Hi all,

Wanting to book the following trip on miles..stopover would be for Christmas this year and would be in LIM for new years and about a week after.

JFK - SFO (or potentially LAX) - LIM - JFK

I am able to do an app-o-rama, so are there any airlines where I could do this trip while counting SFO as a stopover/reducing mileage needs..?

Thanks in advanced - you all are the best.

With a LAX stopover, I would suggest AA miles on the way there, and UA or AA miles on the way back.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ked-merge.html

If you're going to use AA miles, LAN is your only choice from LAX and SFO, and they aren't easy to find space on to Lima. You'd be better keeping your departure cities open and not relying on a stopover, so you could use MIA, DFW and JFK to get to Lima.

Check for LAN space using ba.com if you're interested in their availability.

The thread Stubify referenced is key for you and seems to indicate that you can't do your proposed routing with AA miles as it would excede the MPM for an AA award.

You should have a chance with UA miles if availability is there

Thanks for all the responses - is there a good way to check availability on sites like AA or UA? I am new to the art of stopovers; if I can find a one-way from JFK - SFO, then a one-way from SFO - LIM, could I simply call and reference those flights to do a stopover?

Stubtify: Double-checking your link now for AA miles, thanks again.

EDIT: Did a search on UA using multiple stops. Have a EWR - SFO (nonstop in First) then SFO - IAH (First) - LIM (Business) - IAH (Business) - EWR (Economy). Came out to 105k miles and $75 - good deal? The dates actually work out really well, although I hadn't wanted to use first class (only available)...may book it and call it a day.

For United, in coach try
UA1141 -- JFK-LAX Dec 22
CM473 LAX-PTY -- Dec 30 (COPA Air)
CM 489 PTY-LIM -- Dec 30

Return:
LIM-JFK (Can't find anything in coach, maybe Taca has room call United to ask them to look.

OP: do you have any UA miles yet?

Yes, I have over 90k UA miles. I have had a Chase SP since March of this year, but credit score is excellent so I could easily grab the Explorer 65k offer if I needed to get to 105k.

Would coach be substantially less miles? (Checking now on the route you mentioned)

RE: New Years - Cusco may be a better bet for new year's eve - I had a blast there last year in the Plaza de Armas. Just be careful of pick pockets...I was pick-pocketed twice within 30 minutes that night! It's not my first rodeo...they got nothing because I had nothing of value in the places they got to, and caught one by the wrist and gave him a good yelling at and a shove...but first time (and SECOND time!) I've ever been pick-pocketed during many trips abroad.

Can't do that with AA (runs over MPM +25%)

You can do SFO-JFK-LIM or the reverse with a stopover in NYC for 30K in J. I did it from LAX earlier this year. Great deal on the AA chart, especially if you get LAN to LIM.

Is ORD - LAX (stopover) - LIM over the MPM + 25%?

Yes. 5962 miles flown > 5692 MPM+25%.

LIM is a lot further east than a lot of people seem to think. It's almost a straight shot south from NYC.

You may want to read up the AA award availability threads in AA forum.

It looks great on chart, it looks terrible at award search using AA's own flights.

Do a dummy search on AA website to see for yourself. You dont need to have any AA miles to perform the search.

+1. AA availability to Lima is absolutely atrocious throughout the year. High season or low season, it is so atrocious that it makes no sense whatsoever!

I seriously suspect this is PURPOSELY done by AA due to the loophole of appending a SouthAmerica 1 on an award returning from Hawaii, one can essentially travel in high season returning from Hawaii yet pay a low season S1 fare if one can use the NA Gateway stopover to go home, with LESS miles to boot if you use Coach Saaver.

Since AA does not intend to eliminate the NA gateway stopover on award involves NA and S1, it has no choice but make LIM and other S1/Central America locations largely AAnytime only in Coach and a lot less Saaver Business unless booked 8 - 9 months out, making it impossible to game the system.

Given AA recently eliminate Caribbeans for the NA gateway stopover eligibility, it is quite possible we would see some further loss to this benefit in coming months, after it has been touted everywhere, especially the Hawaii - S1 loophole.

Meanwhile those of us who really want to visit S1 with Saaver award basically are shut out. Now with Star A adding 3 airlines in the region, if one wants to go to S1 or Central America, UA miles would be the ticket.