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Questions on Open Jaw/Stopover and Award Routings for United UA/*A Partners [2015]

Old Jan 19, 2015, 1:50 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Kacee
Presented as Q&A format (Originally posted by Alex_B)

Q: What is a stopover?
A: A stopover on an international itinerary is any break in your air travel for more than 24 hours except at the destination.

Q: What is an open-jaw (OJ)?
A: An open-jaw is where you travel by your own means (either land, sea or a separate air ticket) between two points in a journey.

Q: How many stopovers am I allowed on a roundtrip award?
A: One stopover is permitted.

Q: How many open-jaws are allowed on a roundtrip award?
A: Two open-jaws are permitted.

Q: Can I have a stopover or open-jaw on a one-way award?
A: No

Q: Can I have a open-jaw at both the stopover and destination?
A: It has become extremely difficult to book an open-jaw at the stopover. Best not to count on getting one.

Q: When I try to book my OJ itinerary online, the website errors out. Does that mean there is something wrong with my itinerary?

A: Not necessarily. The website typically can't handle complex itineraries. These must generally be called in.

Q: Can I transit my destination multiple times (e.g. fly to JNB, fly to CPT and then return home via JNB)?
A: Yes, plenty of posters have reported success in booking this. You can only stop in your destination for > 24 hours once though.

Q: Can I cross both oceans?
A: No.

Q: Is EWR-PVG transatlantic or transpacific?
A: US-East Asia/South East Asia is always transpacific no matter what geography might suggest.

Q: Do I pay more for a stopover or open-jaw?
A: Typically no additional mileage is required but additional taxes or fees are often payable (especially in UK with high Air Passenger Duty). Extra mileage will often be required if an open-jaw or stopover adds a higher cost region into the itinerary. Also awards wholly within CONUS, Canada and Alaska (formerly known as Series 0 awards) require additional mileage (10K miles) for a stopover of >4 hrs.

Q: What's this about a "free one-way" I can get on a UA award?
A: The term "free one-way" is a misnomer and often confuses people (and may annoy the regulars here!). The technical definition of this concept is "stopover at origin." There have been mixed reports recently about UA's willingness to ticket a stopover at origin.

Important Notes - PLEASE READ:

1. Stopovers and open-jaws are NOT additive. You do not get extra stops included in your itinerary simply by making an open-jaw out of it. This is probably the number one error made in attempting to construct a complex itinerary. If you have more than two stops >24 hours on a roundtrip award, it is not legal and will not ticket.

2. An open jaw always creates a stopover, even if you're stopping for less than 24 hours.

3. Many awards are subject to segment or "transfer" limitations. For example, the North America to South Asia award is currently restricted to four transfers in each direction.

Seeing your fare construction on an already booked award ticket:
In order to see your award fare construction to see where your stopovers and destination are, follow these steps.

Go to http://www.saudiairlines.com/

Then hit "Manage My Bookings" and select "E-Ticket"
Enter your UA ticket number (hint: 016 will go in the first box, and then everything else in the second box). Then your last name and hit "Retrieve My Booking". On the next page you'll see a line like this under "Fare Calculation":

CHI LH X/FRA LH ROM0.00CSM/YB52 /- FLR LH X/FRA LH X/DUS LH CHI UA SEA

This example is:
ORD-FRA-FCO
Open Jaw at Destination
FLR-FRA-DUS-ORD
Stopover at origin
ORD-SEA

Previous thread on this topic:

Rules for Open Jaw & Stopover Award Flights (Consolidated)

Consolidated: Rules for Open Jaw & Stopover Award Flights [2014]
Print Wikipost

Questions on Open Jaw/Stopover and Award Routings for United UA/*A Partners [2015]

Old Jan 3, 2015, 1:48 am
  #1  
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Questions on Open Jaw/Stopover and Award Routings for United UA/*A Partners [2015]

I am trying to bring my family to Paris and Hong Kong this summer. After checking online, here's what I found:

PHL-YYZ-CDG
CDG-VIE-BKK-HKG
HKG-YVR-YYZ-PHL

Total 8 segments. Will this work? Thanks.

Last edited by J.Edward; Oct 31, 2015 at 6:25 am
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 1:27 am
  #2  
 
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Aren't we limited to 4 in each direction now?
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 11:16 am
  #3  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,110
Advanced Award Booking

Hey,

I am trying to put together a rather advanced awards booking but the UA site keeps erroring out on me. Its a multi-stop multi-country flight. any suggestions on how to make the website actually give me these options?
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 11:31 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by jp12687
Hey,

I am trying to put together a rather advanced awards booking but the UA site keeps erroring out on me. Its a multi-stop multi-country flight. any suggestions on how to make the website actually give me these options?
Will likely have to call it in, UA doesn't do so great outside of a basic OJ or SO
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 11:34 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by jp12687
... Its a multi-stop multi-country flight. any suggestions on how to make the website actually give me these options?
The online award booking commonly has issues with complex itins
Either
Just give up and call (may involved fees for some)
or
Book what you can and then call to modify (no fees to modify).

There is a point at which frustrating yourself and spending time trying to make an itin that may never workout online is not worth trying any more.
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 12:07 pm
  #6  
 
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Posts: 274
Originally Posted by jp12687
Hey,

I am trying to put together a rather advanced awards booking but the UA site keeps erroring out on me. Its a multi-stop multi-country flight. any suggestions on how to make the website actually give me these options?
If you post your itinerary here, we might be able to tell you what is causing the errors. It's possible you are breaking a routing rule somewhere along the line.
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 5:04 pm
  #7  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 1,110
NYC-SYD August 4
SYD-MEL Aug 10
MEL-MLE August 14
MLE-DAR August 19
DAR-NYC August 25

also i realize some parts of this will have to be partner flights

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jan 4, 2015 at 6:00 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
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Old Jan 4, 2015, 6:02 pm
  #8  
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Posts: 66,582
Originally Posted by jp12687
NYC-SYD August 4
SYD-MEL Aug 10
MEL-MLE August 14
MLE-DAR August 19
DAR-NYC August 25
....
too many stops, SYD/MEL/MLE/DAR -- Not more than two of these can be a >24 hour stop for an award booking
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Old Jan 6, 2015, 5:27 pm
  #9  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11
I am trying to book SFO-DEL-SFO-YVR in business. SFO-DEL is available on OZ on 11 MAR'15. DEL-SFO is available on OZ on 10 APR'15. SFO-YVR is available on UA on 1 JUL'15. While booking multiple destination, website does not show me DEL-SFO OZ flight. Is there anything wrong in this itinerary? Also, will this be a 160K miles itinerary (Business Saver) with free one-way SFO-YVR? Any help is appreciated.
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Old Jan 6, 2015, 6:00 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by jp12687
NYC-SYD August 4
SYD-MEL Aug 10
MEL-MLE August 14
MLE-DAR August 19
DAR-NYC August 25

also i realize some parts of this will have to be partner flights
You need to lay out the actual routing. Because you are not going nonstop NYC-SYD or DAR-NYC.

Per WineCountryUA, you have too many stops.

You're also going to have too many segments.

And the routing is illegal in numerous respects (although I can't tell exactly because you haven't listed the full routing).

There is just no way you can do that itinerary as a roundtrip using United miles. Have you looked into a RTW (around the world) ticket?
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Old Jan 6, 2015, 7:17 pm
  #11  
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
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European Routing Questions / Validity

I attempted to make the following reservation tonight and was denied due to:

- Too many segments
- Too many carriers

For European awards, I was under the impression that I could have more that 4 segments, and haven't heard the issue of too many carriers. Would this routing be valid? And should I just call in again?

PHL - FRA - VIE - DBV (stopover)
DBV - ATH (23 Hours) - RHO (destination)
ASR - IST - VIE - LHR - YYZ - IAD (open jaw)

This routing would have 7 carriers (Lufthansa, Austrian, Croatian , Aegean , Turkish , Air Canada, United)


As an alternative, I've found the following routing, which has less ideal timing for me. (I know that I shouldn't be that picky for this summer). I'd appreciate thoughts on that as well

PHL - FRA - DBV (stopover)
DBV - ATH (23 Hours) - RHO (destination)
ASR - IST - GVA -- YUL - IAD (open jaw)

Last edited by wb411; Jan 6, 2015 at 7:20 pm Reason: Added Detail on Carriers
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Old Jan 8, 2015, 1:38 pm
  #12  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Cool

Despite reading the Q and A, I'm still confused...

Are you allowed to open jaw at your "stop over"? If not, how would you use the 2 permitted open jaws other than returning to a different airport on the way home?

I get how this example works, where there is 2 open jaws and 1 stop over:

LAX - HND
HND - INC
TPE - SFO

Can anyone give me an example of how else to "legally" make use of that second open jaw? Thanks!
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Old Jan 8, 2015, 8:28 pm
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by mg0901
despite reading the q and a, i'm still confused...

Are you allowed to open jaw at your "stop over"? If not, how would you use the 2 permitted open jaws other than returning to a different airport on the way home?

I get how this example works, where there is 2 open jaws and 1 stop over:

Lax - hnd
hnd - inc
tpe - sfo

can anyone give me an example of how else to "legally" make use of that second open jaw? Thanks!
lax-fra
muc-sfo
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Old Jan 8, 2015, 9:12 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by mg0901
Are you allowed to open jaw at your "stop over"?
It's unclear whether UA routing rules allow OJ at the stopover. Many of us have successfully booked one. And many have been refused. YMMV.
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Old Jan 11, 2015, 12:52 am
  #15  
 
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Problems booking stopovers/open-jaw awards on United.com

I used to book a lot of awards on United.com with stopovers and open jaws.

however, lately, it seems all the stopover and open jaw combinations I try always returns me error messages somehow.

e.g. Europe-Boston//Boston-Newark//Newark-OGG or Europe-Boston//Boston-OGG//OGG-IAD, or Europe-Boston//Boston-OGG//OGG-HNL.... none of them work. and i searched segment by segment to make sure saver awards are there.

and other the phone, agents all give me some different weird hypothesis every time i talk to another one.

booking openjaws/stopover used to be so easy on United.com. did something change in the software coding?
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