<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nlp:
I checked the NWA website about redeeming an award. It said that a stopover is allowed on most international trips. Travel must be via (1) a published route and (2) must not exceed the maximum mileage permitted. </font>
Re:
1. Award travel must be
between city-pairs that have a published fare. For example, if I want to cash in NW miles for a ticket from ABQ to LAX... I'm outta luck on NW because, even though NW flies
into both cities, they do not publish fares
between the two cities. (Generally, this scenario will occur when major backtracking is required). For me to get from ABQ to LAX, I would have to backtract 'way out of the way' thru MSP and so, this would not be allowed - and I would have to cash in miles for two tkts on published routes - one between ABQ and MSP and another between MSP and LAX.
2. What is the maximum mileage permitted?
Many
international fares have MPM's (Maximum Permited Mileage) associated with them. For example, if you wanted to travel from LAX to BKK... you could fly via Tokyo and not exceed the MPM allowable on the route with NW. However, one could not fly from LAX to BKK via Sydney, for example, as this would exceed the MPM for NW's LAX-BKK fare. The MPM will be listed in the tarriff of the fare in question.
Actually,
MPM's are a good thing - because they allow one to deviate off of a straight line 'a little bit' and by doing so, to perhaps be able to include an extra city or two in ones travel plans. However, they are figured so that you just can't deviate 'too much' - so that the airline won't lose revenue off of an additional ticket or a higher fare that they might be able to sell to you.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nlp:
Another question is if the itinerary exceeds in mileage or segments, can we spend more miles and get a ticket for that itinerary?</font>
Not really. However, you can cash in more miles for
another award - and then do a separate side trip, for example.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by speaker:
I've been told once by a WP agent about a maximum number of segments (she didn't tell me the allowed #, just that my itin. would require too many segments). One thing I wonder though, can WP agents bypass these mileage/segment limits if awards aren't available on all direct flights or flights with one or two connections? </font>
Rules are rules and would apply regardless of status and whether or not seats were available. The maximum number of segments (for domestic travel) will be determined by the 'number of transfers' allowable on a given published fare between any two cities... which with NW, is often (NOT always) 6 in total, 3 on the outbound and 3 on the return. Again, this will be listed in the tarriff under 'permissible transfers' of a given fare. (If you are traveling on a freebie tkt - just check the rules for the cheapest fare in the market... and that will give you an idea of what you can and cannot do... i.e. number of transfers and/or the MPM which is allowable).
[This message has been edited by tvl4free (edited 11-19-2001).]