Introduction: A Family Pilgrimage to India

While I work on my older trip reports, I’m also going to set out on my latest adventure. For the first time since 2014, we headed to India, this time for a wedding. But this wasn’t just any trip to India. This one involved the entire family, literally. My mom’s dreamed for years of showing all of her grandkids the places where she and dad grew up. Thanks to a July wedding, she finally made that happen. And so 8 of us – my family of three, my brother, my three nephews, and my mom – set out on quite the adventure.

But wait, there’s more! My son was decidedly unhappy that my brother and I went to Korea last fall without him. And so he asked (more like demanded) a stopover in Seoul on the way home. Who’s going to refuse a demand to spend some time in Seoul? With that, we added on a few days there on the way home.

This trip report series will consist of the following posts:

Introduction: A Family Pilgrimage to India
American Flagship Lounge DFW Airport
Qatar Airways A350-1000 QSuites Business Class, DFW to Doha
Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge Garden, Doha
Qatar Airways B787-9 Business Class, Doha to Chennai
Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels Cathedral Road Chennai
A Long Pilgrimage Discovering the Family Roots
Radisson Blu Hotel & Suites GRT Chennai
Travel Club Lounge Chennai
Cathay Pacific The Pier Business Class Lounge Hong Kong
Cathay Pacific A330-300 Business Class, Hong Kong to Seoul
G3 Hotel Chungmuro Seoul
Korean BBQ, the DMZ, and More in Seoul
Asiana Airlines Business Lounge East Seoul
Asiana Airlines A380 Business Class, Seoul to Los Angeles

The Flight Plan

To dispense with one item first – yes, 7 of us (everyone except my brother) flew over together. I originally planned to surprise mom by buying her a Business Class ticket without telling her. She found out thanks to a family member who shall remain unnamed, and then forbade me from even thinking about it. Thanks a bunch, unnamed family member.

I’ll also dispense with one other item before anyone asks. The wedding date didn’t get set until March, which gave us fixed dates to work around. And with saver-level award space to/from Asia pretty much nonexistent 90-ish days out, we didn’t have much to work with. (Sorry, but I don’t take chances on last-minute space opening up.) Thus, the priority was finding any flights to work, not necessarily the best value redemption.

Flying to India in summer isn’t cheap, to say the least. The lowest cost for coach was running ~$2,200 roundtrip. And so I set out on a likely futile quest to find some Business Class award seats. Somewhat surprisingly, I found availability for three seats in QSuites for 170,000 Avios each. That’s not great…but Amex just happened to have a 20% bonus on British Airways Avios transfers at the same time. Since BA and Qatar allow transfers between programs, that reduced the cost to 136,000 points plus $315.70 in fees each. Still not great, but better than paying $2,400 for coach. And when traveling with the family, QSuites is arguably the best product out there.

After flying over together, we split up at the end. We continued on to Seoul, while my mom, nephews, and brother stayed in India another week. To get from Chennai to Seoul, I wanted to try something a little exotic. The AirAsia X Premium Flatbed beckoned. Unfortunately for Air Asia, though, they refused to take my money. The best combination of price and schedule went to Cathay Pacific. Too bad they offered ZERO award availability, even through Asia Miles. Cash Business Class seats, meanwhile, ran $1,363.66 each for the two adults, and $1,054.56 for my son. With a boatload of Capital One points at my disposal, along with my $300 travel credit, I decided to apply that enough Venture X points to buy down mine and my wife’s tickets. It required about 232,000 points. Yeah, I know. It’s a horrible redemption value. But my son enjoyed the ride.

Finally, to get home from Seoul, I decided to bite the bullet and book cash tickets. One intriguing option involved flying Asiana’s A380 to Los Angeles, then connecting to American to get home. I thought my son might enjoy flying upstairs on the A380. So I ponied up $2,655.51 per ticket for this piece.

At the end of the day, I ended up spending about $3,300 per person. That’s about $900 more each than coach would have run. Thought it took more points to pull this off than preferred, I’ll pay that premium for Business on flights of that length. At the end of the day, our itinerary looked like this:

07/05 QR 730 Dep DFW 17:55 Arr DOH 16:20 (+1)
07/06 QR 528 Dep DOH 19:50 Arr MAA 02:50 (+1)
07/19 CX 632 Dep MAA 01:30 Arr HKG 09:50
07/19 CX 418 Dep HKG 14:25 Arr ICN 19:05
07/22 OZ 202 Dep ICN 14:40 Arr LAX 10:20
07/22 AA 1657 Dep LAX 13:42 Arr DFW 18:57

Cathay operates CX 632 with an A350-900, which I reviewed previously. Thus, I won’t review it again. American’s domestic First Class also hasn’t changed much recently, so I won’t review that either.

And yes, this means Ashok successfully completed a round-the-world trip at age 8. He beat his dad by a good 20 years…

The Hotel Plan

Usually, a trip to India means freeloading with our relatives. This time, though, with 8 of us in tow, we mostly stayed in hotels. In Chennai, we started off with three nights at the Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels Cathedral Road. ITC is a long-time operator of “star hotels” throughout India. While many of these previously belonged to Sheraton during the Starwood days, ITC today is independent. Anyway, this property is quite nice, and is a ton cheaper than I remember from 10-15 years ago. (Rates in INR remain largely the same, but the rupee devalued substantially in the interim.)

Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels Chennai Cathedral Road

After that, we embarked on a couple of road trips through Tamil Nadu on either side of the wedding. We stayed in several smaller hotels; I won’t review these, but will share a couple of photos along the way.

Finally, before heading to Korea, we spent two nights at the Radisson Blu GRT Chennai. This place was…just a tad over the top. Nice, but over the top nonetheless. But what you’re really paying a premium for here is proximity to the airport, just 5 minutes away.

In Seoul, we went with the G3 Hotel Chungmuro. G3 is one of three sister hotels in and around Myeongdong, the others the Grand Hotel and G2 Hotel. The G3 ranks as a mid-range city hotel; not terribly exciting, but with a good location and fairly priced. Why this hotel? The old “Rocketmiles” platform on AAdvantage Hotels had a promotion for 9,800 bonus loyalty points per stay.

The Sightseeing Plan

My mom jam packed a whole bunch of stuff into two weeks. Our first leg involved a road trip from Chennai to Kanyakumari, at the southern tip of India.

The main goal for this portion was my mom’s dream for years – showing us my late father’s family temple. A long drive to the far reaches of rural Tamil Nadu brought us to my granddad’s hometown, and the goddess Kali temple that’s been in his family for ages.

After that, we made a quick trip to Kanyakumari, the southernmost point in India. Cape Comorin as it’s known is famous as the point where the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and Indian Ocean come together.

Southernmost point in India, Kanyakumari

Then, of course, we attended the wedding after returning to Chennai. Traditional Indian weddings are quite the spectacle, and this was no exception.

As is custom, my aunt and uncle bought fancy salwars and kurtas for us to wear.

Finally, we made a quick trip to the beach south of Chennai in Mahabalipuram. This also gave us time for a quick stop at the famous “shore temples” along the sea.

My uncle booked a quite nice beach house for us. If I’d known this was on the menu, I’d have asked to extend our stay by a day or two. If nothing else, just to goof around while staring at the water.

And then, to wrap things up, a visit to my dad’s hometown. Sadly, his childhood home is no more, slowly getting taken over by nature once more. (The village itself looks about the same as I remember it from my first visit 40 years ago.)