24 to 16 would be rough.

edited to retract: Just saw Jon's reference in another thread from yesterday to sukn's post on relaxation of the 4 hour...http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23375665-post13.html

Here are the details of the new policy that Sukn brought to our attention:

Domestic Stopover - Definition (back to top)
Revised/1915/02AUG/TVV - Transborder travel allows 18 hours. Added note 2 for codeshare fares.
Revised/1920/14JUL/TVV - Add 18 hour rule to AA awards
1500/7JUL/TVV
For travel within US/Canada and applicable to all AA revenue and AA award travel, no stopover occurs if a passenger takes next available flight;

• Within 4 hours
  • Within/between US/CA and PRVI (except as specified below in 18 hours section)
• Within 18 hours
  
  • For tickets issued on/after July 01, 2014
    
    • Travel between US50/CA and ACK, AEX, ALO, ANC, ART, ASE, BFL, BIS, BOI, BPT, BRO, CRW, CWA, DBQ, EGE, ELM, ERI, EUG, EVV, EYW, FNT, GCK, GEG, GGG, GRI, GUC, HDN, IPT, JAC, JLN, LCH, MLB, MLU, MQT, MTJ, MVY, RAP, RDM, ROW, SPI, SUX, TOL, TVC, TXK
      
    • Travel between US and CA.
      
  • For tickets issued on/after July 02, 2014 - between US/CA and Hawaii/Alaska

Note 1: 18 hour rule does not apply to All Partner award travel.

Note 2: Many codeshare fares AA* operated by US in the same markets allowed an 18 stopover prior to the dates listed above. When changing itineraries with codeshare flights, check the past date stopover rule to determine what is applicable.

This is excellent news for me as my home airport is AEX. If I'm reading this correctly, this will allow flying to DFW the night before and taking the early morning flight out of DFW.

I'd say so, yes! ^

That is, indeed, great news. However, AA.com has a glitch and, in my case, it was incorrectly showing as two awards instead of one, thus showing an incorrect number of miles required. In fact, when I called the CSR, she said that the glitch appeared on her end, too, but she overrode it, to reflect only one award with the correct number of miles (plus taxes/fees, nominal).

While definitely unfortunate, I'd say not at all surprising all things considered.

But, hey, if it wasn't for FT, ya' wouldn't have been armed with the info! :)

Absolutely correct. FT is fabulous. I have learned so much from FT. Thank you all! :):):)

I'm still learning AA rules. Does this mean there is a stopover if more than 4 hours between flights within the USA, even if there are absolutely no AA flights within that time period? What if my connecting flight has a 4:05 layover? What if I fly in on the last flight of the day and out on the first the next morning, Do I have a stopover, by the rules? This sometimes happens to me flying to/from Asia.

International (to/from Asia) allows up to 24 hour layovers.

Also, you can ALWAYS do last in first out... Taking last flight into a city one night and the first flight out the next day.

Update :( Even though two CSRs said my itinerary (on 5 day hold) was one award, the 3rd CSR (upon my inquiring about purchase) said it was two awards (because layover was >4 hrs) and a supervisor who I spoke to agreed with her. FYI: My itinerary is YVR-PHX, PHX-BWI on US metal with 5 hr. layover. So, referring to the revised "Domestic Stopover - Definition" above, I believe it is "Travel between US and CA" as stated in the 2nd bulleted item under "Within 18 hours . . . For tickets issued on/after July 01, 2014". Wouldn't I have 18 hrs to make connection? It is travel between the US (BWI) and Canada (Vancouver). Am I simply interpreting it incorrectly?

Latest update: Another supervisor said (1) it does not apply because of "Note 1: 18 hour rule does not apply to All Partner award travel", (2) since I am using AA miles on US (a partner airline, since still operating under separate certificate from AA) it is non-applicable,(3) if I were flying on AA metal, it would be okay, (4) if I were using US miles on US Airways Dividend Miles Program, it would be okay since it is US metal AND, (5) it is not considered international because CA to US is not international.

"Note 1: 18 hour rule does not apply to All Partner award travel", (2) since I am using AA miles on US (a partner airline, still!) it is non-applicable,(3) if I were flying on AA metal, it would be okay, (4) if I were using US miles, it would be okay since it is US metal AND, (5) it is not considered international because CA to US is not international.

I'm a little confused about this
- it does not apply when part of the award is on a partner airline? or is it just if the entire award is a partner airline.
- what about the US miles?American will book you a flight on US using US miles and will apply this rule?

Basically - I'm trying to fly STL - california - OGG. The california-OGG flights are on AS or HA and leave in the morning. I can't get a flight from STL-california early enough, so would have to fly in the night before. Would like the whole award on one ticket.

Definitely this exception does not apply to an award using AS and/or HA.

+

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this issue. I'm also in the market for an <east coast>-<gateway airport>-Hawaii itinerary. I think I have three options. Can anyone review and confirm? Thanks.

1) The 21 hour travel day all in one go routing. This would be something like a 7 am departure from AVL with an 8 pm (local time) arrival in HA.

2) LIFO. This would allow us to fly to a gateway the evening before and catch the AS or HA flights the next morning.

3) The 18 hour exception. Here we could also fly on US or AA metal to one of the three AA HA gateways (DFW, PHX or LAX) the night before and get any AA or US flight the next day as long as it was within the 18 hour window and NOT be required to take the first morning flight out.

I am going to fly SXM-MIA-STL, but the SXM-MIA flight doesn't arrive early enough (18:27) for me to catch the MIA-STL LFO. How much of a good night's sleep can I get before I violate the rule? The next direct flight isn't until 14:13 the next day, but there are many options via DFW/ORD. This is going to be a paid J ticket, but I don't want to be forced onto the 5:30 DFW flight the next day.