I asked you guys what you’d like to read about, so this post is in response to a question posted there. I’ll address as many of the questions as I can in the coming weeks. Feel free to keep adding to the list and I’ll use it as a basis for future posts.
Reader Dave Op requested the following:
A re-cap of the connection (stopover) rules if using points. I know this is probably somewhere in your post. Maybe an update of the previous write up.
To keep things simple I’ll address this as it pertains to international transoceanic award tickets.
Stopovers and open jaws are one of the best ways to maximize award tickets. So let’s recap the stopover and open jaw rules of the four (soon to be three) “major” US carriers. For those of you not familiar, a stopover, as the name suggests, is when you stop in a city enroute to your destination. Any stop of less than 24 hours along the way at an international city doesn’t count as a stopover for the purposes of an award. There’s no limit to how long your stopover can be, aside from travel having to be complete within the validity period of the ticket, which is one year from the date of issue.
An open jaw is when you fly into one city and out of another. For example, say you’re flying from the US to Asia and want to fly into Singapore and return out of Bangkok. That would be considered an open jaw, as illistrutated below.
With that in mind, let’s break it down by airline:
American
American allows a stopover only at the North American transoceanic gateway city. That’s defined as the city at which you board your transoceanic flight (or if we’re going to get technical, in the case of a flight marketed as a “direct” flight, that might not be the city at which you actually “take off” on your transoceanic flight).
All American awards are priced as one-way tickets, so you’re allowed a stopover at the North American transoceanic gateway city in both directions. So for example if you’re traveling from New York to Hong Kong via Los Angeles in one direction and San Francisco in the other direction, you could stop over in both cities (I feel dumb using the arrows, but I couldn’t resist) since they’re you’re transoceanic gateway in both cities.
You can have layovers of up to 24 hours enroute, but no other stopovers are allowed. Since awards are priced as one-ways there’s no need for any open jaws, since that only applies in the case of a roundtrip. If you’d like more stopovers enroute on an American award you can book one of their distance based awards.
Delta
Delta allows one stopover of more than 24 hours AND one open jaw per roundtrip award ticket. So for example if you’re looking at traveling from Los Angeles to Australia you could route via Guangzhou on China Southern on the outbound and have a stopover there for a few days. Then you could fly into Sydney, and let’s say you wanted to return out of Brisbane as you’d make your way between Sydney and Brisbane via ground transportation. That would be possible on a single roundtrip award.
United
United is probably the most generous of the bunch in that they allow a stopover and double open jaw on a roundtrip award ticket. What that means is that you can start and end your trip in different places (for example, start your trip in Chicago and end it in Newark), and fly into and out of different cities at your destination (for example, into London and out of Athens), while still having a stopover (as illustrated below, you could have a stopover in Madrid on your return from Athens to Newark). This is extremely generous as most other airlines would consider two open jaws to simply be two one ways, which doesn’t entitle one to a stopover. But with United you get the best of both worlds.
US Airways
US Airways allows either a stopover or an open jaw, but not both. The added restriction is that the stopover has to be at either a US Airways transoceanic gateway city (in other words, at one of their international destinations) or at a Star Alliance hub. I find they’re somewhat loose with enforcing the Star Alliance hub rule, mainly because many US Airways agents don’t know the Star Alliance hubs, especially for countries they’re not familiar with. In other words, every city in Japan is an ANA hub, every city in South Africa is a South African Airways hub, etc.
So for example you could fly from Philadelphia to Munich and then return back to Philadelphia with a stopover in Paris on the way back. Alternatively you could forgo the stopover and fly into and out of different cities at either your origin or destination (for example, out of Philadelphia and return to Charlotte, OR into Munich and out of Paris).
Any questions/comments?
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February 16th, 2013 at 9:29 am
Eric said,
It might be better if, under the American section, you said…. “You can have layovers/connections of up to 24 hours enroute but no stopovers (more than 24 hours between flights) are allowed.” That seems less confusing then trying to differentiate a stopover of less than 24 hours (which is actually a layover/connection) versus a stopover of greater than 24 hours.
February 16th, 2013 at 9:35 am
collector said,
For American airlines stopover rule, you indicated that “you can have stopovers of up to 24 hours enroute…” Are you sure it’s only up to 24 hours? I think there is an error here.
February 16th, 2013 at 9:35 am
Abhinav G. said,
Great, useful post!
Do these stopover and open-jaw rules also apply to award travel on partner airlines?
February 16th, 2013 at 9:43 am
Jason said,
VERY good post. thumbs up to how clear and concise you made it (normally a huge mess trying to read routing rules written by lawyers)
February 16th, 2013 at 9:59 am
avidtraveler said,
What are the restrictions for intra-region award tickets?
February 16th, 2013 at 10:04 am
Seth said,
Lucky is hawaii considered a transoceanic flight, which would entitle you to a stopover?
February 16th, 2013 at 10:07 am
sumanth said,
For American , are stop overs allowed on partner flights. So for example, can I travel from MAA to HNL with stopover in ORD using ETIHAD? So can I have a stop over in ORD for more than 24hrs.
February 16th, 2013 at 10:22 am
Jason said,
Can I use united miles and fly with LH JFK-FRA-NRT stop over in NRT then BKK?
So im, flying from JFK to BKK with a stop over in NRT on LH?.
February 16th, 2013 at 10:27 am
Eric said,
On United, are you allowed two stopovers and an open jaw?
For example, using your itinerary above, could you fly Chicago with a stopover in London continuing on to Amsterdam and then fly back from Athens to Madrid continuing on to Newark?
Also, you mention stopovers can last up to a year. What if the airline has not released their schedules that far out? Can you add in the stopover after the fact once the flight you want that may be 11 months later finally gets released?
This is an extremely useful post, thank you!
February 16th, 2013 at 10:35 am
Eric said,
Also, sometimes when you try to book a United flight with United miles, a US Air flight comes up. If that happens, which rules apply? United or US?
Same question for all other partners, if I use United to book a Swiss flight, do the United rules apply?
Thanks again!
February 16th, 2013 at 10:41 am
Jim R said,
So if I originate from Asia, say SIN, I could use HKG as a transoceanic stopover city if I travel to LAX?
February 16th, 2013 at 11:17 am
'":?\ said,
@Eric If you use UA miles, UA rules apply no matter who the carrier is. You can fly the ORD-LHR Stopover, LHR-AMS Destination, OpenJaw ATH-MAD-EWR. You are using two OJ’s and One SO in that routing and its valid even if some UA agents argue that your stop in AMS is counted as a SO. Just hangup and callback for some one else to ticket it.
February 16th, 2013 at 11:21 am
ikonos said,
Somehow my name changed above and the post is waiting moderation. Reposting
@Eric If you use UA miles, UA rules apply no matter who the carrier is. You can fly the ORD-LHR Stopover, LHR-AMS Destination, OpenJaw ATH-MAD-EWR. You are using two OJ’s and One SO in that routing and its valid even if some UA agents argue that your stop in AMS is counted as a SO. Just hangup and callback for some one else to ticket it.
@sumanth yes you can do that if you are using AA miles. Does not matter who the carrier is.
@seth HI is not considered a transoceanic flight. Its a local flight and HNL is a valid SO for AA
@Abhinav The rules apply to all partners of the airlines whose miles you are using. The tickets are issued by that airline and not the partners. Hence its rules.
February 16th, 2013 at 11:29 am
ikonos said,
@JimR AA stop overs are only allowed within NA. So you can’t have a SO in HKG that is longer than 24 hours.
February 16th, 2013 at 11:47 am
ikonos said,
@Jason yes your routing is valid but not sure if it goes over the MPM.
February 16th, 2013 at 11:55 am
Jason said,
What’s MPM?
February 16th, 2013 at 11:56 am
ikonos said,
@Lucky How can you find “direct flights” from your location say SEA?
February 16th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
ikonos said,
@Jason MPM is maximum permitted mileage and UA allows you to cross the MPM of JFK-BKK by 15% or so. But I dont see a TATL MPM JFK-BKK, so am not sure. Try booking that route with SO at NRT on UA website and see what it says. It might work though.
February 16th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Hobo13 said,
Wow, it seems you could use these rules to get a free one way on every award ticket. In fact, I bet I could start a whole blog about getting free one ways on award tickets!
February 16th, 2013 at 1:03 pm
BBD said,
Do you know the defacto number of segments allowed on each airline award ticket? I think it’s 12 for UA and 8 for US. What about AA and Delta?
February 16th, 2013 at 1:04 pm
BBD said,
@Lucky Do you know the defacto number of segments allowed on each airline award ticket? I think it’s 12 for UA and 8 for US. What about AA and Delta?
February 16th, 2013 at 1:07 pm
Austin said,
I currently have an award booked out of PDX to BKK and then SIN-PDX using United miles on partner airlines. Is there anything I could tack on to this at the end without increasing the miles cost?
February 16th, 2013 at 1:11 pm
yesleez said,
For United on the return, I’m assuming you can return to ORD from ATH instead of EWR correct?
Also, from that itinerary, would one be able to add positioning flights from/to LAX both ways for free?
LAX-ORD and EWR-LAX
Thanks!
February 16th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
choi said,
these rules at time are easy and at most very confusing. could you look at this itinerary if its legal with a free oneway for UA pts
Lax-nrt
nrt-bkk
sgn-icn-lax(home)(stopover)
free oneway
lax-orlando – some months later
February 16th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Max said,
(1) For a US Airways 90k US-N Asia award, do you think a stopover in, say, Geneva would work? Or would it have to be ZRH to be considered a proper Star Alliance (LX) hub?
(2) Say the eventual itinerary is MIA-ZRH/ZRH-NRT. Since US only allows RT awards, would you have to return via Europe or could you return transpac, say NRT-ORD-MIA?
February 16th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Mitch said,
@BBD Delta has a hard rule of four segments each direction for international awards. It’s clearly spelled out in the fare rules you can see when doing a partner booking on delta.com. Sometimes people make themselves think they have gotten five and three, but really what’s going on there is that Delta’s definition of the destination and stopover are reversed from the passenger’s. (For domestic awards, Delta allows a stopover and an open jaw but only three segments each direction.)
February 16th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
Jorge said,
I used an AA award to Istanbul with a stop over of 1 week in Madrid.
MIA-MAD on AA
MAD-IST on IB
IST_MAD on IB stayed 1 week in MAD
MAD-MIA on AA
We booked over the phone and was the standard AA 40k miles in October.
My friend who I traveled with did one stop over in London for 1 week as well.
JFK-LHR on AA
LHR-IST on BA
IST-LHR stayed one week in London
LHR-JFK on AA
same 40K plus phone fee.
February 16th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Ann said,
You neglected to mention AA’s distance-based awards, which allow for several stopovers.
February 16th, 2013 at 4:13 pm
lucky said,
@ Eric — I changed the word “stopover” to “layover.” Hopefully that clears it up.
@ collector — That’s correct, aside from the stopover at the transoceanic gateway city, you can only stop anywhere else enroute for up to 24 hours.
@ Abhinav G. — Yep, the above rules apply to travel on partner airlines as well.
@ Jason — Thanks!
@ avidtraveler — Was trying to save that for a separate post to keep things really simple, though aside from Delta no stopovers are allowed on an intra-region award (though an open jaw typically is).
February 16th, 2013 at 4:19 pm
lucky said,
@ Seth — Delta will allow a stopover, though aside from that they’re not allowed.
@ sumanth — Absolutely, that would be allowed, assuming Chicago is your transoceanic gateway city.
@ Jason — Yes, but only if it were a roundtrip award. On a one-way award you’re not allowed a stopover.
@ Eric — You’re only allowed a maximum of one stopover on United. However, with the itinerary you mention it looks like there’s only one stopover, unless you were planning on staying in Madrid for more than 24 hours. You can always add in a stopover at a later point after booking. However, it’ll get REALLY tricky to do so once travel has started, so I suggest doing so before departure.
February 16th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
lucky said,
@ Eric — The rules always apply of the airline with which you’re booking.
@ Jim R — Nope, it has to be the North American transoceanic gateway city, so you couldn’t stopover in Hong Kong.
@ ikonos — I don’t believe there’s an easy way to look up “direct” flights out of a given city, but rather I just stumble across them once in a while.
@ Hobo13 — LOL!
@ BBD — For US it’s actually 10 (you’re allowed four transfers in each direction). And for United and American it’s at least 12. With Delta it’s four in each direction.
February 16th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
lucky said,
@ Austin — It doesn’t sound like you have a stopover, so you should be able to tag on a one way to just about anywhere in North America for a later date.
@ yesleez — Absolutely on both counts.
@ choi — That looks fine, assuming you’re not planning on stopping in Tokyo or Seoul.
@ Max — Geneva counts as a hub, so you’d be fine. You could return via the Pacific as well if you wanted to.
February 16th, 2013 at 4:29 pm
lucky said,
@ Jorge — How long ago did you book that? Back in the day American allowed stopovers, though not anymore.
@ Ann — No I didn’t, it’s at the bottom of the American section with a link to a post on that.
February 16th, 2013 at 4:33 pm
sjs said,
For the record, UA’s double OJ, IME, is highly theoretical. You can’t book it online, very few agents know about it, the rate desk doesn’t always like it, and if you actually can book it, it takes hours on hold.
February 16th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Nkk said,
Hey Lucky
I booked iAd to fra to acc and back to iAd on United about 3 months ago. Can I tack on a free one way from iAd to mco? How do I go about doing that if possible. Great post!
February 16th, 2013 at 5:17 pm
ikonos said,
@sjs I ended up booking a double OJ unintentionally but don’t think it was difficult.
@Nkk I think united would charge you change fee for that.
February 16th, 2013 at 5:23 pm
Jorge said,
We booked that in 2010. Maybe we got lucky ( no pun intended).
February 16th, 2013 at 5:26 pm
Anatsky said,
thanks so much Lucky for this post, I am starting to get it.. all those flights with open jaws can you make the reservation online or by calling the airlines?
February 16th, 2013 at 5:31 pm
Nkk said,
If you tack on a one way will it be in the same cabin as the rest of the award?
February 16th, 2013 at 5:34 pm
Dave Op said,
Thank you for taking up my question. I was also getting confuse between connection and stopover/layover terms.
On United, how does one book a round trip flight with layover and open jaw? Online or call? I tried it online, but it tells me to call.
Very useful post. I also now remembered about the distance base award on OneWorld alliance.
February 16th, 2013 at 5:49 pm
lucky said,
@ sjs — Interesting, I’ve had no problems getting them to price it.
@ Anatsky — Typically it’s easier to book by phone for more complicated itineraries (though in many cases they can be booked online).
@ Nkk — Yep, same cabin pending availability.
@ Dave Op — Happy you found it useful! With United it has to be booked by phone in most instances since their website isn’t good at pricing complex itineraries.
February 16th, 2013 at 9:45 pm
Jerry H said,
Can we include AIR CANADA for the sake of “North America/Star Alliance” airline?
I think their Mini-RTW (125K in J and up) allows 2 stopovers/open jaws in total PLUS destination
February 16th, 2013 at 10:47 pm
steven said,
Great Post and thanks for the info! I am assuming any reward tickets would have to be booked using an agent and would cost the same as if it was a more direct r/t flight. And would help to do some research on flights to take advantage of these rules..
February 16th, 2013 at 10:56 pm
jjj0003 said,
Lucky,
Thank you for the post.
I have always wanted to ask you the following question: Is SFO-PEK, and PEK-HNL considered as an open jaw round trip? if so, can I do SFO-PEK, PEK-SFO(stop) and SFO-HNL?
Thanks.
February 16th, 2013 at 11:11 pm
lucky said,
@ Jerry H — That’s correct, you can do two stopovers OR one stopover and one open jaw on an Aeroplan award.
@ steven — Right. In some cases you can book them online, though for more complex itineraries it can make sense to book by phone.
@ jjj0003 — I unfortunately don’t think flying Beijing to Honolulu via San Francisco is legal, or else it would price.
February 17th, 2013 at 12:42 am
MT said,
Great post.
February 17th, 2013 at 10:44 am
Chancensam said,
Thanks for the info – and great timing for me.
Wondering if the following meets the requirements, as they are all OJ?
PDX-MIL
PSA-CDG
LHR-LAX
LAX-EUG
On UA site, it wants me to call their agent, so I thought I’d ask here, first.
February 17th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
lucky said,
@ Chancensam — That’s more or less a triple open jaw, which doesn’t work.
February 18th, 2013 at 3:03 pm
nathaniel said,
On Delta, do I have to return over the same ocean as I started with? PDX-DEL via LAX and SVO on way there with stopover at SVO. Could I then return via CAN and YVR to PDX? Both directions would be below the MPM for each direction.
February 18th, 2013 at 6:52 pm
lucky said,
@ nathaniel — Hmmm, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to price a Delta award to India via the Pacific. I don’t think there’s a rule expressly prohibiting it, though if it’s a valid routing you shouldn’t have any issue doing so.
February 19th, 2013 at 6:14 am
Mitch said,
@nathaniel CZ’s PDX-DEL routings require travel via LAX: DEL-CAN-LAX-PDX. DL does publish a TPAC-routed MPM-based fare for PDX-DEL, but good luck getting an agent or their computers to recognize that routing.
February 20th, 2013 at 7:23 pm
LX said,
@ lucky
What are some possible regions to get a change for free? (i.e. schedule change, but are there other ones?) Asking esp. in regards to USAir. Thanks!
February 20th, 2013 at 7:25 pm
lucky said,
@ LX — Just an involuntary change, be it schedule, product, etc.
March 17th, 2013 at 10:34 pm
Farhad said,
A bit delayed to posting but was hoping you could help me out. You say DL allows stopover AND open jaw but I’m running into issues trying to book a domestic award ticket (I know I know, it’s not Intl J but if it works out for 40K miles it’s a pretty good value). I’m trying to go SFO-SEA (2 days stop in SEA)- BOS, and then return JFK-SFO. That’s a stopover and an open jaw, right?
I followed the conventional Delta award search advice and looked one segment at a time and each desired flight is available at medium/40K level (SFO-SEA is low level but I understand it will all price as medium).
Online priced at 105K miles, and same with a phone agent. I mentioned the stopover and openjaw rule to the agent and she pointed me to the DL T&C (http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles/about-skymiles/program-rules-conditions.html) where it says under Open Jaw that “Open-jaw travel is permitted and counts as a stopover. Restrictions apply. For details, please contact a Delta representative.”
So is this rule true or not? Or am I approaching this ticket all wrong?
March 18th, 2013 at 2:29 am
lucky said,
@ Farhad — To be clear, are you flying SEA to BOS nonstop, or connecting? I suspect the first issue is that to have a stopover on a domestic itinerary it has to be a legal routing, and that isn’t one.
You’re definitely allowed a stopover and an open jaw on an international itinerary, though on a domestic itinerary I believe you may just be allowed a stopover.
March 18th, 2013 at 11:03 am
Farhad said,
The only award availability that came up was with stops on DL.
I actually posted in the DL forum last night as well (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1449075-problem-booking-domestic-award-stopover-open-jaw.html#post20440471) and it looks like we figured out what the problem was.
From a poster that figured out the issue: “Ok, this is what the engine is doing:
1. It considers SFO-SEA as a separate award ticket and prices it at 25K miles
2. It considers SEA-DTW-BOS and JFK-SFO as two separate award tickets and prices both at 40K each. Since SEA-SFO is ignored by the engine it sees a second open jaw at the end of the itinerary (i.e. it thinks you are starting in SEA and terminating in SFO).
What you need to do is
Change SEA-DTW-BOS on DL to the nonstop AS (SEA-BOS) if available. Otherwise I don’t think it would be possible to use SEA as a stopover with SFO as origin and BOS/JFK as destination.”
Long story short, in order to work out the SFO-SEA portion, I need AS award space to open up on SEA-BOS since the DL option forces a 2nd award ticket at 40K miles. Looks like I’ll just be doing SFO-BOS JFK-SFO for now
March 18th, 2013 at 11:05 am
Farhad said,
Oh, and it looks like that the same stopover + OJ rules apply on domestic as one of the posters in the FT thread was able to price the same itin out for 32.5K miles
March 27th, 2013 at 6:45 am
Kathy said,
I just booked a United ticket to Europe is it to late to add a free one way to my ticket? Like to the US somewhere later from MCO. Here is what I have now.
MCO-Rome
Rome-London Heathrow
Dublin-MCO
March 27th, 2013 at 6:49 am
lucky said,
@ Kathy — It looks like you already have a stopover and an open jaw, so you wouldn’t be entitled to an additional one-way.
April 1st, 2013 at 12:29 pm
Tania said,
Lucky, what about rules for one way award tickets on these airlines? Well specifically American and United since Delta and US Air don’t allow it.
Specifically – I have a one way united award ticket from JFK to SIN booked at 60K Biz class. I am trying to add a segment to DEL (economy since business isn’t available) but it’s pricing with another additional 25K miles and the agent say stopovers are not allowed on one way award tickets, it’s considered a separate one way award, hence the extra miles.
Is that right? Can I get this at 60K miles or will I have to pay an additional 25K miles? Please advise. Thank you.
April 1st, 2013 at 12:47 pm
lucky said,
@ Tania — Are you trying to stop in Singapore for more than 24 hours?
April 1st, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Tania said,
Hi Lucky, Thanks so much for responding so promptly, yes I have a 4 day stopover in Singapore. Did I screw it up by not booking delhi as a destination in one go or am I just not allowed a stopover?
April 1st, 2013 at 2:08 pm
lucky said,
@ Tania — You can’t have a stopover of more than 24 hours on a one way award regardless. If it were a roundtrip award you could, though not on a one way.
April 1st, 2013 at 2:58 pm
Tania said,
*Darn*
Can i say that here 
Thanks for the info, so appreciate it. A *diet coke* cheers to you!
April 12th, 2013 at 1:29 pm
Mavis said,
Hey Lucky: I am planning a trip and find this post very helpful! In the coming summer, I’ll fly from PVG(China) to CTS(Japan) and have a short vacation there. Then from CTS to LAX and have a meeting for another couple of days, and my final destination would be DFW. Now I have two ways of using my miles:
UA: CTS-LAX only I guess? I guess I have to ask for ANA because no award ticket under UA. It’s just one-way so I cannot get any stopovers, right?
AA: Very limited award seats. But if possible, maybe CTS-LAX-DFW? Is AA and BA the only two website showing all available award ticket?
Thanks!
April 12th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
lucky said,
@ Mavis — Neither airline will allow a stopover in CTS on a one-way award. Your best bet for CTS to the US would be American, since they’ll let you stop over in Los Angeles enroute to Dallas.
The American website is the best place to see American award space, while the BA and Qantas websites are better for seeing space on Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, etc.
April 12th, 2013 at 2:21 pm
Mavis said,
Thanks Lucky! Yeah, I am aware that I have to get PVG to CTS by myself
The difficult part for AA is that award seats for NRT to LAX are very limited. I checked on BA as well for Japan airlines while do not see anything early August. Do you think they will show up later?
April 12th, 2013 at 2:59 pm
Mavis said,
One more question, if I use my UA/AA to book ANA/Japan tickets, round-trip or one-way from PVG to CTS, do you think I can stopover in NRT? Thank you again!
April 12th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
lucky said,
@ Mavis — It’s definitely a tough time of the year for award space, though I’d say there’s a good chance of space opening up as the departure date approaches.
United allows a single stopover on a roundtrip, while American wouldn’t allow that unless you were on one of their distance based OneWorld awards.
April 12th, 2013 at 8:47 pm
Mavis said,
Got you! Thanks a lot man~
April 16th, 2013 at 11:24 am
Xavier said,
On UA award, are you allowed to use the open jaw on your stopover, or do you have to use it on the front or back end? For example, could i book a EWR-IST(IST is destination) IST-MUC(MUC is stopover)FRA-EWR(open jaw between Munich and Frankfurt)itinerary?
April 16th, 2013 at 7:44 pm
lucky said,
@ Xavier — The stopover has to be at the turnaround point, so you couldn’t use it mid-itinerary.
April 25th, 2013 at 7:45 am
Mark D. said,
So if I want to do a stop over using AA awards for something like 300 days (how long is possible?), how do I book that next leg of the flight?
If I am booking the first leg 330 days in advance, then the second leg 300 days after that is not available until it is almost time to fly the first leg.
April 25th, 2013 at 7:46 am
Mark D. said,
Was thinking of a HNL-JFK(stop)-CDG flight for instance.
April 25th, 2013 at 1:55 pm
lucky said,
@ Mark D. — Tickets are only valid for a year from the date of issue, so all travel has to be complete within a year of the time of ticketing. Therefore you couldn’t book a Honolulu to New York flight 330 days out, and then a New York to Paris flight a further 300 days out.
April 30th, 2013 at 7:52 pm
Lynn said,
Lucky-does the final stop need to be in the same region as the initial departure? I am tryin to book SJD to STL stop to ANC destination to STL on United. It is not pricing out for me. It will if I enter final flight as ANC to any airport in Mexico.
April 30th, 2013 at 8:03 pm
lucky said,
@ Lynn — You’re only allowed a stopover on awards between regions. If your return is from Anchorage to St. Louis that’s not an award between regions, so you wouldn’t be allowed a stopover.
May 8th, 2013 at 2:37 pm
sue said,
On United, I did the following in January:
LAX – ICN (stopover) – BKK (destination) – ORD
I called United to see if I could stopover in FRA (transit) from BKK to ORD, but the agent said no since it would be considered as two stopovers. So I am not sure how it is possible to do the proposed route: ORD – LHR – ATH – MAD – EWR. I would love to find out!
May 8th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
lucky said,
@ sue — You could transit Frankfurt for less than 24 hours, but you can only have a single stopover.
The example I had given was to fly from Chicago to London, have an open jaw, and then fly from Athens to Madrid (and have a stopover there) to Newark. The flight between London and Athens wasn’t included, so there would only be one stopover.
May 8th, 2013 at 3:09 pm
sue said,
@ lucky – thank you for the prompt response! One more question for you. In #23 post, one asked if domestic routes can be added to your proposed UA itinerary on both ways (LAX-ORD and EWR-ORD). Looks like you said yes. I want to clarify if you could actually stopover in ORD and EWR both ways or just transit them.
May 8th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
lucky said,
@ sue — The question in comment 23 was regarding positioning flights. Those wouldn’t be stopovers, but rather just adding connecting flights to the itineraries to round it out. Hope that makes sense.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
May 19th, 2013 at 9:22 pm
dubaych said,
This might be a pretty common challenge: Planning a UA Caribbean — NYC (stopover) — Europe (destination)– NYC (home) trip. I found a Saver Award flight I can use as the first leg but it would be better if I could fly Caribbean to NYC one day later. When I search one way there are Saver flights that day, but they connect through DC and I can’t add them to my Europe round trip. Is this a quirk of united.com that can be overcome by calling or is it breaking the award rules? Also, I’m planning a couple 23 hour stopovers in Europe: am I correct that I have to call in to make those happen?
May 19th, 2013 at 9:41 pm
lucky said,
@ dubaych — Sounds like a website glitch. They should be able to book it correctly by phone.
May 22nd, 2013 at 2:04 pm
BDF said,
Can you have TWO stopovers and NO openjaw on United?
I would like to depart and return New Orleans going to Santorini (Thira) Greece. Want to STOPOVER in Vienna oneway and STOPOVER in Athens oneway!
Is there a way to make this work . . . Calling in stopovers, Openjaws, whatever . . . I have US and UA miles for business and could use either.
May 22nd, 2013 at 7:36 pm
lucky said,
@ BDF — No, you’re only allowed a single stopover on an award. Best you can do is (for example) have a stopover in Vienna on the way out, continue to Santorini, and then have an open jaw out of Athens. That way you’d only have to purchase the flight between Santorini and Athens separately.
May 22nd, 2013 at 7:58 pm
BDF said,
Could I stopover Vienna . . . Then have two Openjaws after Vienna stop …Prague to santorini … Athens new Orleans? Still getting separat flight santorini to Athens?
May 22nd, 2013 at 8:12 pm
lucky said,
@ BDF — You couldn’t because the stopover has to occur at the origin or destination (the turnaround points). It can’t be had enroute.
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