# Frequent flier award to India



## Judy (Dec 6, 2009)

I'm trying to figure out how best to score frequent flier award seats from Florida to Mumbai.  They should become available by the end of this month.  Most of our miles are on Delta, but the research I've been able to do at delta.com (using different, already available dates) seems to indicate that the cost in mileage would be at least 50% higher than their published award charts, and we don't have enough miles for those inflated prices.  We also have some miles on United, American and Continental.  For all of you experienced travelers, can you tell me which airlines are likely to have decent availability at reasonable prices (in miles)?  Can you share techniques for success?
Please don't tell me to ask on Flier Talk.  Since I'm not a Titanium level frequent flier, those people consider me a "frequent buyer" not worthy of help


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## DeniseM (Dec 6, 2009)

Judy, if you need more miles, consider applying for a British Airways VISA for 50K miles.  You and your spouse can each apply for separate cards.  Then, if you charge $2,000 on each card over the next 3 mos., you will each earn another 50K miles.  Originally, this offer was supposed to be over Nov. 30th, but people are still applying and being accepted.

CLICK HERE FOR ALL THE DETAILS


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## Pat H (Dec 6, 2009)

When you say you have "some" miles on AA, UA & CO do you mean you have enough miles for tickets or just a smaller amount? You can use DL miles on NW and other partners but you will probably have to call to book tickets thru DL.


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## Judy (Dec 6, 2009)

Pat H said:


> When you say you have "some" miles on AA, UA & CO do you mean you have enough miles for tickets or just a smaller amount?


We have enough miles for a "saver" coach award for one or both of us on any one of these airlines.  "Anytime" awards or business class would be unobtainable.
Delta seems to be impossible.  Although, according to their charts, we have enough miles for both of us for a "medium" level award, the miles prices are coming up much higher.  I haven't been able to discover how they figure them.


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## DeniseM (Dec 6, 2009)

Judy - how far out is it from your trip?


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## Judy (Dec 6, 2009)

We want to arrive in Goa via Mumbai on October 30, 2010 and leave Mumbai to return to Florida on November 26, 2010.  We have a timeshare exchange at the Royal Goan Beach Club at Monterio for one week beginning October 30, followed by a tour of India that begins and ends in Mumbai.


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## Jimster (Dec 6, 2009)

*Delta*

Delta is the worst as far as i am concerned in trying to get a "reasonable" ff ticket.  They will give you a ticket but you will have to pay a large amount of points.  That is because they inflated their point distribution so much that they have to charge more.   Sure it is easy to get Delta miles but then they want a large number to book a ticket.  This is why I am not a Delta fan.  OTOH flying to India in economy doesn't sound very exciting at all.  If I were you, I'd take advantage of some CC offers (like the B.A. offer or the Virgin Atlantic offer) to try and get my mileage sufficient for a business class ticket.  The other option is to fly UA which has economy plus.  Even if you still have to get a saver ticket, you can buy up to economy plus.  Economy plus gives you 5' more of legroom.  That may not sound like much but on a trip to India it would be an enormous improvement.


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## RoshiGuy (Dec 7, 2009)

Judy said:


> We have enough miles for a "saver" coach award for one or both of us on any one of these airlines.  "Anytime" awards or business class would be unobtainable.
> Delta seems to be impossible.  Although, according to their charts, we have enough miles for both of us for a "medium" level award, the miles prices are coming up much higher.  I haven't been able to discover how they figure them.



I've been able to book FF tickets on CO, AA and UA to India. Delta, as you've already found out, doesn't seem to have any availability for their lowest awards. If Florida to India is not available you could look into a New York (JFK; Newark) departure; often different gateway cities will have better availability, and separately book the FL-NYC ticket. If you have miles on both CO and UA I'd suggest exploring getting 2 business class RT awards; this costs only 30000 miles more than the economy ticket. Since UA/CO are in the same airline alliance you could use CO miles for one BC ticket and UA miles for the other.


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## Judy (Dec 7, 2009)

RoshiGuy said:


> Delta, as you've already found out, doesn't seem to have any availability for their lowest awards.


It's worse than that.  I just searched MLB to BOM for Oct 2 with a return Oct 30 (not my dates - they're not available yet).  Medium tier coach availability came up for 190,000 miles.  Delta award chart states the cost should be 130,000.  It occurred to me that the problem might be a "high" tier for one of the segments.  Not so.  The return segment from BOM to ATL is "medium tier", but every other segment is "low tier". What is this bait and switch?   

I will further investigate CO and UAL.  I guess the reason I have so many miles on Delta is that I can never use them (that and the NWA merger).  Thank you for the information.


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## x3 skier (Dec 7, 2009)

Judy said:


> It's worse than that.  I just searched MLB to BOM for Oct 2 with a return Oct 30 (not my dates - they're not available yet).  Medium tier coach availability came up for 190,000 miles.  Delta award chart states the cost should be 130,000.  It occurred to me that the problem might be a "high" tier for one of the segments.  Not so.  The return segment from BOM to ATL is "medium tier", but every other segment is "low tier". What is this bait and switch?
> 
> I will further investigate CO and UAL.  I guess the reason I have so many miles on Delta is that I can never use them (that and the NWA merger).  Thank you for the information.



The award calendar on Delta.Dumb is notoriously bad for the actually availability. Give them a call and you will likely get more accurate info. May not be good news when you inquire but it is better to talk direct than rely on the Award Calendar which can give completely fouled up info on availability. 

Cheers


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## Twinkstarr (Dec 7, 2009)

Judy,

I agree with calling in with Delta. NWA Worldperks used to be easier to use. 

Also see about using miles on the Skymiles partners. I know Air France and KLM might have better options. (I know for me out of Detroit heading to Europe(non-London/Paris etc cities) I can get better connections and prices with AF and KLM than Delta.


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## sjuhawk_jd (Dec 7, 2009)

what dates are you considering for your travel?

If you are considering Dec 15 to January 10th or so, this is super peak time to travel to india and noway you will find anything in coach even when the "theoretical" seats become available. 

Award travel to India in coach is not a good use of your miles anyway. If you are traveling off-peak, you can get RT tickets for around $1100 from most big cities (Newark, Houston, New York, LA, etc). If you are travelling peak time (such as winter break), seats will not be available unless you are willing to put up with ridiculous connections, layovers, etc.


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## Twinkstarr (Dec 8, 2009)

sjuhawk_jd said:


> what dates are you considering for your travel?
> 
> If you are considering Dec 15 to January 10th or so, this is super peak time to travel to india and noway you will find anything in coach even when the "theoretical" seats become available.
> 
> Award travel to India in coach is not a good use of your miles anyway. If you are traveling off-peak, you can get RT tickets for around $1100 from most big cities (Newark, Houston, New York, LA, etc). If you are travelling peak time (such as winter break), seats will not be available unless you are willing to put up with ridiculous connections, layovers, etc.



Judy's going end of October-end of November. For a 30 day trip in October, Kayak was showing around $1400 out of Miami via I think AF, with not bad layovers.


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## sjuhawk_jd (Dec 8, 2009)

Twinkstarr said:


> Judy's going end of October-end of November. For a 30 day trip in October, Kayak was showing around $1400 out of Miami via I think AF, with not bad layovers.



Miami not being a big hub for any major airline that flies to India, airfare will be higher that if flying out of Houston, Newark, etc. 

RT (direct flight, non stop) from Newark to New delhi on those dates may be available via continental for around $900. If you can find cheap connection to Newark (from Miami), then this is the way to go. Booking about 6 months in advance is the best time to book. Too early, the fares are higher. Too late, the fares are higher.


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## Twinkstarr (Dec 9, 2009)

sjuhawk_jd said:


> Miami not being a big hub for any major airline that flies to India, airfare will be higher that if flying out of Houston, Newark, etc.
> 
> RT (direct flight, non stop) from Newark to New delhi on those dates may be available via continental for around $900. If you can find cheap connection to Newark (from Miami), then this is the way to go. Booking about 6 months in advance is the best time to book. Too early, the fares are higher. Too late, the fares are higher.



I think the OP was looking to fly out of Melbourne, FL, her home airport. 
(I can imagine that would be like me looking for good prices or use of FF out of Toledo, OH  ).


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## x3 skier (Dec 9, 2009)

If you want to do some more exploring, you could get FF tickets to London (or somewhere else in Europe) and continue to India via a low cost travel agent like http://www.lowcostholidays.com/ . Lots of Brits use this agency which has some really cheap arrangements. 

Cheers


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## dive-in (Dec 9, 2009)

Many airlines are replacing larger jets, 737's and MD80's, with regional jets.  That means the number of available FF seats between a regional airport and the hub goes down dramatically.  

I checked the MLB airport website and it looks like Delta is your only option with US Air adding flights in 2010.  Both those airlines are notoriously bad about FF seat availability.  

I second the recommendation about paying to get to Newark or JFK.  I would look into driving the hour to Orlando and trying to get a flight through Newark on Continental.  Looks like you can also do Delta/Air India through JFK or Lufthansa through Frankfurt.  All three options are one connection.  

Good luck.


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## Judy (Dec 9, 2009)

Twinkstarr said:


> I think the OP was looking to fly out of Melbourne, FL, her home airport.


Melbourne would be my first choice for the convenience and savings on car/motel travel costs. Another advantage of MLB should be that Delta flies out of there. Delta is the only airline where we have enough ff miles to pay for business class tickets :hysterical:  

We're not locked into MLB though.  We sometimes drive to Orlando, Miami, or Tampa if the deals from those airports are good enough to offset the inconvenience and extra travel costs. At this point we'd consider any airport in Florida.  

As for booking separately to Newark, JFK, London, etc, the deal would have to be good enough to offset potential logistical nightmares and extra luggage charges. All good suggestions though, I'll look into those possibilities.  Thank you.


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