pinniped

I have a trip coming up, North America to India R/T, business class. I have some latitude to choose carriers, provided my choice is price-competitive. I say "North America", because I'll probably take a positioning flight for any of these...it knocks off a grand or more on the total cost.

From doing a little bit of research, I've come up with these three options. Interesting in opinions as to which is best, or anything I'm overlooking...

1. Emirates
- Always wanted to fly it, but never have
- Opportunity to spend the better part of a day in Dubai
- Several A380 options
- Would yield AS low-tier status and 40-50k RDM, which I would have some use for in 2018 once the AA/AS partnership ends. I have some Hawaii travel planned in '18 on AS and PDX is one of my "regular" cities, 4-6 trips per year.

2. BA
- Seems the least interesting to me, ORD and LHR are airports I've flown through often, and BA J doesn't seem to be all that well-regarded compared to some others.
- No real stopover opportunities. I'd just book this one as "shortest duration".
- Would definitely qualify me for AA Plat for 2018. I'm usually a low-Gold type flier on AA, but do have a couple of international Y flights with family next year where Plat status would have value. If I *don't* fly BA for this trip, I would remain AA Gold next year.

3. A multi-carrier *A routing TPAC
- Would include a couple new airlines (for me), like Thai, Asiana, SQ, etc.
- One of the routings appeared to permit around a full day in BKK, which could be cool.
- Most options start with an A380 ex-LAX (Thai). Doing the TPAC piece on SQ tended to kick the total cost a bit out of range.
- Would probably credit to A3; not sure if this would yield Star Silver or not. This one holds the least value to me from a miles/status perspective, but the airlines and possible layover-daytrips are intriguing.

I don't see any compelling reason to fly Etihad or Air India. Both of those popped up in various search results, but neither are that appealing to me. Not really all that interested in Qatar either. Skyteam was noticeably absent from my search results, which does not bother me too much.

Thoughts? Any compelling options I'm overlooking?

Merlinrnr

I think from your choices Emirates is the best bet. BA business class is definitely subpar so I'd avoid them. Also your third option mentions Thai but they don't fly to LAX.

sbm12

When did TG return to LAX?

I sleep well on the BA Club seat if I can get a window rear-facing. That flight is simply utilitarian for me. But it works.

I don't love Dubai so spending extra time there is not a benefit IMO. The split of time long/short on board can be good or bad, depending on how well you sleep on planes.

And the extra stop on *A to go via BKK would be annoying to me.

pinniped

Hm. Possible I misread the TPAC options, I was doing some of that on my phone with Momondo and Kayak and could easily have some operators wrong. I was also doing some SFO searching so could be that...

There were some odd ones...LAX-ICN-BKK-HYD...that seemed to piece together a couple different airlines.

I'm noticing Emirates is substantially cheaper out of YYZ than any U.S. city. Is that common? I have no problem heading up to Toronto and even working a day from there prior to a flight...

CPRich

Each time I go I recheck the options, but I always end up back on the Emirates A380. 23 A or K

Duke787

I would go with EK.

TG doesn't fly to the US, the LAX - ICN - BKK - HYD routing is OZ A380 to ICN and then could be OZ or TG to BKK and then TG to HYD.

If you wanted to go over the Pacific, I would probably look to do either a one-stop on CX via HKG or the one-stop on SQ via SIN.

abaheti

Where do you need to end up in India? For example, mom only wants to land right in HYD, so the airlines/flights are limited and the business class seats can be subpar depending on the airline. I'd first try to avoid an intra-India connection and just land where you need to land, then look at the airline/seats/etc. If those don't look attractive, then consider connection options to your final spot. Of course, BOM and DEL will be pretty much any airline that flies to India. And if you need to connect, I personally prefer DEL to BOM just for airport ease.

Gardyloo

Depending on your price sensitivity and willingness to position yourself, maybe have a look at JL out of Vancouver? For travel in September (don't know your dates) I'm seeing fares under US$3K for YVR-xNRT-DEL with a 20 hr layover at Narita, enough time for a good sleep and a visit to the Naritasan temple complex ten minutes from the airport or airport hotels. 787s all the way.

travelmad478

+1 on that. While they're better than they used to be, domestic connections in India are a pain (just going through security can drive you nuts if you're not familiar with the process). I would definitely suggest flying straight to whatever your Indian destination is from Europe, Dubai or wherever.

pinniped

Yes - I went back and looked more closely, the ex-LAX bit is indeed operated by OZ. I guess it's ticketed by TG, so it was showing up with their icon in the search results.

CX and SQ both price a little high, but not by a lot.

HYD is the primary (and potentially only) destination. Might be a side trip to BOM. For now, I'm looking at options that go straight to HYD. Eliminating the Air India and Jet Airways search results *mostly* takes domestic segments out of the equation.

I agree that long layovers are *usually* annoying to me. Dubai is one of those things where I'll probably spend 1 day there just to see it in person and then never need to do it again. If we end up doing this trip several times in 2018, I'll probably fall into the "shortest duration" camp pretty quickly, and that seems to be BA.

BA's primary allure for this trip is bumping up to AA Plat. Plus, if I reposition (oddly, to LAX of all places), it gets down to the $3.5k R/T range. I guess I need to decide for myself whether better future rewards outweigh a better product and possible side trip on this journey...

tomcat007

Air Canada has a non stop 787 from YYZ - DEL which is pretty good in business

abaheti

If HYD is your target, I've been through this a lot out of LAX. Again, highly recommend landing right there vs connecting unless you want to stop in DEL to see sights or go to the Taj Mahal or something. I recommend Etihad. Fast (short connections, like 90-120 minutes) and if you pay attention to the plane you can get lie flat seats on both legs. Competitive pricing. Emirates is another option. The leg from BKK-HYD on Thai isn't a great business product (well it wasn't when I did it). And man the layover in SIN is LONG unless you want to check out the town and the ticket is expensive (this is for me going out of LAX).

If you want to see BOM, consider flying out of BOM for the return, so you could take a domestic flight HYD-BOM, see the town for a few days, then go for your international departure. Keep in mind that, for example, in DEL, you need to switch terminals going from international to domestic (or just spend the night and go back to the right place in the morning).

Whizkid

in BOM & DEL, all the Full service carriers have moved to a single / modern Terminal where internal and domestic operations are. So if your domestic connection is in Air India, Jet Airways or Vistara (SQ Subsidiary), you should not worry about connecting within India.

Also, I find the security procedure to be less intrusive compared to EU/USA.

Antonio8069

My recommend is SQ via SIN. Lie flat seating & you can spend your transit time in SIN on a complimentary city tour prior to your Silk Air flight.

pinniped

Thanks for all of the thoughts.

I ended up booking EK. I have seat 23A both ways (to/from DXB) and 777's directly into/out of HYD. I've already been to North India, seen the Taj and Delhi, etc. Really didn't want to introduce a domestic flight or a few hours sitting in DEL. I've spent time in that airport at strange hours of the night: it's not that appealing.

Reasonable SIN routings were about $2k higher. I decided that the Asiana/Thai routing was just *too* convoluted and not really worth it.

Almost every BA review I've read is somewhere between "okay" and dreadful for business class. I suppose if I end up doing this trip regularly, I'll come to appreciate fast connections and won't care about soft product, so will consider BA then.

Thanks again!