I just spent roughly 55 minutes on a call to the Skymilles Awards desk (with my blood pressure rising by the minute) regarding an itinerary I had on hold to KOA for next June. The young Indian woman who was assisting me could not get it confirmed and waited quite some time for a supervisor to become available.

On my outbound flight, I had a seven hour layover in Atlanta between flights. There were three Atlanta flights later than the one I was scheduled on (all of which I had waitlisted), but all were only showing available for Skychoice. Not Skysaver. On the return, I have a six hour layover in Atlanta getting on the very next flight that Delta flies to my hometown. The previous one leaves at almost the exact minute I am to land from Hawaii. There are no more flights period between. Yet, the young lady could not ticket the itinerary because there were "two stopovers".

I finally ask to speak to the supervisor, who booked us on one of the later flights on the outbound (which is exactly what I wanted anyway) so that I will not be in Atlanta for more than four hours so they don't consider it a stopover.

I may regret cutting my layover down to only one hour. I considered going for three hours, but if we get a weather delay or something there is at least one more option out of Atlanta that I could hopefully get on.

I've read other messages here regarding stopovers, and this just doesn't match what I thought I understand. Can someone enlighten me?

Thanks so much,

Sheila