Pittsburgh to Kathmandu

[Cytraveler]

This must be the week for Nepal...

I plan to go to Kathmandu this summer in the early part of August for about 2 weeks (exact dates are flexible). 3 passengers; myself, husband and 15 yo daughter. We'd like to be on the same flight, but if absolutely necessary we could split. We would like to leave from Pittsburgh, but I could manage NYC or DC or Chicago. I am willing to do coach, and know that I will have to pay for some of the trip, due to insufficient miles, although I would love to have 1 or 2 of the seats be lie-flat business on the way over.

I've only recently started accumulating miles with bonuses, so I'm somewhat limited:

53,000 on AA, and should get another 53,000 in the next month = total 106,000 AA points
I could also get another 50 or 60,000 by the end of May
~66,000 points on UA in the next month, possibly more
I also could get another ~105,000 points in SPG by around the end of May

I'm thinking of using the AA points to book on Etihad one-way. If I'm understanding the AA charts correctly, it's 40k one-way on coach to go to India/subcontinent, which includes Nepal (currently it's 45k but it goes down with the new award chart), or 67,500 for business on new chart. So I would book one business, one coach using current AA points, and pay for one coach, or wait until May and try for all 3.

Then for coming back, I'm looking at Qatar.

Other ideas?

Also thoughts on the benefits of waiting, which might have increased fare $$ for the parts I have to pay and/or decreased award availability, but I'll have more points.

Also, my 19 yo daughter seems to have a long-term attachment to Nepal (she's going there in July for a college internship, and this will be her 5th trip there), so although this is our first trip, I don't think it will be our last. So I'm also looking for suggestions on types of points to target in the future for award to Nepal, not just using what I have now. I have 2 businesses, one of which has fairly significant spend, and then personal and husband credit cards (though I'm trying to keep my husband with a light touch for Chase purposes).

Thanks for any help.

 

[Cytraveler]

Oops: There's a typo - I wrote I would have ~66,000 points on UA, but that should have been UR - Ultimate Rewards

 

[dukerau]

Business class US-Middle East (which includes India and Nepal) is currently 67.5k AA and is going up to 70k. Not a big change, but could matter to you.

One thing to note is that if you're planning on paying cash for flights, make sure to check on one-way flight prices before planning on booking any of those. Also consider that if you're planning on booking 2 seats with miles and the 3rd with seats, the exact itinerary you book with miles could be far from the cheapest itinerary with cash.

You asked for ideas - in what respect? Interesting products? Ways to book as much as possible with miles? You certainly have more options than just Etihad and Qatar if that's what you're asking. But it sounds like you want to try out different airlines?

As is always true with award bookings, I think the most important aspect is left out here - availability. It's good to have an idea of what you'd like to do and how to do it most economically, but you'll need backup plans as availability probably won't allow you to get exactly what you want.

Sorry I'm not providing any direct advice, but hopefully there are some nuggets to think about. In terms of "best miles" for US-Nepal that may be outside traditional thinking, JAL is worth looking at. JAL is a oneworld member, so they partner with Qatar. They also have a non-alliance partnership with Emirates. Their award chart is distance based, but most reasonable itineraries PIT-KTM would be 60k round trip in economy or 100k in business. They have very generous stopover rules (I believe they allow 7! - not a typo) and on Qatar and Emirates fuel surcharges should be minimal, I think. The negative of JAL is the only transfer partner is SPG. But if you have significant real spend, you could amass SPG quickly.

Also, I wanted to note that AA and UA both partner with Jet Airways as a non-alliance partner. Jet flies YYZ-AMS-DEL (or BOM). That's one lesser-known way to use AA and UA miles to get on the same flight. Unfortunately AA miles can't get you a non-stop flight PIT-YYZ to connect to that Jet Airways flight, while UA can.

 

[Cytraveler]

Business class US-Middle East (which includes India and Nepal) is currently 67.5k AA and is going up to 70k. Not a big change, but could matter to you.

One thing to note is that if you're planning on paying cash for flights, make sure to check on one-way flight prices before planning on booking any of those. Also consider that if you're planning on booking 2 seats with miles and the 3rd with seats, the exact itinerary you book with miles could be far from the cheapest itinerary with cash.

You asked for ideas - in what respect? Interesting products? Ways to book as much as possible with miles? You certainly have more options than just Etihad and Qatar if that's what you're asking. But it sounds like you want to try out different airlines?

As is always true with award bookings, I think the most important aspect is left out here - availability. It's good to have an idea of what you'd like to do and how to do it most economically, but you'll need backup plans as availability probably won't allow you to get exactly what you want.

Sorry I'm not providing any direct advice, but hopefully there are some nuggets to think about. In terms of "best miles" for US-Nepal that may be outside traditional thinking, JAL is worth looking at. JAL is a oneworld member, so they partner with Qatar. They also have a non-alliance partnership with Emirates. Their award chart is distance based, but most reasonable itineraries PIT-KTM would be 60k round trip in economy or 100k in business. They have very generous stopover rules (I believe they allow 7! - not a typo) and on Qatar and Emirates fuel surcharges should be minimal, I think. The negative of JAL is the only transfer partner is SPG. But if you have significant real spend, you could amass SPG quickly.

Also, I wanted to note that AA and UA both partner with Jet Airways as a non-alliance partner. Jet flies YYZ-AMS-DEL (or BOM). That's one lesser-known way to use AA and UA miles to get on the same flight. Unfortunately AA miles can't get you a non-stop flight PIT-YYZ to connect to that Jet Airways flight, while UA can.

Thank you dukeru, that is helpful. As to trying out different airlines, no; I don't care about that in the least (I've only flown one international trip in my life, to St. Lucia, so "different" means any airline). I'm looking for ideas on how to book as much as I can with points. I would love to have one or 2 business seats, just because it's a long flight and I get migraines, but other than that, I'm not looking for luxury.

Good thoughts on the flights with award availability being not necessarily the cheapest flight; I will keep that in mind. I am concerned about award availability, and that getting worse as I wait to get points (I'm pretty new to using points to book, outside of Southwest, where it isn't an issue, so I'm not sure what to expect in that regard).

I will definitely check out JAL. So, you say the only transfer partner is SPG; I could get 100k by end of May I think. If they are partnered with Qatar, can I use AA to partner with Qatar, and thence to JAL, or is that too much partnering? fyi, my original post had a typo, and said UA, but it's actually UR that I have.

 

[dukerau]

I will definitely check out JAL. So, you say the only transfer partner is SPG; I could get 100k by end of May I think. If they are partnered with Qatar, can I use AA to partner with Qatar, and thence to JAL, or is that too much partnering? fyi, my original post had a typo, and said UA, but it's actually UR that I have.

The good thing about SPG transfers is when you transfer 20k SPG you get 25k airline miles (with a few exceptions like United). So 80k SPG = 100k JAL.

Each mileage currency can book flights on its own airline or its partners. This is not transferring or combining miles - it is using one mileage currency to book flights on partners. That's a distinction lost on travel hacking novices. So AA miles can book itineraries that include flights on AA, Qatar, JAL, Etihad, etc. JAL miles can book itineraries that include JAL, AA, Qatar, Emirates, etc. You can't combine miles even though they share most of their partners. You can use one mileage currency for one direction and another mileage currency for the other direction, though some airlines (like JAL) charge more for one-ways than 1/2 the price of round trip.

 

[Cytraveler]

Ah, yes, I'm trying to sort out the differences in transferring vs. booking. I know for using AA on Etihad, I need to call because I can't book directly from a website; is the same true for booking on JAL? But in the case of using SPG, I would transfer the points to JAL, for example (which I could not "undo", correct?), and then book from the JAL website? What you're bringing up about not being able to combine points is why I'm thinking I might be better off doing one-ways, but I'll look at cost in $$ and awards on JAL roundtrip vs. using one-ways on different airlines. Or, if I can find more than 1 award seat on a JAL flight, I could book one RT ticket using AA and another RT using SPG. Thanks for your answers and patience.

 

[dukerau]

Ah, yes, I'm trying to sort out the differences in transferring vs. booking. I know for using AA on Etihad, I need to call because I can't book directly from a website; is the same true for booking on JAL? But in the case of using SPG, I would transfer the points to JAL, for example (which I could not "undo", correct?), and then book from the JAL website? What you're bringing up about not being able to combine points is why I'm thinking I might be better off doing one-ways, but I'll look at cost in $$ and awards on JAL roundtrip vs. using one-ways on different airlines. Or, if I can find more than 1 award seat on a JAL flight, I could book one RT ticket using AA and another RT using SPG. Thanks for your answers and patience.

Yes, you have to call AA to book flights on Etihad or JA using AA miles.

If using JAL miles (via SPG transfer), you can book some things on JAL's website, but a lot requires calling in. Everything bookable by AA is bookable by JAL and vice versa (except on a partner they don't share like Etihad/Emirates). And you're correct, you can't undo a transfer from SPG to any airline. Also, unfortunately, SPG transfers are not instant.

 

[Cytraveler]

Just wanted to say thank you for all the advice. In the end I had enough AA miles from SPG and AA cards, and was able to book J for all 3 of us from PIT to KTM on Qatar, and on Etihad in Y on the way back.

We had a wonderful trip. We did some trekking in the foothills of the Annapurna (and I can recommend a great guide/tour company if anyone goes to Nepal for all levels of trekking). But best of all we spent time with my other daughter in Kathmandu and surrounding areas.

I've also gotten enough points to send her free to KTM last summer (she went before me) with a stopover in Germany on United, and then back home for Christmas. And then she goes to India for semester abroad.