AAmerican_in_London

... for your help.

I used some of the tips in the OW forum to get an OW190C ticket for my mother earlier this year.

The routing was as follows:
Hence, as noted previously and in the rules, I had to use 3 carriers (as I was using AA), was allowed one stop-over in every city, plus two connections in LHR (only used one).

Originally, when the AAgent helped me book it, they allowed for a stopover in LHR on the way back from PEK, but a supervisor called back in less than 24 hours to tell me it was an invalid routing.

I hope that my experience helps confirm/deny the workings of AA OneWorld Awards.

AAmerican_in_London

Austinrunner

Thanks very much for the post. Sounds like your mother had a great trip!

Just to confirm my understanding, the routing was as follows:

ORD » SFO (stopover) » HKG (connection) » BKK (connection) » BOM (stopover) » LHR (stopover) » PEK (stopover) » LHR (connection) » NBO (stopover) » LHR

Great Circle Mapper calculates the above itinerary as having 29,795 total countable trip miles, which is very close to AA's total.

Under the rules as I understand them, your mother was allowed one stopover in LHR plus two connections through LHR. What's weird about your mother's itinerary was that she was allowed to have a stopover in LHR in the middle of the itinerary even though she had an open jaw that included LHR. Before your post, my understanding was that if an open jaw consisted of the originating city and the final destination city, the traveler was deemed to have had a stopover in the final destination city, which prevented the traveler from having a stopover in that city earlier in the itinerary. See Section 4(5) of the first post in this thread.

How long was your mother's stay in LHR after arriving from BOM? Was it less than 24 hours?

One final question: Did your mother take the first scheduled flight from LHR to NBO? I'm asking because I'm trying to verify what "stopover" means as described in Section 4(1) of the first post in this thread.

Thanks again for posting your experience with these awards!

gemac

Without reading the rules too closely, I called to book the following award trip:
STL-LHR (stopover for two weeks)
LHR-CDG (stopover for two weeks)
CDG-LHR (stopover for two weeks)
LHR-SNN (stopover for two weeks)
SNN-STL (termination)

Airlines were AA, BA, EI.

No problem they booked it, we flew it, nobody said anything. After reading this thread, seems like they shouldn't have allowed it, if I understand correctly, as there were two stopovers at LHR.

They said it was 4,000-9,000 miles (Great Circle puts it at 8838). 80,000 miles each in Business.

Austinrunner

Apparently, AA's application of the rules is a manual process, resulting in occasional anomalies, such as your itinerary. The hard part is for us to determine when anomalies become the rules, given that AA does not publish many of the rules for public viewing.

Viajero

Yes, your understanding is correct. In this particular case the itinerary approved somehow slipped past the 'censors' at DFW, because the rule about only one stopover per city is very clear (as published on aa.com).

andrzej

Another confirmation for a stopover AND 2 connections allowed through the same city.

Bold - stopover cities:

TPA-MIA-GRU-GIG /open jaw/ GRU-EZE-SCL-IPC-SCL-LIM-SCL-MIA-TPA

~13,500 total miles = 150K OW award - mostly F, few segments on 2 class in J. AA, BA and LA.

AAmerican_in_London

Austinrunner,

You have got the routing right.

To answer your questions:

My mother spent about 6 weeks in LHR (on return from BOM) before heading out to PEK. You are right, the rules stipulate that my mother was allowed a single stopover, plus two connections in LHR. When I spoke to the AAgent about this, she said it did not matter if that stopover was before the two connections, after them, or in the middle.

As for the flight to Nairobi, my Mom did take the next scheduled flight to NBO, it just happened to be the next day (but less that 24 hours) from her time of arrival.

I hope this helps, and good luck in planning yours.

AAmerican_in_London

Viajero

Interesting. This means that either we are looking at another invalid routing that slipped through unnoticed or, perhaps more likely, what we have assumed until now is just wrong, and the end city of an open jaw is -not- considered a stopover after all. We will have to wait till this issue gets tested again, I suppose.

Austinrunner

Added item (6) to SECTION 4 of the original post of this thread.

Darren

On section 1 (6), you probably should also add that it excludes Lan Argentina. I don't know the designator.

Austinrunner

Done.

ajacpril

I would guess that this is one that slipped through the rules, because I was specifically told I could not complete an OW220C open jaw award itinerary (starting in SAN) at LAX as I had a stopover in LAX earlier in the itinerary.

olimaspecto

Just wanted to thank everyone who posted here for their help adn guidance as I just got an award ticketed on the following with (x) indicating stopovers:

BOS-DFW-EZE(x)-DFW-MIA-(land-segment)-SFO-LAX-SYD(x)-AKL(x)-HKG(x)-PEK(x)-HKG-NRT(x)-SJC(x)-BOS

Austinrunner

Is PEK going to be a stopover, too?

Gardyloo

Not too OT I hope, but I noticed that QF is now marketing its SFO-YVR standalone service (US$299 RT in coach, $3400+ in J - ouch) and realized one can do an all-N. America OW award trip without using AA metal JFK-YVR-SFO, since we now have 2 separate OW planes doing US-Canada routes.

Link thanks to d00t on the QF board

My hunch is that there probably will be some decent space available in F and J on the SFO-YVR runs, to account for deplaning/enplaning folk at SFO, just as there seems to be on the CX flights btw. JFK and YVR.

Same flight no. YVR-SFO-SYD BTW, so only one OWE coupon.