RTW alternatives??
#16
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SUX
Programs: BA Silver; HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Points but dirt with everyone else
Posts: 8,050
UA allows 1 SO and 2 OJ ... though you may have to convince agents of rules on their own website. In April, even after insisting that UA allowed 1 SO OR 1 OJ, and after confirming she was right by "checking with a supervisor" upon my insistence .... I was forced to call back and speak to another agent, who also thought it was 1 or 1, but she actually was willing to check:
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...airawards.aspx
http://www.united.com/web/en-US/cont...airawards.aspx
#17
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Where I'm at
Programs: UA 1P 1MM, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,737
-Two open jaws are permitted per roundtrip award. For example, you can fly from Newark to London and return from Paris to Washington Dulles.
IAD-LAX-SYD(SO), SYD-ZQN(OJ), CHC-SYD-LAX-IAD
What's the alternative/usual requirement ?
#18
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Where I'm at
Programs: UA 1P 1MM, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,737
RTW alternatives??
I won't provide examples of precisely what the OP is looking for, and I can't find the past thread or two that I'm thinking of that details my thoughts better than me, but there's the idea to book two RT awards, (ex) 1. NA to SE Asia and 2. SE Asia to NA via Europe ... where the outbounds of 1 + 2 are 1 RTW and the return of 2 + 1 is a second RTW. So basically you get two RTW trips for two RT awards. Booking RTs instead of many OWs allows you to use the often overlooked and very valuable (IMO) stopovers and open jaws.
The big catches here, if you're lucky enough to find availability, would be:
-schedule changes rippling through and causing you to panic/scramble for alternatives
-personal emergencies that might doom the second RTW as schedule changes would probably not be allowed
but if successful, then you'd get two pretty inexpensive RTWs. And complete use of 2 stopovers and 4 open jaws, along with an additional one way, train trip, or road trip or two would give you the lots of possibility.
#19
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 278
I was able to price out an award ticket in J saver for 120k miles doing LAX-ICN(open jaw), PVG-BCN(stop), BCN-RDU. I'd have to pay for a one-way from ICN-PVG and for my travels within Europe. It seems according to the 2 open jaw + 1 stopover rule I might be able to save by adding CDG-RDU instead?
Are there any paid alternatives that could be reasonable? I'm 5k miles away from reaching delta gold and have ~13k miles on United, not sure if I can MR since I will be based in PVG from August on. Just pricing stuff on on kayak I got around 2500-3000.
Are there any paid alternatives that could be reasonable? I'm 5k miles away from reaching delta gold and have ~13k miles on United, not sure if I can MR since I will be based in PVG from August on. Just pricing stuff on on kayak I got around 2500-3000.
#20
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: SUX
Programs: BA Silver; HHonors Gold; SPG Gold; Points but dirt with everyone else
Posts: 8,050
The requirement for an open jaw on a paid ticket with most carriers is that the unflown fare component must be shorter than the two flown fare components. (Excepting the rare fare rule that allows a double open jaw, which is what UA's award offers.) Hence why I said in my DL example that ICN-PVG(stop)-BCN-RDU (connections suppressed) would not be legal, as the unflown bit (RDU-ICN) is longer than BCN-RDU. The destination being SFO tightens up the OJ enough to make it legal. For carriers that only offer round trip pricing on awards, this distance rule must be respected to avoid paying way more for the award. With a double open jaw allowed, there is no restriction like this, since it would not be possible to even say what it might mean. AA also does not speak of open jaws on their awards. Everything is a one-way, but you can put more than one on a single ticket, which is helpful if connecting in a region where AA does not allow a connection and requires a fare break (Asia en route to Oz) or to reduce fees if canceling and redepositing.