Having already discussed stopovers and open jaws before, this post is a simple overview about each airline’s rules.
I more thoroughly explain stopovers and open jaws here. For creative ways to use stopovers to save miles see here and here.
US Airways – Allows one stopover or one open jaw. One catch is that you have to be traveling in more than one region (as defined by their award chart) for a stopover. In other words, if your itinerary is within the lower 48, you can have an open jaw but no stopover.
United Airlines – United is most gracious as they allow one stopover and two open jaws. I didn’t use to be able to book both open jaws online, but doing some test on United.com it seemed to work no problem. United is abnormally gracious with pricing when using stopovers and I talk about how to book stopovers online with United here.
American Airlines – AA is the most strict, as a stopover is only allowed on international travel (except if travel is solely in North America) at the North American gateway. For example, if you’re flying from Houston to London and you have a layover in New York, you can make it a stopover. Being that you can book one way awards, you can make open jaws on either end.
Delta Airlines – I don’t fly Delta, but it is my understanding that you get one stopover and and one open jaw.
British Airways – British Airways is distance based and therefore charges per segment and mile and therefore doesn’t offer stopovers in the same way. However, I just did a post on Breaking BA Avios By Adding Stopovers. It’s a good post for anyone with Avios!
I wonder if American Airlines would allow a stopover in Hawaii if I was flying Hawaiian Airlines to Tahiti? Also, is my Delta information correct?
Delta award info is correct. This year we flew SFO-CDG(stop) FCO. Then home from PRG-JFK-SFO. Booked on line for 60000 miles each plus modest taxes and fees.
Mark
Good to know and sounds like a good deal.
Love your post with helpful info. Have a question on trying to book an United award from DC – HKG via Europe using 1 stopover & 1 open-jaw: DC – LHR(stopover) then (open-jaw)BCN – HKG via FRA & PEK, HKG – DC via PEK] Seemed compliant to the award routing rules., but United reservation said it crosses Atlantic & Pacific and need more miles… Your inputs & insights are appreciated. Thanks.
This is a super common route so I’m not sure why they don’t book it. Sometimes I just give it to them leg by leg and let the computer price it. If they just put it in, the computer should price it like an Asia ticket.
Also, the Multiple Destination tool might save $25. And it’s an easy book. Go to united.com, click multiple destination and award ticket and then put it all in. Click the saver awards all the way though.