Ever since United announced the introduction of one-way awards, some folks (like me) have been waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When American introduced one-way awards, they took away stopovers. They made all awads one-way awards, but said no stopovers were permitted – except in the internatioanl gateway city when connecting from a domestic flight. (American still permits stopovers, of course, on their distance-based oneworld awards.)

Now, this was far from necessary. Programs like British Airways and british midland permit stopovers on their one-way awards.

But United usually comes pretty close to following American. Without stopvoers, if you want to visit 3 cities, it takes 3 one-way awards. And you spend more miles. Pretty tempting change from a mileage program’s perspective, huh?

So United introduced one-way awards and those so far are limited to flights on United metal only, no partner or Star Alliance awards. For now stopover rules hadn’t changed. And partner awards still had to be roundtrip.

Well, fear no more — at least for now. United PR has posted on Flyertalk that stopovers aren’t being taken away on roundtrip awards. They’re not promising this won’t change in the future, but they seem to be suggesting for now stopovers aren’t about to go away:

We are glad to hear that you are enjoying our new One-Way Awards and Miles & Money Awards. We also appreciate your feedback on stopovers and open-jaw itineraries.

Our policy on stopovers and open jaws on roundtrip awards remains the same. You will still be able to book stopovers or open-jaw itineraries by calling United Reservations.

We realize you value open-jaws and stopovers. As we plan for future redemption options, we will take this feedback into consideration.

(HT: Carol)