bic

Hi...long time lurker, first time poster.

I live in Miami and will be visiting Hawaii (Maui/Oahu) in September from the 2nd to the 15th. Today I was given the opportunity to visit Italy (Rome/Milan/Torino) between the dates of September 16-24 and I'd like to go, using a reward ticket to get me from the States to Italy. I spoked to an agent on the phone today and it seemed like there would be no problem getting a ticket from Miami to Rome on whichever dates I chose, and she even gave me the option of extending the length of my stopover in Paris.

According to Delta's web site, it's only 50,000 miles for a reward ticket from Hawaii to Europe, just as it would be from Miami. So now I'm facing a number of options. I would like to book a 50,000-mile reward ticket from the U.S. to Italy with a 3-4 day stopover in a TBA city.

Would it be possible to go Honolulu-Rome-Miami? How about including a city like London, Paris, or Amsterdam as an extended stopover?

If this is possible, then how about something like Honolulu-Rome (via stopover in Tokyo)-Miami?

I've done quite a bit of research on this and understand that one open leg is allowed for reward travel (i.e. MIA-FCO-MXP-MIA) and that one stopover is allowed (although if the connecting flights are less than 24 hours apart, it doesn't count as a stopover). I'm just wondering if I could pull off something as ridiculous as Honolulu-Tokyo-Rome-Miami for 50,000 reward miles. Nevermind whether the seats are actually available...is the theoretically possible?

If you've read this far, I greatly appreciate you sticking with me through all the confusion. Thanks for the help!

upgrader

Welcome to FT, bic. Leaving from Hawaii, you could fly, for example, to Miami, do a stopover there and then fly on to Rome. You would then have to fly back to Hawaii without a stopover because you are only allowed one. However, you could fly to Miami, stay there less than 24 hours, fly on to London or another stopover city in Europe or anywhere else and stay as long as you want and then fly on to Rome. The return to Hawaii would then have to be without a stopover.

If you use a city for a stopover you cannot also do an open-jaw segment on that same award ticket. You can do a stopover or an open-jaw segment but not both on an award ticket. You can do as many "less than 24 hour" stops as you can figure out since they do not count against the one "over 24 hour" stopover you are allowed. So pick cities with the airport close to the city center and do some quick explorations if you so choose. My wife and I have done this a few times and had no problems. Good luck.

USAFAN

He needs a little more than "Good luck". It looks he is offered a Delta Reward on AF .. with a stopover in Paris.
He might get a stopover in Milan with Alitalia. I believe, that's all he can do with a Delta Reward.

With BA he could have a stopover in London, with LH in FRA or MUC ..., but not with a Delta Reward.

Actually, he should be happy to get a Delta Reward to Europe...I didn't get one in 2006! And no Delta Reward to Italy in 2004 and 2005 ...
And yes, welcome to FT.

bic

Thanks for the input!

As far as being limited to only a stopover in Milan with a Delta reward, why would I not be able to land a stopover in any other hub city served by the SkyTeam (i.e. London, AMS)?

Last year I managed to get a reward ticket to go from IAD-NCE (via CDG) and then from CDG-ORD-- 2 open-jaws, I know...but a customer service rep allowed it and then subsequent reps honored the error made on their part. The reservation was made about 2 months before the trip occurred in April.

gilpin

Although the limit for the maximum connection time which is not considered a stopover is indeed 24 hours for a paid international ticket, I believe the official rule is that only 12 hours are allowed on an international award ticket (unless last in-first out). Or at least it was the case.

miro

I never heard of a 12-hour rule. And also my experience vouches against it. Last year I got a SkySaver ticket for my mother in-law to fly from WAW through CDG and ATL to CUN. She arrived in ATL at 3 PM and departed for CUN at noon next day (neither last-in nor first-out). That was 21 hours on the ground in ATL.

TTT

Actually, the stopovers don't need to be en-route. So he could fly MIA-CDG stopover CDG-MXP Destination MXP-CDG-MIA. What is not going to work with this itin is the open-jaw and the stopover. You are only allowed one...

GoCanes

It is too bad the TA's on the award desk are not creative enough all the time to try and make things work like this. Many times I have called for award seats to get put on hold, come back two minutes later and say nothing available. However, many times I could get one flight to a gateway and then wait a day or two and continue on, but they don't suggest or look at that option.

karthik

I'm curious: would the RTW award desk handle a regular partner award reservation like this at all? The only "non-standard" award reservation I've ever had on DL is the current RTW I'm on, so I've talked to the RTW desk enough times to recognize at least all the early-morning US-time folks there. But they answer the phones as "partner awards desk" suggesting they may handle more than just RTWs...

I'm suggesting this because they seem much more capable of handling strange routings, requests, and rules than the rest of DL. For example, I recently had on hold a change where I had a 2 day stopover in CDG without it counting as a stopover due to an apparent rule where, if I left a prior stopover, I could stay in the next gateway city until the next flight with availability in the same class was open, even if that meant a multi-day stopover. (I eventually cleared a better routing with no overnight at all before the reissue; I didn't really need 2 days in Paris at that time.) It sounds like the regular awards folks aren't quite as creative with routings and such. I think they've also put me on more waitlists to more destinations than one should generally be on from what I understand...

If you want the direct # for the RTW desk you may be able to find it from searching, or PM me for it if you can't.

USAFAN

...a stopover in any other hub city served by the SkyTeam (i.e. London, AMS)..
How? Which airline(s)? Route?

I almost agree, that you can have a stopover in any other hub city served by SkyTeam. For what SkyTeam airlines are London or AMS hub cities?

OT: Soon I will fly BA to have a stopover in London. BTW, with BA you can always have a reward flight with stopover and open-jaw.

soitgoes

KL's major hub is AMS.
DL has flights to/from LGW, so one might be able to use that for a stopover.

TTT

You do not need to stopover en-route (ie at a SkyTeam hub along the way). The stopover can be in any european city served by a SkyTeam airline.

As an example, I recently put the following award on hold. Granted, this is for Middle East travel, but the stopover rules are the same as those for Europe.

USA-KWI-ZRH-USA

This was done by booking USA-AMS-KWI (Stopover)-AMS-ZRH (Destination)-AMS-USA for 120,000 in J.

Also, AMS is KLM's hub.

USAFAN

soitgos, TTT:

Not even in my wildest dreams, I could imagine that those two routings would work on a Delta award trip:

No 1) ATL-LGW on DL (stopover) - LHR-FCO on Alitalia FCO-ATL on DL or Alitalia

No 2) USA-AMS-KWI (Stopover)-AMS-ZRH (Destination)-AMS-USA for 120,000 in J.

Is this for real ... or wishful thinking? Next, even if that favorable rules exist, it's not so easy to find an agent at DL who will book this award flight. And yes, I am aware that the agents at DL's partner desk are pretty knowledgeable and helpful. BTW, always when I want to go, in spring or autumn, I very seldom get a DL award flight to Europe...even when I am flexible with time frame and airport.

soitgoes

I don't see anything restricting such itineraries. The rules don't say that the stopover has to be at a gateway.

bic

Update:

After speaking with a customer service representative, Flying westbound from Honolulu to Rome (via Tokyo or any other Asian city) is no longer an option for me. Instead I will have to fly eastbound, stopping in 1 or 2 U.S. hubs before making it to FCO. I wanted to try HNL-EWR-FCO, however I was informed that any use of Northwest or Continental in my itinerary would bump the required skymileage from 50,000 to 70,000.

So now it looks like I'll be flying HNL-west coast hub-east coast hub-FCO or possibly HNL-U.S. hub-European hub-FCO. My return trip will most likely be FCO-European hub-MIA or FCO-U.S. hub-MIA. I won't have the opportunity to have an extended stopover since I'll have an open-jaw in my itinerary (as pointed out a few posts up).

It's unfortunate I wasn't able to pull off the round-the-world flight for 50,000 miles or extended stopovers in exotic locales, but I'm not complaining about only getting to visit Hawaii and Italy back-to-back. Now whether I can physically handle 21-23 hours of consecutive flying and a 12-hour time change is a different story...