Originally Posted by
1KHI
I was able to add a stop over in JFK for $75, the construction looks HNL-JFK(AA) JFK-ORY(EY).
Somehow, Google flights Allowed me to do it, but it was a big pain to ticket it. Phone agents couldn't add the open skies with EY code, only BA, which ski rockets the price. IB instead if EY works as well. At the end, Google flights found the construction for ticketing with AA directly instead of having to call IB or EY
Originally Posted by
henkybaby
Very good trick! It jumps to £15xx halfway through, but goes back to the bargain basement once you select the EC flight exJFK. Only works with that combo as far as I can tell, but great for those wanting to spend a few days in NYC.
Good find and thanks for sharing. ^
PS: You also seem to have to route it as PAR-HNL on the outbound. If you try and force a route or even split it up into two entries, the trick doesn't work anymore.
The reason this seems to work is that there is also an AY fare for the same price (and the same fare basis - INN8S4I1 - as the AA fare) and that one allows unlimited stopovers at 75 Euros each. But since it also limits the transfers to two in North American in each direction (at least the way I read the rules), this obviously puts a limit on the number of stopovers as well as the possible stopover cities.
Restricting the ITA search with "ay / f ay..INN8S4I1" for legs 1 and 4 and "aa+ / f ay..INN8S4I1" for legs 2 and 3, I can get
CDG-DFW 5/31
DFW-LAX-HNL 8/2
HNL-PHX-MIA 8/10
MIA-CDG 8/24
to price out for 1582 EUR in ITA, and when clicking through to aa using the ITA powertools, the price drops a bit more to 1560 EUR.
To get the AY fare with the cheaper stopover instead of the AA fare, the TATL segment would have to be AY coded, so for crediting to AA, one obviously gives up 0.5 EQM for that leg as well as the current long-haul premium cabin bonus.
It's also possible to combine the AY fare with the AA fare if the stopover is desired in only one direction. Example:
CDG-JFK(AY)-LAX(AA) 6/7
LAX-HNL(AA) 6/15
LAX-DFW-JFK-CDG (all AA) 6/22
1485 EUR on both ITA and the German AA site clicked through from ITA
search for "ay jfk aa / f ay..INN8S4I1" for leg 1, "aa / f ay..INN8S4I1" for leg 2, and "aa dfw aa jfk / f aa..INN8S4I1" for leg 3 on ITA.