bound4MEL

Well, I just called and was told that with award booking, I can only have EITHER one open jaw OR one stopover. But not both. Anyone have any more information to add to this? It kinda destroys my plan...

bound4MEL

I was just told by a UA agent that I cannot have both and open jaw and a stopover on my roundtrip if paying with award. Is this a newer policy, or have I just not understood how it works?

sbm12

Depends on the routing. If wholly within the Lower 48, Canada and Alaska then the agent is correct. Otherwise, not so much.

ThinWallet

Best way is to search on united.com, build an itinerary, and then price it.

bound4MEL

This is what I am trying to do:

STL-SFO-SYD
(14-day open jaw)
CNS-GUM-NRT (4-day stopover) NRT-IAD-STL

What do you think? Is it out of bounds?

Kacee

I think I already answered your question in the other thread you started.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23290240-post30.html

astroflyer

[Edited by Moderator as now moot - see post 38, below.]

This information is absolutely incorrect. You can have both. You can even have an open jaw at the stopover. I'm wondering if they're just making things up.

The only thing I wonder about is the routing rules. Stopovers are usually pretty simple when they're in the same region as the destination or on the way to the destination (like FRA on the way to DEL). Japan is not a typical UA routing to Australia, so that might be tripping things up a bit. You're also maybe just starting to bump against the segment limits (which seem to be creeping down in an unpublished manner).

Ocn Vw 1K

As the separate threads which OP started appear to concern the same planned itinerary, they have been combined into one in order to focus the discussion in a single place. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator.

bound4MEL

update:
I was able to get the website to accept an itinerary using the Multi-city setting and it priced out at the same 80,000 points. But there were only a fraction of flights from which to choose compared to booking with the roundtrip setting.

I guess I need to call and try to walk them through it as Kacee suggested. Patience ... so difficult when you are excited to get it booked.

Thanks for all the help and advice. I'll follow up after I attempt to book it this weekend...

Kacee

If an agent says you can't have an OJ and a stopover on the same itinerary, there is no point to further discussion. Politely thank him/her, hang up, and call again.

bound4MEL

Great advice. Thanks for the reminder on that one.

puls

Also, if you've seen something price out on the website, then the chances are quite high that some agent at some point will book it for you.

The rules page says this:
That said, open jaws are something you use on a stopover or at the destination or at the origin, they're not additional, and this confuses agents. It took me several tries to get an agent to add an open jaw at the stopover point on an upcoming itinerary.

Your plan is within the rules that are published; unless there's been an unpublished change to the maximum number of segments, you'll eventually be able to book it if the flights are available.

PVDProf

Open jaw + stopover is not your problem. It might be the routing or having more than four segments on the return (this is an annoying newish rule with erratic enforcement). Since you were able to get roughly this routing to price, albeit without your preferred flights, the issue might be number of segments rather than routing. Are there unstated connections in there?

If you can get something close to this routing to price on the web, I would book it online and then call in to refine it. Since you can cancel for free within 24 hours, they'll usually let you make changes within 24 hours for free (and waive booking fees); if they don't, you can cancel (or roll with it).

I just spent second week of July in CNS. A bit of wind, but the weather was fine. A great trip. Mrs. PVDProf joined me by flying AC YVR-SYD on an award, connecting to a paid ticket.

Kacee

It's currently a four segment return (CNS-GUM (1); GUM-NRT (2); NRT-IAD (3); IAD-STL (4)). So that's fine. The Japan transit may be an issue, those can be problematic. And OJ + stopover is a problem in the sense that many agents won't book them because the ticket won't autoprice (and then they have to come up with an explanation why, rather than calling the rate desk, which would take extra effort).

Good advice about booking on-line then refining.

bound4MEL

It's done!

I called and had a very helpful agent reveal that she would have to build it "segment by segment." I filed that phrase away for later use. We got all the way to the last segment (IAD-STL), and the inventory was gone. So I had to say thanks and go back to my calendar and plan again.

When I called back a couple of days later with my new itinerary, I used my new "segment by segment" phrase and it was smooth sailing from there.

The only thing I had to compromise was splitting the family up coming out of NRT because of inventory. Two of us go NRT-ORD-STL, and two go NRT-IAD-STL. But I figured after 19 days together, some separation on the last day could be a good thing.

So here are the complete routes:

STL-SFO-SYD
(15-day open jaw)
CNS-GUM-NRT
(3-day stopover)
NRT-IAD-STL

STL-SFO-SYD
(15-day open jaw)
CNS-GUM-NRT
(3-day stopover)
NRT-ORD-STL

320,000 miles.

Thanks for everyone's advice and encouragement. After my initial rejection from the agent, I would not have had the nerve to pursue this without your insistence that it was possible.