The Ultimate Guide To United Miles: Part 13 – All The Ways To Get To India!

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United miles are fantastic for booking trips to India for many reasons!

The first reason is that so many Star Alliance partner airlines, such as Lufthansa, have flights to India.  Remember, that you can use United miles to book awards on partner airlines such as Lufthansa!

The second reason is that United allows you to book awards to India via the Pacific or the Atlantic, so you end up having more choices.

This is very useful for flights from the West Coast, since flying to India via Asia is about the same amount of hours as flying via Europe.  In contrast, you have to fly to India via the Atlantic when you book regular awards with American Airlines miles.

The Ultimate Guide To United Miles Index

• Part 1 – Earning Lots of United Miles
• Part 2 – Introduction to United Miles
• Part 3 – Understanding the United Award Chart
• Part 4 – United Award Costs/Fees
• Part 5 – Using The United Website To Book Awards
• Part 6 – Stopovers, Open Jaws And Free One Ways
• Part 7 – Using The ANA Website To Find Star Alliance Award Seats
• Part 8 – All The Ways To Get To Europe!
• Part 9 – The Best Tip For Searching On United.com
• Part 10 – All The Ways To Get To Japan, North Asia & South Asia!
• Part 11 – All The Ways To Get To Australia, New Zealand, And Oceania!
• Part 12 – All The Ways To Get To The Caribbean, Central & South America
• Part 13 – All The Ways To Get To India
• Part 14 – North America United Awards (Including Canada And Hawaii)
• Part 15 – All The Ways To Get To Africa

The Best tip for Searching on United.com

Don’t forget to change your search results to show you 50 flights (instead of the default) when you search on United.com.  This will show you more flight options which may work for you!

Step 1 – Click On “Advanced Search”

Go to United.com and click on  “Advanced Search” at the bottom of the award search page.

Step 2 – Change “Number of Flights to Display” To “50”

Click on the drop-down box by the “Number of Flights to Display” and change it from the “Default” to “50“

You will see MANY more flight options this way!

How To Use The Information In This Post

You could rely on United.com to find you awards seats to India.  And United’s website is pretty good.  But it is unlikely to find every possible option on using United miles to India.

If you’re really committed to finding award seats to India and don’t want to hire an award booking service, you could search for award seats on many of the routes below.  The best way to search is segment-by-segment.

The information below will help you find the long-distance flight to India.  Once you find the long-distance flight to India, you should start searching for flights to your final destination in India and then from your US departure city to the gateway (i.e. where the flight to India departs from the US).

Award Routes to India

We have already gone over the United and their partner airline flight options to Europe, and options to fly to Asia.  To get to India, we first have to go to either Europe or Asia.

And from there to Europe to India, or routes from Asia to India.

Travel within India using miles and points can be difficult because none of the airlines based in India belong to any alliance.  In addition, many airlines have cheap fares to begin with, so it’s usually easier to find an award ticket to a big Indian city.  Then book a paid ticket to smaller Indian cities.

Let’s go over finding award flights from North America to India.

United splits Asia into 3 regions:

• Central Asia which includes Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

• South Asia which includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• North Asia which includes China (Mainland), South Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan.

Here is the chart for one-way awards between mainland North America and Central Asia, South Asia, and North Asia.

United considers India to be part of “Central Asia.”

For one-way awards from the US, Alaska, Hawaii or Canada to Central Asia, you will pay:

• 40,000 miles each way in economy
• 60,000 miles each way in Business Class
• 80,000 miles each way in First Class

United Miles to India

1.  Delhi (DEL)

United & their Star Alliance partner airlines, such as Lufthansa, fly to Delhi.

• Air China via Beijing (PEK)
• ANA via Tokyo-Narita (NRT)
• Asiana via Seoul (ICN)
• Austrian via Vienna (VIE)
• Ethiopian via Addis Ababa (ADD)
• Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC)
• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)
• SWISS via Zurich (ZRH)
• Thai via Bangkok (BKK)
• Turkish via Istanbul (IST)
• United via Newark (EWR)

2.  Mumbai (BOM)

Mumbai also has flights on South African Airways to Johannesburg, but it is not convenient for an award ticket from North America to India.

You can fly to Mumbai on:

• Air China via Chengdu (CTU)
• ANA via Tokyo-Narita (NRT) – All-Business Class flight
• Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC)
• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)
• SWISS via Zurich (ZRH)
• Thai via Bangkok (BKK) and Phuket (HKT)
• Turkish via Istanbul (IST)
• United via Newark (EWR)

3.  Bengaluru (BLR)

• Air China via Chengdu (CTU)
• Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA)
• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)
• Thai via Bangkok (BKK)

4.  Chennai (MAA)

• Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA)
• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)
• Thai via Bangkok (BKK)

5.  Pune (PNQ)

• Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA)

The Lufthansa flight (by their Privatair subsidiary) to Pune runs 3 times per week.  It’s a good option if you  want to visit the other cities near Mumbai but don’t want to deal with Mumbai traffic and the 4 hour drive to Pune!

Award availability is generally easy to get in both coach & Business Class, but the plane is small for a long-haul flight and there is a short fuel stop on the flight from Pune to Frankfurt.

6.  Kolkata (CCU)

• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)
• Thai via Bangkok (BKK)

7.  Ahmedabad (AMD)

• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)
• Thai via Bangkok (BKK)

8.  Hyderabad (HYD)

• Thai via Bangkok (BKK)

9.  Kochi (COK)

• Singapore Airlines via Singapore (SIN)

Note that you can’t book this flight with United miles because it is a Silk Air flight which can only be booked with Singapore Airline miles.

Booking Flights Via Europe To India

The United website is pretty good at finding award seats.  Usually, you can just enter in your origin and destination and it will find a number of routes on several airlines to get you to where you want to go.  Don’t forget to extend the search results to 50 flights!

Sometimes, you may have to search segment-by-segment.  Let’s look an example of searching segment-by-segment.

I want to fly from Washington, DC to Delhi via Europe.  We know how to get to Europe.  Now we need to figure out how to get from Europe to India.  

To see what award seats are available to India, we can search from Europe to India to see what connections we can come up with.

1.  Via Frankfurt

I’m lazy, so I usually start by searching for award seats from Frankfurt to Delhi, India on United.com

That’s because Frankfurt has so many flights that go to India and flights that connect to other European cities that connect to India.  This way, United.com can do most of the work for me!

Step 1 – Search For Award Seats From Frankfurt To Delhi

I found 4 flights to choose from including some in economy and some in business class.

TIP: If you are looking for a Business Class or First Class award, always look for the “Mixed Cabin” warning.  Mixed Cabin means your flight will be in two different classes, more likely Business Class AND Economy.  Of course, there’s nothing wrong in flying in economy, but you are charged the business class price.

In this case, we see that the longer flight from Germany to India is in Economy, so we don’t want to pay a Business Class price if we are only getting business class for less than half the journey!

Let’s say that you want to fly Business Class, so we’re going to book an award that does not have a Mixed Cabin.  We’re going to book an award flight that connects to the SWISS flight from Zurich to Delhi in Business Class on January 21, 2013.

Step 2 – Search For Seats From The US To Europe A Day Before Your Europe Flight To India

I look for a flight from Washington, DC to Zurich that leaves me enough time to connect to the flight from Zurich to Delhi.

I find a Saver Award (low-level award) in Business Class From Washington, DC to Zurich.

And then find a flight from your departure airport, say Austin, to Washington, DC.

Step 3 – Use The “Multiple Destinations” Option To Correctly Price Your Award Ticket

If we booked each flight separately, it would cost us 100,000 miles.  That’s because you will pay for 2 award tickets – 1 from the US to Europe and the 2nd from Europe to India.

You don’t have to book these as 2 separate award tickets and can book them as 1 award for 60,000 miles from the US to India!

Now that we have found flights that can work, we can plug in these flights into the “Multiple Destinations” option on the United website.

Now your Business Class award ticket from Washington, DC to Delhi prices at 60,000 miles + ~ $52.

Much better than 100,000 miles for 2 separate award tickets!

When we searched for the ticket, we searched US to Europe and then from Europe to India.

The US to Europe search showed Business Class award seats for 50,000 miles (the price from North America to Europe).  The Europe to India search also showed Business Class award seats for 50,000 miles (the price for Europe to South Asia).

However, since we are only connecting in Europe, we can pay the rate for North America to India, which is 60,000 miles, not 100,000 miles in business class!

Booking Flights Via Asia To India

Let’s try booking a ticket from San Francisco to Mumbai via Asia in Business Class.

TIP: When searching for flights to Asia, make sure to search a day before and a day after your intended travel dates.  This is because many flights to Asia depart around midnight from the west coast.

A flight that is just before midnight will show up on a separate day compared to a flight that is just after midnight.

Step 1 – Search For Flights From The US To Asia

Every major city from the list at the beginning of this post has flights on either Singapore Airlines from Singapore, or Thai Airways from Bangkok.  These will likely be our entry point or gateways into India if we use United miles to travel to India from Asia.

We can search for direct flights through these gateways.

Because it takes more than 1 flight to get from the US to Singapore or Bangkok, let’s search for the flight from the US to Asia first.  See this post for all the ways to get to Asia!

We’ll note in which cities the connections occur (like Seoul or Tokyo) in case any of them match cities that also connect to India.  For example, you could fly from the US to Tokyo and then connect directly on Japanese airline ANA to India!

Go to United.com and search for flights from the US to Asia.  Don’t forget to extend the search results to 50 flights.

After searching, United will display all the possible connections from San Francisco to Singapore.  Be sure to scroll all the way down!

With our search from San Francisco to Singapore, we found Business Class seats available from San Francisco to Taipei and Taipei to Singapore.

Step 2 – Search For Seats From Singapore To Mumbai

Now I search for seats from Singapore to Mumbai.  I write down what time I land in Singapore (12:05 pm) because I need to find a flight from Singapore leaving after that time!

I like to leave a long time between flights just in case the first flight is delayed.  I’d rather stay an extra 2 hours in the airport than miss a flight!

I found Business Class available from Singapore to Mumbai at 6:10 pm on November 28. This flight departs 6 hours after the flight from San Francisco to Singapore arrives.

Because I am allowed a connection up to 24 hours on international itineraries, this is a valid connection.  And 6 hours is more than enough time to connect between flights in Singapore.

Step 3 – Use The “Multiple Destinations” Search

Now that I have found available flights from San Francisco to Singapore and from Singapore to Mumbai, now I just need to search for the award all together.

If you don’t live in San Francisco, you can use the same steps to find award seats to San Francisco!

I can do this by using the “Multiple Destinations” award search

On the Multiple Destinations page, I enter the same cities and dates for which I found award seats earlier.

I search San Francisco to Singapore on November 27 for the first flight segment.

Then I search Singapore to Mumbai on November 28 for the second flight segment.

Be sure to select “Award Travel” at the bottom of the page before you click “Search!”

After clicking “Search,” we should see the flights we had found earlier.  We’ll first select the EVA Air flights from San Francisco to Taipei to Singapore.

After selecting the flights to Singapore, we select the flight to Mumbai.

Notice how the search only shows flights that are valid connections!

Using the Multiple Destinations feature, I was able to price out a one-way Business Class award from San Francisco to Mumbai via Taipei and Singapore for 60,000 United miles and only ~$12 in taxes!

TIP:  You may need to search flights one segment at a time to get from your hometown to your destination.  If a flight shows as available when you search it separately, it should be available when you search in multiple destinations.

TIP:  While the United Multiple Destinations feature is useful, it can’t handle all requests.  If you can’t book an award online, you could try booking the award over the phone by calling 800-864-8331 and feeding the agent the segments one at at time.

There is a $25 fee for booking an award on the phone, but it is well worth it to me!

Bottom Line

You can use United miles to fly to India on United or on one of the many Star Alliance partners such as Lufthansa.

You can route from the US through Europe OR Asia to get to India and it will only cost 40,000 miles one-way in coach or 60,000 miles in business class.