Trip Planning

[Hardeep Rekhi]

Hi all,

My family (total 3 people) are planning a trip from Seattle to Delhi in December (around the 22+/-3) and return in early January. I want to go Business class using my Ultimate Reward Points. I've read some blogs about planning such a trip and am actively looking for availability. I want to return using AA miles.

I really have a few questions:

1) I plan to fly there using UR points and back using AA miles. My AA Miles have not posted yet (I need another bonus to get all my miles). Should I wait until I have all miles (both there and back) to book. Is there a risk to booking my flight there and worrying about my flight back in a month?

2) What are the best tools to plan such a trip. There are so many route combinations that it seems hard to sort through them all. I've used Award Nexus. Does it come up with all routes?

3) Is it too late to try to plan this trip? In your experience, is availability too limited already?

Finally, if anyone has any general tips while I take this process on let me know. I was up until 3:00AM trying to plan this.

 

[Matt]

1) I plan to fly there using UR points and back using AA miles. My AA Miles have not posted yet (I need another bonus to get all my miles). Should I wait until I have all miles (both there and back) to book. Is there a risk to booking my flight there and worrying about my flight back in a month?

Yes, there is a risk that you book outbound and you can't find space coming back. However the greater risk that your outbound space vanishes when you wait for the full trip to appear. I frequently book half trips and 'figure it out'.

2) What are the best tools to plan such a trip. There are so many route combinations that it seems hard to sort through them all. I've used Award Nexus. Does it come up with all routes?

I like to play with airline route mapper (windows based) and there is a web based one called http://www.flightconnections.com/ these are both free which is nice...


3) Is it too late to try to plan this trip? In your experience, is availability too limited already?

I'm not sure about your particular destination and time of year, but generally speaking it is not too late. Finding coach will be easier than biz though.

 

[Zoe]

I live in Seattle and just returned from a trip to India. We flew ANA business from Sea to NRT to Del, w/ UR points before the devaluation. For departure, we had a 5 day layover in Tokyo, then YVR to SEA. For AA miles, I would try using JAL and check routes via Vancouver, SF and LA.

 

[Deltahater]

In the worst case you don't get to use miles on the return. You will either pay cash for a one way home or cancel the entire trip and pay a redeposit fee for each ticket, assuming you have no status on UA since you earned the miles with UR

 

[RRD]

I recently (a month ago) booked Etihad Business using AA miles for return from Bombay in the first week of Jan.

 

[n3wman]

And how much's it?