Introduction: A Downgraded Adventure To Oman

Ben, what are your thoughts on trying the new AI a350? I tried it from Delhi to Chennai, and the new first class is amazing. Highly recommend.

When they downgraded you from first to business, which fare bucket did they change it to - award or potentially revenue business class?

Ben, How do you find these complex routings? Specifically, did the four segment Miami to Muscat route show up when you searched on the Aeroplan site, or did you have to construct it another way? If the former, what search parameters did you use? Thanks.

@ Overdrive_Type -- I have plans to fly it, but I'm going to wait until the plane starts operating international flights around the middle of the year, with the new soft product. Happy to hear you had a great experience!

@ Peter -- I hadn't actually thought of that until now. I got rebooked in the "D" fare class, and I believe "W" is the standard Oman Air business class award fare class. That being said, there would be limited exciting opportunities in terms of where to credit the flight to anyway.

@ Ted -- I do a lot of point-to-point searched. In this case, I found the Miami to Zurich routing and then separately the Zurich to Muscat routing, all on Air Canada's website. Then I called to book the entire thing as one itinerary, since such a complex routing won't automatically show up online.

Would you say point-to-point searching is the right call for most international award tickets that involve a connection? Award tickets seem pretty limited for a lot of destinations that aren't a direct flight (eg IAD to FRA). Better luck/availability that way?

Thanks for the quick response.
A follow-up question if you don’t mind: when you found each half of the trip (Miami to Zurich and Zurich to Muscat) what was the cost in miles? Did the total come to 110k or more, and if more, how did you get the reduction for combining them?

@ Ted -- When searching them individually, the price was 70K for MIA-YUL-ZRH and 45K for ZRH-MXP-MCT, so that would have been 115K total. However, when booked as a single award it instead priced out at 110K, based on the Aeroplan award chart.

@ S -- Yes and no. In general I break up complex itineraries into chunks to find the best availability. However, sometimes you don't want to go all the way point-to-point, since some carriers use married segment logic. In other words, Lufthansa might not have award space if you just book IAD-FRA, but might have availability if you book IAD-FRA-ZRH, for example. So the right answer is somewhere in the middle, usually.

Always like your reviews, but you must be special with obtaining these low redemptions. I've been trying dozens of premium routes with AA, AC, AV, and UA programs for intended trips over the next 3-9 months. I haven't found a single J route for less than 200K, but many routes with zero availability. Safe travels!

Wasn’t there something about aeroplan giving customers 75% of their miles back in the event of a downgrade?

How do you afford this?

BTW I stayed at the FRA Marriott a couple weeks ago and the Club M Lounge is now serving breakfast including an omlet bar. pretty nice. Best part for me is the outdoor terrace for fresh air other than the walk to the FCT 😉

Not that different from when that lounge was the Sheraton Towers, actually.

That Helvetic cabin looks very sleek - looking forward to this report!

Per ec261/uk261 it’s mandatory ex eu/uk /eea or to the uk/eu/eea on one a carrier based there.

He's been doing this for a *very* long time and understands how and when to search.

You almost certainly redeem less often and are less skilled. Just a fact of life.

Ben, how far in advance did you book these tickets? I imagine that cresting several different itineraries versus one RT requires some time to make everything match up.

Getting optimal itineraries at great points value seems really hard when most of my travel is based around my son’s school schedule, and I don’t want to take risks booking within a month of the planned vacation when availability opens up for some airlines.

The reality is airlines “sell” these seats cheap via points so not to cannabalise actual business class customers. Business people aren’t flexible. Leisure travelers are. So yeah, searching aeroplan 2-3 months out for nyc to London is tough. I use American a lot and often book something that isn’t perfect a month out then slowly cancel and rebook better as the time gets closer. Mind you just booked rdu to lax to syd in biz for two for mid year for 86.5k miles each.

Booking during school holidays also tough.

Did you try to credit it to the EY program? That is what I do with my OmanAir flights.

Via miles obviously.

There are 2 TK lounges in MIA, assuming this time it was South Terminal - J ?

@ Anonymous -- Indeed, I'll be reviewing that lounge this time around.

@ Weekend Surfer -- In this case I booked around two weeks in advance. Yes, sometimes it can be tough to find great options far in advance, but it really does depend on the route, and sometimes airlines also open the award availability floodgates.

@ Alvin | YTHK -- Indeed, I was surprised by how different the cabin felt on that aircraft.

@ Mick -- Yeah, that's based on EU261, but that only applies when the itinerary is from Europe, and not when the itinerary is to Europe (assuming you're flying a non-European airline). So that didn't apply in this case, unfortunately.

Looking forward to the reviews, Lucky.

Priority Pass app shows a $9 Pre-Book option for the TK lounges for a while. Is it something like guaranteed PP access during peak hours?

Yes, but how are the miles afforded?

right, but to have miles you need to spend a significant amount of money to rack up all the miles. it seems like he has an endless amount of miles lol.

Yes that is how I was speaking in my comment. Maybe it is from the blog that it is possible that you can then buy miles. I don't understand the economics but it is a nice lifestyle to live.

This is a great itinerary. I have no idea how you balance all of this with a husband, child, and a dog! LOL maybe it's nice to travel on these trips to get away from USA! I saw your article on the effort you make to put the reviews together - it's crazy you get up and to the airport so early just to review the lounges when it's empty. I really appreciate all the reviews and I enjoy 'check-in' for daily updates lolz. I can barely put together a 2 leg trip just on my own! I look forward to the reviews, Cheers.

Doesn't Aeroplan give miles for OmanAir flights? Their UI doesn't allow you to insert an Aeroplan number -- only EY or QR or their own.

Sad that they have such limited miles partners even though joining 1W this year.

Would love to see this bird on the TPA route, "Rouge" is such a downgrade.

How many posts did we get about this trip, yet no full review yet? Are you running out of contents? Overall more and more your posts are becoming useless and I hope you provide the value content that you used to provide

@ Ken -- The entire series has been published. Click the "More From This Trip" section at the top and you'll see all the installments. Please let me know if you still don't see them.

I have read EU261 regs many times, and I'm left with the impression that it covers any segment on any itinerary that contains at least one stop in any EU261 country, regardless of origin, direction, or carrier's home country. Am I incorrect?