johnep1

No, you can only stopover at the first or last international gateway. You then get to stop at your destination. So you can only add a stopover in ZRH. If your destination is TXL, you can stopover in MUC. If your destination is MUC, you can't stopover in TXL.

Can't do this with a OW award either because of LX.

You should be able to switch MUC to FRA, and then fly AA from FRA to the US. Then you could have TXL as your destination and FRA as the stopover.

Any change to the airlines/stopovers will trigger a change fee.

Austinrunner

The relevant rule is the rule you posted in May 2005 and that I just quoted above. That's why I quoted it.

JonNYC

Personally, I just don't see it.

PresRDC

The way that itinerary was structured, I would have arrived at LAX on CX at 11:35 AM and connected onto AA's 2:15 PM flight to JFK. That flight arrives at JFK too late to connect to any flight ex-JFK, LGA or EWR to ORD.

I was on the first flight I could make ex-LAX and the first flight of the morning ex-LGA, it still wasn't allowed.

I would have either had to have a longer layover in LAX than was alowed (b/c I wouldn't be on the first available flight) or an overnight in NY.

Austinrunner

Was there a scheduled flight (regardless of availability) from JFK to ORD within 6 hours of your arrival at JFK? (Your reference to "first flight of the morning" is a tad ambiguous.) If not, then I suspect that whoever you talked with didn't know the rules (assuming that the version of those rules JonNYC posted in May 2005 are still "the" rules).

PresRDC

No. The 2:15 LAX-JFK arrives around 10:45 PM and the earliest flight JFK-ORD flight, operated by AE, leaves after 4:45. I think it's a mid-morning flight, actually. The first available flight to ORD was ex-LGA, which goes-out around 6 AM.

This wasn't just an AAgent telling me this, btw, the AAgent was able to set it up as a 180,000 mile award. It got bounced by the office that reviews these itineraries.

jkc22

Since when does this "most direct routing" BS applied to the OW awards?

I just read about PresRDC's award refusal, and got a little friendly call in my project office an hour ago about mine being refused.

When I ticketed my last OW award, I had 24 hours in each connection and I certainly didn't use the "most direct routing" since I went from BKK-HKG using BKK-SIN-HKG to get F....

Now I am trying to do the same, and AA come back to quote the exact same two quotes that they quoted PresRDC.....

I'm beginning to think that there must have been some changes to the OW award rules after the well-publicized routings of some FTers.....

If the "most direct routing" were true, then how and why in the world can anyone use CX for LAX-HKG-SYD?? Then everyone would be forced to use QF just like that "All Airlines" awards.....

Jon, any additional info that you can share with us regarding this?

PresRDC

Disheartening to hear, to say the least. I am going to get to the bottom of this.

JonNYC

Pres;
I'm trying to keep up and understand here; is it your position that you were rejected on "most direct routing" type thing? Or, is there any possibility that there another trip-wire in your itin.?

One thing I was thinking; maybe something about the fact that you could arrive in ORD at a time that makes taking a later flight LAX-JFK (which then necessitates your overnight before taking LGA-ORD the next day.)

So, is there any possibility that they see it as a transit->stopover violation when those factors are combined? (Yes, I'm totally grasping at straws here.)

In any case, we'll get an answer of there are new rules.

JonNYC

Well one thing;

It does appear that a few years ago there was "24 hours in each connection" type rule-- several FTers were very surprised when I posted the actual stopover rules which will often force you to fly much sooner than 24 hours--regardless of if you want to or not. So, that indeed changed (or enforcement of same) but that's more like a year or two ago.

Gardyloo

Chatting with the EXP desk (where I was sent for an award enquiry - is that standard?) I asked about a Europe - Africa J award I want to book for later this year (to JNB or CPT on BA... ha, ha.) I asked about open-jaws and got a definitive answer - O/J at origin or destination, but not both. But could I set it up as a stopover instead of an open jaw? For instance, PRG-xLHR-JNB (stopover) - CPT (destination) - xLHR-BCN? I looked through this thread (maybe inadequately) but couldn't figure out if that would pass kashrut.

PresRDC

Honestly, I don't know why it was rejected. My best guess is it was for one of the two reasons I listed.

The first AAgent I spoke to said it was because I was not on the last flight out from LAX and thus could not overnight, even though I was arriving too late to connect to ORD. The second AAgent said I had to take the most direct routing from LAX to ORD. She supposedly was reading from the message sent-up by the office that approves these routings.

I will have an opportunity to ask someone about it this evening, so hopefully we can get a definitive answer as to whether there is a "most direct routing" rule now in effect for Oneworld Awards and what that means for U.S.-Oz awards.

That said, I have successfully ticketed the following itinerary for 180,000 miles:

JFK-SFO-HKG-MEL-AKL//SYD-BNE//BNE-SYD//SYD-MEL-HKG-LAX-JFK

I should mention that I overnight at MEL on the way to AKL.

JonNYC

Been through it again with a little guidance-- can't find any reason why they wouldn't let you route as you wanted to.

legend214

this would be on the AA All-Partner, not OW.

i want to redeem a PAR-ATH via IST ticket (on TK) and would really like the IST stopover. just so i know that it's absolutely impossible, anyone had luck doing intra-Europe with a stopover for all-Partner?

johnep1

You are not allowed a stopover if your trip is entirely within a zone (other than North America).

However, have you taken a look at how much the tickets you want would cost using cash? There are a lot of pretty cheap intra-Europe tickets, and I would think PAR-IST-ATH-PAR would not be too expensive. Just being able to stop in IST would cause me to pay for the ticket with cash instead of miles.