Originally Posted by
headoflife
Sorry. I am sure my poor spelling didn't help! I was trying to figure out if there is any way to get the legs from, in my example, Chicago to NYC, and LA back to Chicago, using this same strategy. I have thought it through a bit more, and if I understand, I could book a "return" flight LA to NYC, or somewhere else that makes Chicago a reasonable stop, with a really long stopover in Chicago! Is there really no limit on the length of this type of stopover? Meaning it could be months? That is pretty unbelieveable. It sure would make the risk of applying seem worth it. Thanks for the help!
Not a problem, yes a stopover can be any length upto a year I believe as I think in general airline tickets are valid for upto a year. But note that once you are within 24 hours of the first segment of the itin, you cannot make any changes incl a simple date even if you are ready to fork out money. Only exception is if there is a weather issue.
So to make good use of BA miles, you need to have definite plans.
And this is why it is important to make one-ways awards as you can make changes to the return even after completing the outbound. In fact I currently have benefited by making a one-way award due to changes in my plans.
Once you make your way to NYC, you can keep yo-yoying from NYC to LA thru ORD and vice-versa and stopping in ORD each time. Your only cost to help start doubling BA miles is a one-way ticket to NYC or LA. See this post:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16293435-post725.html