Originally Posted by
JimInOhio
I had this slightly wrong. Here's an award routing available on the UA website:
May 6
TLV - EWR (UA 85)
EWR - YYZ (UA 4395)
YYZ - CLE (May 7 - AC 8727)
Or...
TLV - EWR (UA 85)
EWR - YYZ (May 7 - UA 4461)
YYZ - CLE (May 7 - AC 8729)
Maybe it's allowed because the flights to and from YYZ are not on the same airline. Or maybe it's allowed because it isn't a revenue ticket. Or maybe it's allowed because origin and destination are not the same country (most likely?).
In either case above (or for OP's case), the ticket is from Israel (or Mexico) to the US.
The routing doesn't matter. In the OP's case, the routing forces an overnight at IAH. As long as it's under 24h, it's not considered a stopover (rather it's a"short stopover that is incidental to or otherwise does not break the continuity of the trip"