emcampbe

UA should be able to route you this way, assuming availability - there is no legal or other reason they can not sell a US-US itinerary with a connection in Canada (award or revenue). In fact, once in a while, these kinds of itinerary's have been available for sale online. The only thing is, the passenger must clear customs going into and leaving Canada, so must have the proper documentation for this.

AC, on the other hand, can definitely not sell this kind of ticket, though can probably do it as an award. I've definitely booked US-US award tickets through Aeroplan. Not sure exactly why, but if I had to guess, mine is that because awards are booked on operating carrier flight number, and not as a codeshare. In that way, I don't think its any different than a Canadian travel agent booking a wholly US itinerary.

samwkchan

No, it is not valid. A flight cannot have a layover in Canada between two US-48 cities.

emcampbe

Care to explain why not? Cabotage means a Canadian carrier (i.e. AC, WestJet, etc.) can't sell a US-US connection (presumably, this would be via Canada). But there's no reason why UA can't.

bocastephen

Cabotage is universal - it has nothing to do with the US, it applies to almost every country. No airline can sell a US-Canada-US routing, just as no airline can sell a Canada-US-Canada routing.

What makes you think cabotage only applies to the US?

emcampbe

Fixed your post with the bolded words above. My question still stands. This is UA, a US airline, we're talking about. If they wanted to route someone going from EWR through FRA to LAS, they could. As mentioned above, cabotage would apply if AC or Westjet was trying to sell this routing. But its UA (presumably) - I assume that's why the question is in the UA forum.

bocastephen

My definition was probably not clear - concisely, an airline in country A cannot fly passengers between two points in country B or vice versa.

UA cannot fly someone between two Canadian airports, nor can AC fly someone between two US airports regardless of routing.

Indelaware

The point is that no foreign airline may transport pax between two points within the same country even by connecting the pax through the home soil of the foreign airline unless authorized by a bilaterial agreement.

The issue of an airline being able to transport passengers between two points on its home soil via a connection in a foreign country is quite different.

In fact, some years ago, US regularly had pax connect at YYZ. For example, BOS-YYZ-CLE, which I took several times in order to have lunch with a friend who worked at YYZ. If US can do it, UA can do it.

alfrie

Nowadays when searching for SFO-GUM flights, I frequently see UA offers SFO-(NRT,KIX)-GUM, all on UA. ANA also flies SFO-NRT, but never shows up as an option. So I think EWR-YYZ-LAS is doable as long as both segments are on US carriers.

emcampbe

Shouldn't matter the actual carrier, I believe. What matters is who is selling it. UA should be able to sell this even if all AC metal, as long as they are UA flight numbers.

787fan

I tried it on the website and it's quoting me as 2 separate awards ... if i call up an agent, could i argue it should be 1 award not 2 ?

Indelaware

No, in this case it is the metal. But, it might be both the metal and the flight numbers.

However, in OPs case the subject was award travel which is always ticketed on the operating carrier.

zrs70

Outside of the box scenario, but in the past, I've had a RTW ticketed in such a way that I fly US-Canada-US.

Definitions can be grey. What if I am flying LAX-YVR for a few hours, then YVR-SFO? It's ticketed as a roundtrip rather than a connection, so I suppose that's what makes it kosher.

Indelaware

Yes, you are not being flown from the US to the US via Canada. You are being flown from the US to Canada and then taking a return trip. However, while the ticket would be kosher, good luck getting a KSML on a flight within North America.

Indelaware

The problem is that the YYZ-LAS flight is operated by AC.

If you did EWR-YYZ-ORD-LAS with all segments operated by UA then it would be ok.

kikier

I would like to book a one-way ticket JFK-YYZ-SFO with no stopover. When I searched using multiple destination in UA website, it priced it as two one-way rewards. Is it possible to get it in one rewards?