Hi everyone,

Been a regular lurker on the forums for a while but now hoping to get more specific information.

My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to Europe next year (for the Olympics).

Right now, we have the following itinerary:
HNL-CDG
Paris to London via Eurostar
London to Paris again via Eurostar
CDG-HNL

I've booked using my miles and therefore looking to take advantage of using the free stopover by going to Venice.

I've read here that the stopover does not need to originate from a particular place nor does it have to be within the original travel timeframe but perhaps I either misunderstood or this is no longer the case because United and Continental are telling me I am wrong.

So here is my question:
1. Does the stopover have to originate from CDG?
2. Continental is saying there are no flights between CDG and VCE on their partner airlines but a quick search showed that both Lufthansa and Swiss Air do operate flights between the 2 airports. What gives?

Here is another question that is not related to the above:
How do we go about the credit card/debit card microchip issue?

That pretty much is it for now... looking forward to hearing back from you!