Complicated International Flights

[SJ]

My husband has a potential work gig that requires 5 international destinations. Probably 24-48 hours on the ground in each spot. Trip would be in the next 3 months, with a preference for sooner over later. The client's list of suggestions was: US, Canada, UK, India, Saudi Arabia.

We would like to sub out Dubai for Saudi Arabia. I know there is a lot of back & forth on whether you can or cannot get into Saudi Arabia with Israeli stamps, but we have lots of them, and would rather play it safe.

I am thinking, in this order: Chicago, Toronto, London, Dubai, New Delhi, Chicago.

Dates are a bit flexible, as is the order and length of stay. We have miles on all 3 major alliances, and status on 2 of them. I have been using Kayak to price out individual legs, and also put together a package on Orbitz for the whole thing to compare pricing.

Is there a better website I should be using for this type of trip? Any advice or other resources to use? We are happy to use a mix of airlines, etc. Price is important.

I am also going to try with everything I have to go with him on this one!

[SJ]

Sept 10, 2013 14:45:08 GMT -5 ribollita said:

Are you paying cash or attempting to use miles?

Oh, we don't want to use miles.

We are going to pay with cash (well FlexPerks!) as it's a business expense.

[emilyinchile]

I'd check out a specific RTW ticket on each alliance to see if that ends up being cheaper than doing it through another site. Oneworld's website is actually pretty user friendly, or at least it was a few years ago when I whiled away many a work afternoon playing with it

[Deleted]

I just came across this site. It tells you the best way to get between 2 points, travel time and prices.

www.rome2rio.com/

[SJ]

Sept 10, 2013 14:49:14 GMT -5 @uwhuskygirl said:

I just came across this site. It tells you the best way to get between 2 points, travel time and prices.

www.rome2rio.com/

This is awesome- thank you!

[aurora]

Sept 10, 2013 14:49:14 GMT -5 @uwhuskygirl said:

I just came across this site. It tells you the best way to get between 2 points, travel time and prices.

www.rome2rio.com/

I'm glad I stumbled into this post - this web site is great!

Unfortunately I don't have good advice on the OP.

[alleinesein]

Sept 10, 2013 14:41:39 GMT -5 SJ said:

My husband has a potential work gig that requires 5 international destinations. Probably 24-48 hours on the ground in each spot. Trip would be in the next 3 months, with a preference for sooner over later. The client's list of suggestions was: US, Canada, UK, India, Saudi Arabia.

We would like to sub out Dubai for Saudi Arabia. I know there is a lot of back & forth on whether you can or cannot get into Saudi Arabia with Israeli stamps, but we have lots of them, and would rather play it safe.

I am thinking, in this order: Chicago, Toronto, London, Dubai, New Delhi, Chicago.

Dates are a bit flexible, as is the order and length of stay. We have miles on all 3 major alliances, and status on 2 of them. I have been using Kayak to price out individual legs, and also put together a package on Orbitz for the whole thing to compare pricing.

Is there a better website I should be using for this type of trip? Any advice or other resources to use? We are happy to use a mix of airlines, etc. Price is important.

I am also going to try with everything I have to go with him on this one!

You can fly to all those cities using the OneWorld Alliance and if you are already an AAdvantage member you will rack up a ton of miles and status.

Fly AA from ORD to YYZ
Fly BA from YYZ to LHR
Fly BA from LHR to DXB
Fly Jet Airways from DXB to DEL
Fly Cathay Pacific from DEL to LAX
Fly AA from LAX to ORD

You should be able to book it as 2 Multi-city tickets on the AA website.

You might also want to call the airline directly because based on the cities you need to be in you will be a true round the world ticket with no backtracking at all. 

[SJ]

Sept 10, 2013 17:01:29 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Sept 10, 2013 14:41:39 GMT -5 SJ said:

My husband has a potential work gig that requires 5 international destinations. Probably 24-48 hours on the ground in each spot. Trip would be in the next 3 months, with a preference for sooner over later. The client's list of suggestions was: US, Canada, UK, India, Saudi Arabia.

We would like to sub out Dubai for Saudi Arabia. I know there is a lot of back & forth on whether you can or cannot get into Saudi Arabia with Israeli stamps, but we have lots of them, and would rather play it safe.

I am thinking, in this order: Chicago, Toronto, London, Dubai, New Delhi, Chicago.

Dates are a bit flexible, as is the order and length of stay. We have miles on all 3 major alliances, and status on 2 of them. I have been using Kayak to price out individual legs, and also put together a package on Orbitz for the whole thing to compare pricing.

Is there a better website I should be using for this type of trip? Any advice or other resources to use? We are happy to use a mix of airlines, etc. Price is important.

I am also going to try with everything I have to go with him on this one!

You can fly to all those cities using the OneWorld Alliance and if you are already an AAdvantage member you will rack up a ton of miles and status.

Fly AA from ORD to YYZ
Fly BA from YYZ to LHR
Fly BA from LHR to DXB
Fly Jet Airways from DXB to DEL
Fly Cathay Pacific from DEL to LAX
Fly AA from LAX to ORD

You should be able to book it as 2 Multi-city tickets on the AA website.

You might also want to call the airline directly because based on the cities you need to be in you will be a true round the world ticket with no backtracking at all. 

Thank you!

AA website is showing "only" $2200 per person for ORD-LHR; PAR-DXB-DEL-ORD which is currently an option and means we could book in one package instead of piecemeal style.

[alleinesein]

Sept 10, 2013 17:35:56 GMT -5 SJ said:

Sept 10, 2013 17:01:29 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

You can fly to all those cities using the OneWorld Alliance and if you are already an AAdvantage member you will rack up a ton of miles and status.

Fly AA from ORD to YYZ
Fly BA from YYZ to LHR
Fly BA from LHR to DXB
Fly Jet Airways from DXB to DEL
Fly Cathay Pacific from DEL to LAX
Fly AA from LAX to ORD

You should be able to book it as 2 Multi-city tickets on the AA website.

You might also want to call the airline directly because based on the cities you need to be in you will be a true round the world ticket with no backtracking at all. 

Thank you!

AA website is showing "only" $2200 per person for ORD-LHR; PAR-DXB-DEL-ORD which is currently an option and means we could book in one package instead of piecemeal style.

Glad to be of some help. 

[Deleted]

evarga

I'm paging my h, because he is an expert.

[evarga]

It sounds like a fun challenge with miles, but a headache with cash (and FlexPerks, since that's a banded redemption system).
I'd look into crankyconcierge.com. It looks like they charge $180 for their services, but that could be well worth it. They don't only do flight planning (finding the best prices), but give you flight monitoring and assistance with delays/cancellations. It's like a travel agency, but run by airline nerds instead of dinosaurs.

If you go on your own, you should learn how to use ITA Matrix (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/).
You can't actually buy from there, but it will find you the lowest fares out there as its the backbone for a lot of industry flight search engines. Just plug in the dates you find with ITA into your preferred online travel agency.
Here are some blog posts for ITA primers: hackmytrip.com/tags/ita

Hardcore? Research "fuel dumping".

Good luck, sounds like fun. Make sure to leverage your elite status.

[GilliC]

Sept 10, 2013 14:49:14 GMT -5 @uwhuskygirl said:

I just came across this site. It tells you the best way to get between 2 points, travel time and prices.

www.rome2rio.com/

I love this! Thank you so much!

There are some destinations on my list that involve so many limited-service flight options that I can't wrap my head around them!

[SJ]

Sept 10, 2013 22:59:03 GMT -5 evarga said:

It sounds like a fun challenge with miles, but a headache with cash (and FlexPerks, since that's a banded redemption system).
I'd look into crankyconcierge.com. It looks like they charge $180 for their services, but that could be well worth it. They don't only do flight planning (finding the best prices), but give you flight monitoring and assistance with delays/cancellations. It's like a travel agency, but run by airline nerds instead of dinosaurs.

If you go on your own, you should learn how to use ITA Matrix (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/).
You can't actually buy from there, but it will find you the lowest fares out there as its the backbone for a lot of industry flight search engines. Just plug in the dates you find with ITA into your preferred online travel agency.
Here are some blog posts for ITA primers: hackmytrip.com/tags/ita

Hardcore? Research "fuel dumping".

Good luck, sounds like fun. Make sure to leverage your elite status.

Thank you! Great resources here. I was meaning to tag you & your wife.

We aren't necessarily trying to redeem miles or FlexPerks- I meant that we would use our FlexPerks credit card to pay for the flights so we would EARN even more FlexPerks.

[evarga]

Sept 11, 2013 7:44:52 GMT -5 SJ said:

Thank you! Great resources here. I was meaning to tag you & your wife.

We aren't necessarily trying to redeem miles or FlexPerks- I meant that we would use our FlexPerks credit card to pay for the flights so we would EARN even more FlexPerks.

Do you have a card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees? The FlexPerks charges 2-3% for any charges outside the US. You might want to look at Barclays Arrival card. No foreign transaction fees, and you earn 2pts/$1 spent. Points can be used for air, hotel, car rental, and train. Sign up bonus of $440 in travel doesn't hurt either.

[gt7301b]

Sept 11, 2013 8:42:54 GMT -5 evarga said:

Sept 11, 2013 7:44:52 GMT -5 SJ said:

Thank you! Great resources here. I was meaning to tag you & your wife.

We aren't necessarily trying to redeem miles or FlexPerks- I meant that we would use our FlexPerks credit card to pay for the flights so we would EARN even more FlexPerks.

Do you have a card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees? The FlexPerks charges 2-3% for any charges outside the US. You might want to look at Barclays Arrival card. No foreign transaction fees, and you earn 2pts/$1 spent. Points can be used for air, hotel, car rental, and train. Sign up bonus of $440 in travel doesn't hurt either.

I just signed up for this card for the bonus and because credit card tuneup thinks it is the best card for me by far.

[Deleted]

If you're looking for a credit card to maximize the points earned from this itinerary, I'd look into Citi Prestige. $400 annual fee, but you'll get 30,000 Thank You Points (TYP) for your first $2000 spent, and $200 in airline reimbursements per year. So that pays for the annual fee. BUT -- in addition to 1 TYP per dollar spent, you also get 1 point per mile flown. So with 2 of you paying $4500 to fly around 35,000 miles each, you'll earn almost 75,000 from the flights. If you use the TYP for flights (I believe a similar system to FP -- Expedia-like engine with no restrictions), you get 1.33 cents per TYP -- so you'd get around $1000 worth of flights from this one purchase. (Add in the 30,000 bonus, and you get $1400 towards flights). And unlike FP, you don't lose points while redeeming for "up to" a certain value -- you use exactly the right number of points for the flight (sometimes it is an even better deal than the airline's price ...I got an $1100 ticket to London for $600 worth of TYP this year. Not sure why it wasn't $1100/1.33 worth of points, but hey -- I'll take it).

Like FP, you'll get miles and all that from the airline for your flights.

Also, no foreign transaction fees and lots of other perks.

Since I know you're a foodie -- our TYP go into the same TYP account as the points from our CitiForward card, which has no annual fee and earns us 5 points per dollar on restaurants/bars and "bookstores" (including everything at Amazon).  We get the same 1.33x on the redemption for flights from these purchases, so we basically get 6.3% back on restaurant purchases.  So really, we make out like bandits.

[evarga]

The TY Prestige companion ticket can be really valuable too. It was great for us on our TY Premier card, and its even better with the Prestige as it works on int'l tickets.
Also just noticed the Global Entry reimbursement and lounge access. They're really challenging Amex Platinum.
Citi just had a massive devaluation on the TY Premier card though, so I'd advise against holding a large TY point balance. Earn and burn.

[Deleted]

Sept 12, 2013 0:27:17 GMT -5 evarga said:

The TY Prestige companion ticket can be really valuable too. It was great for us on our TY Premier card, and its even better with the Prestige as it works on int'l tickets.
Also just noticed the Global Entry reimbursement and lounge access. They're really challenging Amex Platinum.
Citi just had a massive devaluation on the TY Premier card though, so I'd advise against holding a large TY point balance. Earn and burn.

I'm a TY Premier holder too, and the end up flight points (and change from 1.33x to 1.25x on redemption for flights) made me get Prestige.  Which is sad, because I have a waived annual fee on Premier but not Prestige.

It sounds like Prestige is pretty set for now?  Or at least, nothing I read on flyertalk makes me nervous