Questions and Answers

I just got the chance to go to India in September (JFK to MAA). Dates pretty flexible between Sept 5 and 27-28. I only have 90,000 AA miles which I was hoping to use on Etihad first class one way. But all of the lowest bracket first class fares seem to be sold out all month either to and return. And for business class I can’t seem to see anything on Etihad’s site either. I assume the First Freedom and Business Freedom (the next two brackets that are available) are more than 90,000 aa miles or 67,000 respectively. Should I even bother to keep checking or is it unlikely anything will open up? I know award ticket availability goes fast but the trip just came up.

You need Guest seats on EY’s website for AA to book the award. AA cant book EY’s Freedom award availability.

If you’re set on flying EY, you can book economy and upgrade if space opens up closer to departure.

I’d also recommend QR, especially of you get on their A350 from the US to Doha. Also worth considering is CX via HKG. You can check for award space via BA’s search tool.

Thanks. Great tip. I will check QR-. I keep checking and I did finally find a business seat on the 77W which might work. Emirates award availability was weird–business to Dubai and then coach to NYC for 80K miles. Sigh. I can see BA availability too (through London) but with the taxes I might as well buy economy and earn miles. I just can’t fathom 11-12 hrs a stretch in economy since I don’t sleep.

BA taxes sure do suck.

Lucky had a post specifically comparing business class on EY and QR – [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/10/12/etihad-vs-qatar-business-class-which-is-better/[/URL]

Hope it helps!

Thanks tried BA website to see Qatar flights and it does not show Qatar flights at all from JFK to MAA–only BA and Cathay. And it is economy to LHR and then business to MAA from LHR which defeats the point of using 70,000 miles. I am back to wondering if I go economy, which is better Etihad, Qatar, BA, or Emirates. Or wait until January and go then.

Try searching segment by segment – JFK-DOH and DOH-MAA. Also consider departing from BOS and PHL. BOS is served by an A350, PHL should resume A350 service at some point.

EY flies from Dulles near DC with their 789, also worth considering.

Aha! So business is it is available JFK-DOH. Thanks for that suggestion But nothing..not even economy from DOH to MAA….its like BA or any of one world partners don’t fly there at all. I will check BOS but I am beginning to think I will be stuck in economy or have to pay BA taxes.

If you want, search Etihad for AUH-MAA. if that’s available you can potentially fly JFK-DOH-AUH-MAA. DOH-AUH can be on EY or QR

Will do but that sounds like more than 90,000 miles. Thanks. If I do end up flying economy is Etihad, Emirates or Qatar better? Everyone always reviews the business class (not that I blame them).

It’s still a US-Indian Subcontinent award so business class would be 70k miles one way.

If flying economy, I’d pick EK or EY’s A380s since theres a higher chance of securing empty seats to spread out. Otherwise I’d pick QR’s A350 or EY’s 789 since they have newer tech that makes flying slightly more comfortable.

I flew EK economy DXB-JFK and had a row of 4 seats to myself. I basically slept the entire way back, waking up only for food. I fly CX economy a lot and it’s always full and I only sleep for half the flight from JFK-HKG

Thank you so much for all of your advice. My experience with award tickets is mainly to UK or Europe. And recently to Morocco. I haven’t been to Asia before and because EW is so popular, of course those seats go quickly.