Questions and Answers

I’ve got a question about traveling from the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US to India. For now, assume DEL and travel in business.

I’m looking at travel in the fall/winter of 2020. While published fares haven’t been loaded, current pricing with an and advanced lead time indicates a return ticket can be had for ~$2k one way. For that price, I’m inclined to just pay cash.

The outbound, however, presents a few options. I live in DC, but can take Amtrak to NYC and fly from JFK/EWR if necessary. For my outbound trip, I’m on the fence between SQ (JFK-FRA-SIN-DEL) and UA (IAD-EWR-DEL). My thing with SQ is that I have 58k miles expiring in March of next year. I can extend them for six months, but as a practical matter, if I don’t use them, I’d have to find something else to do with them for the sake of burning them.

I can fly UA; at least current inventory management practices suggest that I may be able to get a seat out of IAD via EWR for 75k miles. My thing with UA is the switch to dynamic pricing. I have no idea what these miles can get me beyond the forseeable future. Yet, SQ on this route isn’t exactly cheap, so burning the UA miles at a decent value has some appeal. I just got approved for the Citi TY 60k bonus, which I will use to transfer to SQ.

So: SQ out of JFK at a not cheap price, and burn miles that will expire next year (at some point, even if I extend them) or UA miles that are much fewer, not knowing what dynamic pricing holds beyond that?