Help!! Using avios to Mumbai near Xmas (no BA availability)?

[cska]

Hi all, was wondering if anyone had a bright suggestion. I am trying to use Avios to book a seat from London to Mumbai (any class, the cash price for return in Economy is £1200+) going out the week before Christmas (anything from Thursday that week onward) to get there in time for Mon 24th Dec.

Returning back the following weekend

I have a substantial bank of Avios however there is no availability on BA in any class (or Qatar as far as I can see)

I have explored flying into other Indian cities and doing an internal transfer but nothing would get me to Mumbai before the Mon 24th Dec such is the limited availability. On the return there does seem to be BA availability but a one way cash fare on the outbound leg obviously negates any benefit of redeeming one way.

Any other suggestions or do I just suck up the cash price 😳

Thanks in advance!

[NorthernLass]

How many seats do you need? SeatSpy (though not always accurate) is showing 1 economy and 2 PE on Dec 23rd.

Have you tried actually making a booking? The BA award finder tool has been very flaky lately.

[NorthernLass]

Those seats are there if you try to book them!

[cska]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry for my mistake as my original message has an error – I need to be in India before Monday 23rd . I mistakenly said this was the 24th
The flights going out on the 23rd arrive on the 24th which is Tuesday.
There doesn’t appear to be any availability on the Thurs-Sun the week before that date as far as I can see 🙁

[BBbetter]

BLR, HYD and MAA are all available on 22nd. Even DEL is.

The other option is to fly to Bahrain and connect from there. Plenty of availability to BAH.

The days before 23rd are the start of school holidays, so no wonder availability has disappeared.

[aseftel]

It’s not the most direct routing, but there’s lhr-doh-cmb-bom in economy departing 19th, arriving 20th on QR and UL.

[aseftel]

Actually, ignore Avios and do the whole thing nonstop on Virgin. Premium economy return is 55,000points
+£527.29 and there’s availability both ways (e.g. out 21st, back 28th). It probably makes sense to buy the miles if you don’t have them.

[cska]

Thanks all. I did see availability on the 22nd to other regional airports however as they are all overnight flights I wouldn’t make it to Mumbai in time for 23rd. Using VA points seems like a sensible suggestion – I will look into this aseftel. Thanks 🙂