<Quick recap> from yesterday’s post.United allows a stopover and open-jaws and you can use the stopover in your home town and open-jaw to a different location for a later date. Kids these days call it a “free one-way”. So you can fly NYC to Rome and come back to NYC and use that as your stopover and later fly to Houston (which would be your open-jaw as you started in NYC and ended in Houston). Sometimes this can save miles and this can even be used on international routes.
Even on roundtrips with United, they price the routes each way. This way if you open-jaw to a different region, it can be priced correctly. So a one-way from the US to Europe is 30,000 miles. A one-way from Europe to the Caribbean is 27,500 miles. So on a roundtrip it will cost 57,500 miles even if you route through the US to get to the Caribbean… even if you use your stopover in the US. </Quick recap>
Save miles. See more. That’s the goal. My problem with these “free” one-ways is that now you can’t use your stopover in Europe or elsewhere. So if we’re losing a stopover, we better be gaining a very valuable oneway! So here are the one-way add ons to the end of a roundtrip that are killer. The ones that save miles and/or are flights to awesomely valuable places.
Let’s start with this chart (click to blow it up). The yellow areas are zones that have the same cost and red marks zones that are cheaper to route to. You may or may not be able to route through the US when connecting to your desired zone. But you might as well try.
Well let’s get this started with some examples.
If you haven’t read How to Book Stopovers on United, you should probably read that first.
US to Hawaii and South America for 60,000 miles
This is a good one to start on. Notice that South America to Hawaii is 30,000 miles – the same cost as going back to the US. This means that you can do a roundtrip to South America and tack on a trip to Hawaii.
US to the Middle East to Hawaii
Similarly, you can book a trip to the Middle East and return to Hawaii via your home in the US.
Similarly, JFK – CAI – JFK – LIM = 85,000 miles and ending in the Caribbean would also cost 80,000 miles.
US to South America to Central America for 50,000 miles
The exact same route as the first one except by adding Panama City, Panama (PTY) instead of HNL would give a route to Santiago, Chile and Panama for 50,000 miles. This is a huge saving.
These routes have similar results:
- Houston (IAH) – Santiago, Chile (SCL) – Houston (IAH) – San Juan, Puerto Rico (SJU) = 60,ooo miles
- Houston (IAH) – Santiago, Chile (SCL) – Houston (IAH) – Cancun (CUN) = 55,000 miles
Routes that actually save miles…
We can think of routes that can add on domestics or little Caribbean hops all day but what are some routes that save miles?
North America to Asia to Hawaii for 57,500 miles
Notice that US/Canada to North/South Asia is 32,500 miles. But North/South Asia to Hawaii is 25,000 miles. Yes by adding adding a trip to Hawaii, you’ll be saving 7,500 miles.
I seem to have bad luck booking this online when starting from a US airport instead of a Canadian airport. But I’m pretty sure it will work on the phone.
Untested but likely…
Most of my ideas need to be called in but I might as well give these ideas away and see who can use them.
Australia/New Zealand and Oceania flights are cheaper to Hawaii than the US
Exactly like it sounds you can do a roundtrip to New Zealand and then route back through Los Angeles and then tack on a trip to Hawaii. Some routes might have more success than others but I find United is pretty lenient in their allowance of backtracking. The easiest would be this:
Los Angeles (LAX) – Rarotonga, Cook Islands (RAR) – Los Angeles (LAX) / Los Angeles (LAX) – Honolulu (HNL) = 60,000 miles (70,000 miles)
Los Angeles (LAX) – Rarotonga, Cook Islands (RAR) – Los Angeles (LAX) / Los Angeles (LAX) – Panama City, Panama (PTY) = 75,000 miles
This is almost the same concept as routes from Asia ending in Hawaii.
Untested and doubtful… or at least questionable…
There are a lot of routes from the Middle East and Africa that don’t have many options near North America to tack on to make it cheaper but why not try to come all the way back?
South African Airways has direct flights from New York (JFK) to Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB). Do you think New York would be considered “on the” way back to Dubai or something? With United, it seems likely.
Anyways, a lot of these routes might not save miles but the idea is that they give you a free international flight. If you’re swept away by the “free” thing, go big. I’m told by an ex-door-to-door sales man that the key to selling something is a ton of free worthless things.
Free one-ways are never free and never worth it
I lied. Free one-ways are still stupid and none of these are better deals. Let’s go back to the third example. US to South America back to the US and then to the Central. Technically this is 10,000 miles cheaper as it cost 50,00 miles instead of 60,000 miles right? It is a good deal right?
Wrong. This is not a free one-way, it will cost you way more!
Now you have to book a second ticket back costing another 17,500 miles. Making it a total of 67,500 miles spent. Well, isn’t that the cheapest way to see South America and Central America.
Wrong again. It’s called a simple stopover. You could simply book a stopover in PTY for 60,000 and wouldn’t need a second ticket to get you home. The thing I’ve been trying to tell you about United is that you can book anything. If you can tack it on, it could have been a stopover. Don’t be swept away thinking it’s a good deal. Just book a stopover the first time.
Okay, okay, I’ll quit pretending everyone has my schedule… or lack of. I kid a lot but I understand getting excited about “free one-ways” if tacking on an extra trip fits your schedule better. There are tools you can use in this post to book the trip you want and need. No doubt about it. You may need to be in Europe now and Hawaii later. People have schedules they need to keep. Plus you can use some of these concepts and combine them with other concepts like the post on How to Book Long Layovers with United. Perhaps you can book a trip like I did in that post, a one-way to Aruba, Panama and Puerto Rico for 17,500 miles and then use the concepts mentioned above to start in the Caribbean and go somewhere cool, like Europe.
Anyways, I hope my playing around with United and sharing some ideas is helpful for someone. I’d like to hear some more creative ideas using the award chart above on how to save miles. Next week I’ll share another concept that will actually save miles on your trips. No taking away your stopover but maximizing it to see more and save United miles.
What do you think? One-way or not to one-way?
![The [Only] United MileagePlus Award Chart](https://travelisfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/United-MileagePlus-United-Airlines-Award-Chart-120x86.jpg)
I have to say I read quite a bit of travel-related blogs and articles online everyday, but this blog is the one blog I always look forward to reading. Something informational every day, and does not promote unethical methods like some blog do. Keep it up!!
Good post, lots of worthwhile ideas. I tend to agree that if the “free one way” only means losing out on a stopover in the destination region, it’s often not worth it. Or if the one way leaves you somewhere that will cost a lot to get back from, it’s often not worth it.
Here’s what I’m doing:
Trip A: North America to Asia (stopover plus destination cites) to Hawaii (UA round trip with stopover and open jaw)
Trip B: Hawaii to NA to Italy (AA one way)
Trip C: Ireland to NA (Avios one way)
I think that compared to just doing two round-trips to Europe and Asia, I’ve saved some mileage on the United award, and added a really free stopover in Hawaii before starting the AA award.
Maybe these are the kinds of things you’ll discuss next week.
Something I dont quite understand on this trick: isn’t it necessary for your hometown to be the “US stop”? For example, if you are in a gateway city like SFO or LAX, it is very easy to take advantage of the “extra” one way. But what if your home town is SLC or PDX—if you try to arrange a city that is not a traditional gateway, then this doesn’t really work, does it? (I mean, you will have to figure out how to get to the gateway???)
@Bluecat, That’s an issue with American but not with United. With American you do need to make your stopover at the international gateway city, but with United you don’t. With United, as one option you can fly from your hometown, whichever airport that might be, to your international destination, back to hometown and then tack on the free one-way if you wish. I expect we’ll see more on the blog about the various permutations of ways to make these concepts work under the right circumstances.
With American you do have the problem of getting to and from your hometown airport if it’s not the international gateway, so “free one ways” on American are not useful for as many people. Most airports are within 4,500 Avios of some American gateway city, so that fact can also factor in for some people in considering the issues.
Exactly.
@ bluecat – United does not seem to rules against back tracking for example. I booked a flight for a friend who wanted to go to Ireland and the Scotland. Well they fly to Frankfurt (FRA) and then Ireland, and then FRA again, and then Scotland and then FRA again and then home. So don’t worry about not living in a hub. That’s just with AA.
Thank you to you both!
I think the free one way may make sense if someone doesn’t have time but want to save on the miles -simply don’t fly the last lag and u save on the miles.
@ Jason – I appreciate it hearing that, for real. I hope I don’t even toe line of my ethical boundaries on here. Although, I realize people have different opinions on where those lines are…
@ DaveS – So you open-jawed to Hawaii making the UA ticket cheaper? I see. Clever. That’s an actual good use of a free-oneway with AA (if you’re stopping over in NA?). Although, I’m curious what I could write about that you aren’t already maximizing? :-p Seriously?
@ Sherri – Right that’s true. For example, if you were going to Europe roundtrip anyways and weren’t using your stopover, have no plan to… Yea, might as well save some miles.
@TIF – Yes, I’m stopping over several weeks back home between the trips.
I had been thinking of these as useless, but I recently came around for a specific circumstance. My bf has way less vacation time than I do, so for us to travel together and see more, we’re going to have to do 1 or 2 big trips a year, but lots of long weekends.
So I see value in a weekend in say, Lisbon, with a free one-way to Puerto Rico to use later. And once you start this, you can then add the free one-way on the outbound of your next trip: Puerto Rico to home, then a weekend in Vienna. So you’re not “wasting” miles on getting home. I think you have to think of it as a perpetual cycle of one-ways tagged on to other awards.
Sure. I agree, for those with very limited time, this does make sense. What you just said does make sense given the situation. However, you are paying significantly more to see what I would see all on one ticket. But again, it’s an issue of time.
I have a similar situation to Lisa. I booked an ATW from US to Germany (stop) – Thailand (open-jaw) : Japan – US.
The point is that I want to fly Singapore Air from Singapore to Tokyo using AMEX points.
In Thailand, we’re hitting Koh Samui using the HHonors points before the devaluation.
Problem is that the trip was 17 days, and we couldn’t be gone for more than 14, so I had to cut the stopover in Germany.
I could’ve tacked on a one-way somewhere else, but I used it as the last leg of an award I’ll use in August. It’s now NY – Tulsa to start the trip.
So it did save me some $$ by me not having to use Southwest points to retrun from NY…
When I called to add it on, they transferred me to the ATW desk. He had no idea why the award priced becasue I hit Houston twice and go over both the Atlantic & Pacific oceans. Took a few hours, but it was worth the effort.
Man I wish I saw this earlier.
So you booked and then called to change it? Or you called to add the free oneway? Did you pay a fee?
Could you could combine 2 award RT trips to get 3 free trips? e.g.
RT 1) US – Asia – US (stopover) – Hawaii
RT 2) Hawaii – US (stopover) – Australia – US
Totally the right concept.
However, I’m not totally sure that you can stopover in the US from Hawaii to Australia or Asia. But if you call it in and do, PLEASE let me know. 🙂 I’m going to try something like that soon. I’m sure you can see there are pricing benefits to your route.
This would not be 3 free trips but only 2, wouldn’t it?
All you’re adding is a free trip RT trip to Hawaii on a US-Asia-US RT and a US-Australia-US RT. Or am I not getting something?
I have booked an award ticket with 65,000 United miles for
1) San Francisco-Taipei, Taiwan
2) Taipei-San Francisco
3) San Francisco-Orlando
I am also planning to go to Bangkok for a few days after I stay in Taipei for a few days, and then go to Taipei from Bangkok again for a few days before heading back to SF. My questions are:
1) Is it possible to add a one-way TPE-BKK or BKK-TPE in this trip (so that I would only need to get another one-way ticket)?
2) Is adding segments to award tickets allowed without a change fee? I redeemed the award before 6/18 which allows me to make date changes without a fee, but I am not sure about adding or deleting segments.
Any insight you have is very much appreciated!
EUG to LHR (stopover) to CPT returning CPT-EUG. How many miles do I need in Business & Economy using SAVER fares?
So this would be 80k all econ, 120 all biz. And if you consider CPT the center, and fly oneway econ and one way biz it will be 100k. But if you fly econ to lhr, and then the rest of the way biz, it will charge the entire thing like a biz. So again, CPT is the center.
So what do you think of a routing like:
A-B
B-A(stop)-B
I can’t make it work online (regular “Error” message), but wanted to hear your thoughts on it before attempting on the phone. These would be all domestic in the US.
It obviously can work if the return does not go back to B, e.g. if it’s A-B, and then B-A(stop)-C. But I need to keep going back to the same city, e.g. B, and just want to keep adding a free one-way on every round-trip.
Or would the solution have to be to locate an aiport close to B (e.g. “C”), and just add that in the mix to make the routing work?
The thing is, you would ideally get priced as a B to B… and that would be nice. But they wouldn’t allow a domestic (B to B) trip to go through another zone. And it depends on C. Because B to C is the route and it may or may not allow zone A in as a legal routing… kinda confusing.
Hi, I have a few questions that need your kind help 😛
1. I don’t quite understand why you think adding one free one-way ticket is a stupid idea? Can you elaborate more? Thanks!
2. If I have two choices for my award ticket itineraries.
a. JFK-CDG CDG-JFK(stopover)-LAX
(JKF-LAX is a free one way)
b. JFK-CDG CDG-LAX(stopover)-JFK
For #b, I don’t have so much time for my vacation, would it be better for me to choose #a? Because I can deal with my JFK-LAX part much later, right?
Thank you!!!
Hi,
I am trying to find a way to visit Tajikistan with a stopover in Norway from US. I do not have any millage and want to know where to start. Could any of you please help me to find a way to do so the cheapest way? Thank you so much!
Becky