Originally Posted by
Thunderroad
Did a brief search and couldn't find anything, so...
So yesterday, for flights later this year for my wife and myself, I was able to book and (I thought) ticket a mainly JL award itinerary SFO(UA F)-ORD(JL)-NRT(JL)-PVG, with ORD-NRT in F and NRT-PVG in J. When I checked online today, I saw a message that I needed to call the reservation center in order to ticket.
Upon calling, the CSR informed me that I couldn't ticket this for 67.5K miles per ticket as planned, but could do so if I tacked on an extra 25K miles for the SFO-ORD F flight. The reason was because this counted as backtracking.
Does anyone know whether this is correct? I realize that there is some language about the most direct routing in the award rules. But how strictly is this usually interpreted?
The reason I asked is that I've ticketed (not just booked) similar backtracking award tickets a couple of times before on AA in the past (one involving NRT-JFK-SFO and the other SFO-DFW-PVG), though for reasons unrelated to backtracking had to cancel both trips.
Thanks for any help!
I assume that's supposed to be
AA for the SFO-ORD segment, not UA?
The general rule is "most direct route" which forbids back-tracking in most situations, however, there should be wiggle room if there is no availability on the most direct route, including if no flights exist.
I would imagine that you could find a more direct route from SFO to PVG, say via LAX or even YVR on CX, but I'll let those who've actually booked something similar chime in.