US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - 20th Anniv Promo - definition of "round trip"

I need to schedule a trip in early February that will take me to Chicago, then Toronto, then home. I'm wondering what actually qualifies. What I'd like to do is fly USAir to Chicago, then United (direct) to Toronto, then USAir home - which I would define as an open jaw round trip.

I called the Div Miles Service Center and was told that round trip means only the most narrow definition of the term - out and back. Even if I were to fly USAir for the Chicago - Toronto leg (requiring a stop in PHL - yuck) so it would be US metal the whole way, it wouldn't count as a round trip and therefore wouldn't count towards the 20th anniversary promotion.

This sounds goofy to me. I can understand them trying to induce me to go US metal the whole way, but why wouldn't a 2 stop ticket count as at least 1 round trip? I would have thought it was one of the nice $880 business fares that they would want to see come through this program.

Has anyone had similar experiences? Is this consistent with your experience or is it possible that I was misinformed by the Div Miles service desk?

If Chicago or PHL is considered a connecting point, its still a roundtrip as long as you are originating at point X and terminating at YYZ.

So flying XXX-ORD-YYZ-ORD-XXX is definitely a roundtrip, but they may not qualify you for the 25th anniversary promo due to them being not all US metal.

BUT flying XXX-PHL-YYZ-PHL-XXX on US metal would indeed qualify for the 25th anniversary promo.

It sounds like what you may be doing is considered a circle trip rather than a roundtrip per se. Its tough to say for sure without knowing your routing and/or length of stays in each of the cities. Also, starting and ending points can help.

-JC

Thanks for the quick reply. I should have been more specific. My trip would be ITH - ORD on day 1; ORD - YYZ on day 2; and YYZ - ITH on day 3. The 'all US metal' routing would be ITH - PHL - ORD on day 1; ORD - PHL - YYZ on day 2; and YYZ - PHL - ITH on day 3. All in all much more time in the F terminal at PHL than any sane person would want, but I'd consider doing the day 2 through PHL if it's worth an extra 5,000 status miles. Otherwise I'd just say 'forget it' and fly Air Canada or United direct ORD - YYZ on day 2. (Ideally they'd still give me credit for one open-jaw round trip for the day 1 and 3 component, but I recognize that may be asking too much.)

Yeah, that routing wouldn't be considered a roundtrip - I believe this would be considered a circle trip as there are stopovers included in this or perhaps legally-nested itins.

-JC

Earlier this week I flew PHL-ORD (US), then ORD-SNA (UA). Back was SNA-DEN (UA), DEN- PHL (US). I sure hope that counts as a round trip. Miles posted, but the promo miles did not.