Originally Posted by TXTBIRD13
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.
That's not how it was recently explained to me by the partner award desk. Their interpretation was that I could take the next available flight with an award seat. In my case, although there was a scheduled connecting flight the same day, there were no award seats until the following day about 25 hours later (I have an open jaw itinerary). I had no problems ticketing my reservation this way.