlines should I try to get on? What class fare should I try to convince my wife is essential?

Note: Air Canada Aeroplan is my main program, as I normally live in Canada, but I currently have no status.

Unterwegs

Did you try google flights? The list all the options you have . You can limit your search to Star. First class is nice but not many airlines are offering it, business class is also survivable.

Lots of options since you can go east or west. Look at total travel time and number of stops.

malmostoso

AC allows crediting from CX as well, so it's not necessarily going to be a *A only trip. If you want to stick to *A though, I think the best you can do is either TK or SQ. Other options might be possible, but will probably require stupidly long travel times. Note that AC will sell you a ticket to CMB on a codeshare with UL.

dvs7310

Loads of *A airlines fly into CMB, so lots of options. Aside from the already mentioned SQ and TK, off the top of my head there is also CA, AI, TG. According to Wikipedia also LO and OS fly there seasonally.

CA offers really competitive business class fares from some markets, look at LAX for example. It's not the best overall C product in the world by a long shot, but it's sometimes half the price and at least is a flat bed to sleep on.

sharkshooter

Thanks, everyone. You have given me some great ideas.

sooge_sj

I wouldn’t fly CA to CMB from the USA, unless you have a multiple entry Chinese visa. The only CA flight to CMB is from CTU and there are no direct CA flights to CTU from the USA. Which means you have to fly CA from the USA to another Chinese airport like PEK, and then take a domestic flight from PEK to CTU. China allows transit without visa (TWOV) for Canadian citizens, but I am not sure if it would allow something like LAX-PEK-CTU-CMB. You might want to check the following thread, if you want to fly CA:
China 24, 72, and 144 hour Transit Without Visa ("TWOV") rules master thread

You don’t mention it, but I assume you are paying for these tickets and not using miles for them. I am not sure what your budget is, but I would suggest that you look at flying premium economy from LAX on SQ. I am originally from Sri Lanka, but have been in the SF bay area for the past 30 years and I go back to CMB every December. Most years I have used my UA miles to get a business class ticket, but I have also bought tickets to fly to CMB and found that premium economy on SQ is a pretty good deal. I looked at the SQ website, and flights from LAX to CMB on premium economy in mid Jan is around $2000 and from SFO it is about $200~$300 more.

sharkshooter

Thanks for the additional advice.

Yes, I am paying cash for my ticket. My wife is travelling for work, and gets business class - not sure I can afford that.