Originally Posted by swilshire
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
Sure, here's the scoop from an insider. On a "revenue" ticket, meaning a paid ticket, a stopover is when you're in your connecting city by choice for over 4 hours. International, it is if you're there more than 24 hours. The exception is if there simply are no scheduled flights within that time period then it is not counted a stopover On an award ticket, it's still 4 hours for domestic, and 12 for international. Now keep in mind this goes by the schedule of flights, not by the availibility of award seats. Say for instance you're flying, Atlanta to Rome via Paris and you want you to stay a few days in Paris. You can, since you're allowed on ONE stopover. On your return you must take the most direct routing home with no stopovers. Say you want to leave Rome and have to connect through Paris, and there is a scheduled flight to Atlanta, you must take it. If it simply isn't available for award travel, then another routing must be explored. You can't stay an extra night just because award seats aren't available on the desired flight. A loophole is called 'Last flight in, first flight out" If you take the last flight of the night from Rome to Paris, spend the night, and are able to get on the fiest "scheduled" flight the following morning, then you're fine. I know it's confusing. The Indian agent actually was giving you accurate information, and put you on hold to actually try and get a favor done for you from the supervisor, so you should be happy.