Flying from US to India Business/ First Class on points and miles (with Infant)

Long-haul flights can be extremely tiring, more so when you are travelling with an infant. But what if you start your journey from a nice relaxing Business lounge. Fly through your journey in the comfort of lie-flat bed, enhance your dinning experience and get more personal attention from the crew. And all this for as little as $100 out-of-pocket in cash? Welcome to the fascinating world of credit card “Points & Miles” that would help you get those aspirational Business class flights or awesome hotel on the scenic beaches.

If this sounds interesting then please read on to learn how you can leverage points and miles earned through right credit card to make those dream trips a reality.

You would require to do three things, each of which is explained in detail in the blog post below:

• Obtain a Reward earning credit card with “Transferable airline or Hotel partners”
• Channel you spend wisely on various credit cards to maximize the points earning
• Search for award flights or hotels that can be booked using points

Points Used

For my journey from Boston (US) to Mumbai (India), I worked with Star Alliance network and for my return flight back to US, I worked with One World partners. (more on that below)

Aeroplan (Star Alliance): Business Class for 75,000 MR points per adult + US $28 in taxes & fees.  CAD 100 (or ~US $75) for infant

London to US using British Airways Avios (One World): First Class for 50,000 MR points with 40% Avios transfer bonus + US $600 in taxes & fees per adult. 10% of adult miles & cost for Infant.

Planning: Having enough miles

I accumulated points primarily through credit cards (and not by flying airline miles). I worked with Chase and American Express setup. Chase’s points currency is Ultimate Reward (UR) points while Amex’s is Membership Reward (MR)

Personal Cards	Welcome Bonus (Current offers)	Points Earning Category
CHASE:
Sapphire Reserve	50K UR points	3x points on a broad array of Travel, Hotels and Restaurants.
Freedom 5%	$150 or 15K UR points	5x points on Quarterly rotating categories
Freedom unlimited	$150 or 15K UR points	1.5x points on any purchase
American Express:
Gold	35K MR points	4x on Restaurants worldwide & US Grocery stores. 3x on Airlines
Platinum	60K MR points	5x on Airfare and 5x on pre-paid hotels through AmexTravel.com

The key to accumulating large amount of points quickly is to hit the minimum spend to earn the Welcome bonus. But the other important part is to have an end goal in mind and channel your expenses diligently on credit cards that maximize the points earning. Since my goal was to fly Business Class to India with infant, Airline transfer partners with Amex seemed better choice than Chase. Through bonuses and spends, I accumulated about 230,000 MR points from American Express and about 70,000 UR points from Chase to plan my family’s trip to India (2 adults, 1 infant). I wanted to save up my UR points as Chase was not running any transfer bonus promotion when I was planning the trip. Amex on the other hand was running 40% transfer bonus for Avios.

Searching award flights: Choosing the right search engine; Beware of Phantom or Ghost awards

I invested considerable time in researching best options to travel to India on points. I recommend reading articles “The Best Ways to Fly to India With Points and Miles [Step-by-Step]” and “The Best Ways to Get to India With Points and Miles” both of which go in great detail in analyzing various airlines.

If you are travelling with Infant like we were, then “Planning award travel with lap Infant” is a must read.

Searching for award requires patience, flexibility and some good luck. The Star Alliance is by far the best option for flying to India. Few of the popular airlines that fly to India are:

Direct flights from US/ North America: Air India*, United, Air Canada

Stopover in Europe: Luftansa, SWISS Air, Turkish Airlines

Stopover in Middle East and Africa: Ethiopian Airlines, Egypt Air

Stopover in Asia: Air China, ANA

* The Government of India is planning to sell-off Air India to other buyers which may impact its current routes

Always check for transit visa rules in case of stop over regardless of your nationality

I knew I did not have enough miles to plan a round-trip US to India, so I planned each leg of the journey separately. Also, we wanted to experience business class on different airlines.

Star Alliance: For my onward journey from US to India

For searching award flights, I relied on four different search engines. My assessment of their strength and weakness are as below:

Search Engine	Pros	Cons
Aeroplan	Lowest infant ticket cost Ability to piece together award seats on connecting flights Clearly highlights mixed cabin award on connecting flights Publishes 7 days availability calendar Good Customer service	Shows Phantom or Ghost awards on several airlines Charges the same miles even if part of the journey is on lower fare class (e.g. part business, part economy) Inability to include/ exclude airlines in search options Passes on expensive fuel surcharge cost for some airlines
Avianca LifeMiles	Very little fuel surcharge and taxes (although slightly higher award miles requirement than Aeroplan) Ability to select mixed cabin award (economy/ business) in order to lower miles needed on connecting flights Ability to search for +/- 3 days awards	Although not experienced it myself, but poor customer service especially if you need to change booking Can’t book infant tickets
United	Ability to search awards without needing to create user account Shows full month award calendar making it easier to search for awards Low fuel surcharge and taxes	Generally, charges higher miles than other programs Not a transfer partner with Amex (only with Chase) Not good at finding awards across connecting flights. Best to search each journey leg at a time
ANA	By far the most accurate search engine for Star Alliance Good place to cross-check for Phantom awards on other search engines Significantly lower miles requirement for Round-Trip awards	Passes on expensive fuel surcharges for most airlines Can’t book one-way (only round-trip or open jaw allowed)

Based on the details above, Aeroplan was my go-to option as it charged a flat rate for Infant ticket (unlike other airlines who charge 10% of miles or cash cost). For business class, I had an option of paying 10,000 MR points or $100 Canadian Dollars. TPG values MR points at about 2 cents per point so paying CAD $100 (or ~ USD $75) was the obvious choice.

 ANA: I could have tried round-trip by paying higher fuel surcharge but I wasn’t finding reasonable return flights for my dates. Avianca LifeMiles: This was interesting as it had award availability with Luftansa Business class from my home city of Charlotte and the out-of-pocket fuel and taxes were a mere US $27 per person plus 78,000 MR points (see below). Flying Luftansa for such a lost cost was a fabulous deal. Except the problem was with the Infant ticket. As LifeMiles does not allow to book an Infant ticket, I would have had to call Luftansa and have my daughter added to the ticket while paying 10% of the cost. The one-way cost of Luftansa Business class about 100 days before the trip date was USD $8,000. So I had to pay a whopping $800 for a lap Infant ticket!!

Instead, I found Business Class on SWISS Air from Boston- for 75,000 MR points + CAD $28.8 (USD $22) in taxes and fees per person. (My actual award flight had 2 stops at Zurich and New Delhi)

Other airlines that show up routinely with good award availability in Business Class are Turkish Airlines, Egypt Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Air China, Luftansa and Austrian Air. But beware, Aeroplan passes on very expensive fuel surcharges on Air Canada, Luftansa and Austrian Air.

Phantom Awards a real problem? Why I booked through Aeroplan customer care

The Phantom awards are a big deal because transferring points out of flexible points program like Amex, Chase or any credit card is a one-way street. Which means once you transfer the point to any award program (E.g. Aeroplan), there is no way to get it back if later you find that award seat no longer exists. You would be essentially stuck with that award program and forced to find award seats for other dates. Here is an article on “Award Availability: Checking for Phantom Space”

When I found the right flight on Aeroplan for my dates, I immediately tried to cross-reference it with United and ANA search engine to be triple sure. I was shocked to see the SWISS award flight on Aeroplan did not show up on any of these search engines. This made me really nervous to transfer over points to Aeroplan. I called up Aeroplan customer care to confirm if they saw this award at their end and I was amazed that this award was available. Probably SWISS released more awards to Aeroplan than other partners. I requested them to place a hold on the award and transferred the points over to Aeroplan from Amex account, while still having the customer service agent on the phone line. I also gave my mobile phone number in case we got disconnected. The agent was able to secure the seats for me and process the tickets for a service fee of CAD $30 (or US $22.5). For a newbie like me, this service fee was well worth the peace of mind knowing it was not a Phantom award.

Money Saver Tip: Although Aeroplan passes on expensive fuel surcharges on Luftansa, I noticed that the fuel surcharges were high only between US-Europe Luftansa operated flights. I noticed lower surcharge cost on Europe-Asia/India route. So, when selecting US-India with stopover, the US-Europe leg can be on low cost award like United, SWISS, Turkish etc. and the Europe-India can be on Luftansa. Be mindful of Transit visa requirement if you are Non-US/ Non-EU citizen

One World for return from India to US: Maximizing Amex 40% Avios transfer bonus

One World has very limited options from India. Either British Airways via London or Qatar Airways via Doha if you are flying to East Coast. Additionally, you can find American Airlines and Iberia airlines from few European countries. Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines and Qantas are generally preferable for US West Coast from lower Miles and Points perspective.

British airways is notorious for charging expensive fuel surcharge for flights routing through London on British airways metal. But they also charge only 10% of miles and taxes & fees for Infant making them a great choice if travelling with Infant.

I couldn’t find Business class on American and Qatar airlines. I avoided Iberia as I would require Transit/ Tourist visa to travel through Madrid (Spain) as I am Indian national (I would have to claim bags and recheck again on different flight).

British airways had no award availability from India to London (not even Economy). So I purchased a cash ticket to London. From London there were plenty of award space in Business and First class to several US destinations. Note that this makes my travel from India-London and London-US as two separate unconnected itineraries potentially impacting my London-US journey in case of delay/ cancellation on India-US journey. Also, I was now liable to have a landside UK transit visa to go through Immigration & Customs to recheck my bags on connecting flights. But since I had a valid US work visa, a UK transit visa was not needed even through I still had to claim my bags and recheck them. I managed to find a First Class on British Airways that matched my desired date and time. I booked it for 70,000 Avios plus US $600 in taxes and fees by transferring just 50,000 MR points (taking advantage of the 40% Amex transfer bonus). I felt OK paying $600 for the First Class experience considering the sticker price for this flight was US $10,000.

NOTE: British Airways does not “Through Check” you baggage if you have two separate tickets with different PNR

Money Saver Tip: If you start your flight outside of UK the taxes and fees will be much lower. E.g. Business Class on Istanbul-London-Chicago was just 67K Avios plus US $246 compared to 50K Avios plus US $544 on London – Chicago route.

You may also fly Aer Lingus from Dublin, Ireland which have even lower taxes and fees while offering a good Business Class product.

Conclusion:

For flying with infant, Aeroplan offers the most value with its flat award ticket price. The Star Alliance has wide range of airline options to get to India on points and miles. The One World (especially British Airways) has plenty of award availability during off-peak season if you need to cross Europe to get to US. However, high fuel surcharge on British Airways flight is a disappointment. The Sky Team offers limited value on case to case basis as major partner airlines like Delta and Air France have dynamic pricing model which means points needed for booking award tickets are priced in line with actual Dollar cost of the fare.