This spring we had the opportunity to redeem airline miles for a trip to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Paris. A once in a lifetime opportunity. It was all possible by effective use of stopovers and open jaws.
Trip Intenerary
1) Hilton Seychelles – Mahe, Seychelles
2) Grand Mauritian Resort & Spa – Turtle Bay, Mauritius
3) Park Hyatt Paris – Paris, France
Use of a Stopover and Open Jaw
Let me provide a detailed example how we used both the stopover and the open jaw with the SkyTeam alliance. It was difficult to decide where to celebrate the special ocassion, but we had narrowed it down to the Seychelles or Paris. Then we thought, why not go to both?
The flight to the Seychelles was going to be very long so we thought it would be great to explore an island near the Seychelles, then on the way home stop over in Paris. We settled on an itenerary that would take us through Paris to the Seychelles Islands, then by using an open jaw we’d go to Mauritius. On our return we would fly out of Mauritius to Paris and stay there for 5 nights. Then return back to Tampa by flying through Atlanta.
Our Itinerary
Once we settled on our destinations and routings we searched the SkyTeam network for available flights and came up with the following itenerary.
Outbound Segment(s)
Tampa (TPA) > Atlanta (ATL)
Delta Airlines First Class, 2 Hour Layover in Atlanta
Atlanta (ATL) > Paris (CDG)
Delta Airlines Business Elite, 10 Hour Layover in Paris at the Airport Marriot Hotel
Paris (CDG) > Seychelles (SEZ)
Air Seychelles Pearl Class (Air France Code Share)
6 Nights at the Hilton Seychelles (Trip Report)
Open Jaw
Seycheles (SEZ) > Mauritius (MRU)
This Flight was not included in the award ticket
Purchased 2 separate $220 Tickets on Air Seychelles in Pearl Class
4 Nights at the Luxury Collection Grand Mauritian Resort in Mauritius(Trip Report)
Stopover
Mauritius (MRU) > Paris (CDG)
Air France Affaires Class, 5 Nights at the Park Hyatt Paris (Trip Report)
Return Segment(s)
Paris (CDG) > Atlanta (ATL)
Delta Airlines Business Elite, 2 Hour Layover
Atlanta (ATL) > Tampa (TPA)
Delta Airlines Business Elite
(Great Circle Mapper)
Maximizing the Award Value
A Delta award ticket to Europe in Business Elite would have been 100,000 Delta SkyMiles by itself, and a Business Elite ticket to Africa would have been 120,000 SkyMiles by itself. Since I acomplished visiting Paris through the use of a stop over, and visited Mauritius & Seychelles using an open jaw, the ticket only priced out at 120,000 skymiles per person. This was a fairly complex award ticket to book. I used NWA’s Japan award availability tool to find the SkyTeam availability on each flight separately. Then I called the Platinum award desk to work with the agent to find the availability and put the award together, well worth the $25 over the phone booking fee.
When we issued the award tickets each flight was selling for a little over $9,000. I achieved a point value $.075 cents per mile ($9,000/120,000 miles = .075). Pretty good value for 240,000 SkyMiles. The only drawback was that Air Seychelles doesn’t issue electronic tickets. Our entire itenerary was issued as paper tickets which made us a little uncomfortable carrying around over $18,000 worth of airline tickets throughout our trip.
Bottom Line
Using the Stopover and/or OpenJaw can significantly increase the value of your award ticket and make your vacation more enjoyable by being able to visit multiple places in proximity to your destination. Each carrier has their own rules about these types of tickets so check into your carrier of choice prior to booking.
If you have any questions about your next booking email me and I’d be happy to try to help.
bathmate said,
So well and nice posting , I like it.
Austrailia Trip Give Away – Official Entry Post - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] use of open jaws or stop overs to ensure you get the most value out of your miles and trip. See my trip report here on how I used both an open jaw and stop over to get to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Paris in [...]
Triple Sky Pesos Between MSP and ORD, MDW, or DEN - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] per mile for a trip to the Seychelles and Mauritius on Delta, Air France and Air Seychelles, see trip report here. If you are flying these routes anyway you might as well sign [...]
Eddie Tours said,
Mauritius is indeed the country of diversity par excellence. It is an excellent reason to honeymoon to this exceptional country offering extremely attractive natural spaces.
melinda polardino said,
HELLO,
I WANT TO KNOW IF YOU CAN MAKE AIRLINE RESERVATION FOR TWO OF OUR CORAL SPORT MEMBER TRAVEL FROM GHANA ACCRA TO SEYCHELLES AND I WANT YOU TO MAKE THE RESERVATION ON EMIRATE AIRLINE FOR TWO OF THEM AND GIVE ME THE PRICE PER EACH PERSON IF YOU WANT TO DICUSS WITH ME YOU CAN CALL ME ON +12018829619 THIS IS THE NAME OF THE TRAVELERS.
NAME…..AWOFODU BABATUNDE HASSAN.
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REGARDS
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Hilton Seychelles Report - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] Posted by The Weekly Flyer | One Comment var addthis_product = 'wpp-255'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};In this post I’ll describe the overall experience from our stay at the Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and Spa during our trip to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Paris. [...]
Grand Mauritian Resort Trip Report - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] Posted by The Weekly Flyer | No Comments var addthis_product = 'wpp-255'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};This is the 2nd stop on our trip to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Paris. [...]
The Park Hyatt Paris Trip Report - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] {"data_track_clickback":true,"ui_language":"en"};To complete the trip report series of our trip to the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Paris I’ll provide a review of the Park Hyatt in [...]
Demonstration On How To Use Delta Miles To Bora Bora - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] two greatest value awards I’ve used my Sky Miles for are my trip to the Seychelles in Business class on Air France, Delta and Air Seychelles, and an upcoming award to Bora Bora on [...]
The Weekly Flyer said,
Melinda, I hope you were able to find the booking you were looking for.
Giveaway – 10,000 American Express Membership Reward Points - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] Seychelles – Planning A Trip to The Seychelles with Delta SkyMiles [...]
Delta’s 777 Business Class Availability To Joburg - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] example, I’d add in an open jaw to a place like Mauritius and a stopover on the return in Paris (like I did in 2009.) No added miles cost to the award except for maybe taxes and [...]
Business Class Availability To Seychelles On SkyTeam - Points Miles and Martinis said,
[...] Delta SkyMiles for an Air France codeshare flight on Air Seychlles from Paris to Mahe, Maldives. Mrs. Weekly Flyer and I flew Air Seychelles on this route several years ago for only 120,000 SkyMile…. We built in a flight from Atlanta to Paris, to the Seychelles, open jaw, Mauritius to Paris, stop, [...]
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