Book a mileage ticket with a stop over one of the ways? Can You?

January 05th, 2009 edit

  • Is there a way to book a mileage ticket with a stop over? If so how?
    For example in my case; This week I want to fly out of a New York area airport, fly to Montreal (make a few hour stop or even maybe overnight) and then continue to Los Angeles. But when I return, I want to fly directly to the New York area.

    I can fly with American, United, Continental, or Delta (or any airline that you can transfer Amex Rerwards out of)

    Thanks

    P.S. I think using united I can fly with air canada as well


  • Delta does allow a free stop over, at least as of May '07. I'm not sure about the routing rules- if the stopover has to be "on the way" or if this would work. I did have some difficulty getting the stopover to work (and price correctly) redeeming Delta miles on partner flights, but be polite, keeping insisting it can be done, and escalate to a supervisor when booking over the phone. Oh, yeah, and expect to be on hold a lot. It helps if you've already figured out what flights have availability and can tell them, "do this."


  • ...I don't know whether this can be booked online, but I don't think so - call your elite desk...AA award tickets with stop-overs (or open-jaw, for that matter) cannot be booked online. They require what AA calls a "multi-city" routing, which on aa.com cannot be used together with an award ticket request. You do in fact have to call a live human.

    This raises the question of the inherent unfairness of charging a fee for making bookings via telephone that, because of AA's own decisions regarding aa.com, cannot be booked any other way. I raised this point with a telephone agent a while back, in the course of booking an award with both a stop-over and an open-jaw segment. They wouldn't waive the fee, but they gave me a roughly comparable number of miles. You might want to mention that too, on the chance that you'll get something and to keep reminding them that they ought to fix that unfair policy.


  • The 24-hour rule for stopovers applies on entirely North American itineraries on United awards? Is that true? If so, good news. (It doesn't apply with AA awards, for example.)


  • dupe post


  • American allows this for the same price in miles as a normal award (eg 25K in coach). It's only allowed for North American itineraries (there are other stopover rules for other types of itineraries). The stopover doesn't have to be remotely 'on the way', so your itinerary would be fine. I don't know whether this can be booked online, but I don't think so - call your elite desk. (The one potential problem I can think of is that you'll probably have to route NYC-YUL-ORD-LAX-NYC, even if NYC-YUL-NYC-LAX-NYC might work better for your particular times, but I'm also not sure about this.)

    Continental allows a stopover but it costs more and has to be on the routing anyway (in practice this means at a CO/NW/DL/AS hub, with a few exceptions). So that wouldn't work here.

    I don't know about Delta.


  • for the record, united's policy is a bit more complicated than that. part of it depends on connections.

    You can on an overseas trip do in some situations an overnight stopover of less than 24 hours and then do another stopover overseas.

    most obviously it happens like this

    IAD-sfo arriving 10 p.m. (stay in a hotel overnight)
    leave sfo at noon to hkg (you can stop there)
    then hkg-sgn

    but if you stop in hkg going for more than 24 hours, you can't stop coming back.


  • American allows this for the same price in miles as a normal award (eg 25K in coach). It's only allowed for North American itineraries (there are other stopover rules for other types of itineraries). The stopover doesn't have to be remotely 'on the way', so your itinerary would be fine. I don't know whether this can be booked online, but I don't think so - call your elite desk. (The one potential problem I can think of is that you'll probably have to route NYC-YUL-ORD-LAX-NYC, even if NYC-YUL-NYC-LAX-NYC might work better for your particular times, but I'm also not sure about this.)



    I think a connection in the originating city is fine on an AA award, as long as it's a true connection (a few hours) and not a stopover. But, since as you point out, this must be booked by phone anyway, it's easy enough to ask then.


  • I recently tried to book using Alaska miles for a partner award (to cities Alaska doesn't serve). A stopover would have been fine on Alaska metal, but I was told by the reservationist that American wouldn't allow it. She tried for a long time, but eventually said the rules wouldn't allow it.


  • Anything less than 24 hours is not a stopover.

    For the OP - this is the key issue. You should be fine for your itinerary provided you find something that is allowable routing. I'm guessing, but you might try a Star Alliance award with Air Canada being NYC - YUL - LAX part of your itinerary, and UA being the LAX - NYC part of your itinerary.


  • I don't know specifically about the other airlines, but with UA you can not have a stopover on an award ticket - except in another award zone. (Example between NA and Southeast Asia, you could stop over in Hawaii or Japan.) But because NYC, YUL and LAX are all in the same award zone, you could not do so.


  • for the record, united's policy is a bit more complicated than that.
    Actually, it's extremely simple. One stopover is allowed on any award between two geographic regions. No stopover is allowed on any award completely within one geographic region.

    You can on an overseas trip do in some situations an overnight stopover of less than 24 hours and then do another stopover overseas.
    Anything less than 24 hours is not a stopover.


  • United used to fly to Venezuela.

    Once I decided to use my miles for a round-trip from Caracas to the USA and back, and this was my itinerary:

    Day One: Caracas-Miami-New York

    Two Weeks later: New York-Miami

    Six Months later: Miami-Caracas

    Decide for yourself. I did it in Venezuela on the phone (Not online, and not on the phone in the USA, 'cause they aren't too nice about it)


  • AA award tickets with stop-overs (or open-jaw, for that matter) cannot be booked online. They require what AA calls a "multi-city" routing, which on aa.com cannot be used together with an award ticket request. You do in fact have to call a live human.

    This raises the question of the inherent unfairness of charging a fee for making bookings via telephone that, because of AA's own decisions regarding aa.com, cannot be booked any other way...

    Somewhat off topic... I also find with United that, with a live reservationist, more Saver Award itineraries open up when the objective is a transcon RT. And often connections are available, when nothing shows on the booking web page. Frustrating, but usually in the event, I'm more relieved to get the trip than p.o.'ed. This has happened many times.

    Still, and to the OP's question: No stopovers on UA domestic. For DL, there's this thread (I don't know how to do the link thing):

    New rules, mileage levels for SkyMiles award tickets (Routes, Conx, Stops, Open-Jaw)







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