Want to save some big money, follow these steps:

Use your miles from the US to London or to another major European Capital (Amsterdam, Frankfurt) November is low season for Europe so you have a better chance on this portion of your trip.

Book your ongoing flight on a European Expedia type  site. These sites will come up with European endings like .co.uk for London .fr for France, etc. ie Expedia in Britain reads www.expedia.co.uk

Now book from the European airport round trip to India. If not sure, ask us to double check your choices.

You will pay a foreign currency charge on your credit card, but you will also have saved on the Trans Atlantic ticket.

And a bonus is if you leave a day in between the flights you can rest mid trip for a night. Major European airports usually have a variety hotels near  with shuttles to the gates and cheap transportation into town.

Stay tuned for more tricks to use your miles for this trip.