Stopover?
 

Hi all -- I'm not sure whether Milesbuzz is the right forum for this question, so please move if appropriate.

My question is what kinds of restrictions are placed on an award ticket that allows one "stopover" along the route.

Is it possible, for example, to stop in a US city to visit friends for several days while on an international award itinerary? If so, do airlines place restrictions on the number of nights you can stop over in a city? Most of the T&C's seem to refer to an "overnight" stop or similar, but do not specify whether that actually means ONE night. Does a stopover need to be on the outbound or return trip? Or does it make any difference? The two programs I am really interested in are AA and UAL, but I'm curious whether there are standard restrictions on these things.

Thanks!

Not the correct thread, but I'm sure the moderators will fix if quickly. I'd try doing a search in the AA or UA threads first. If you don't find answers, post in those threads.

Thanks for the heads-up on the thread selection. I did a full-Flyertalk search on "stopover" before posting, but I didn't see anything like a newbie definition of the term. Anyway, hopefully the mods will put me in my place :)

Stopover rules vary by airline. For domestic rewards, AA's rules are the most liberal by far. They allow one stopover AND one open jaw. Moreover, as long as you stay under the MPM, your stopover can be anywhere (not just DFW, ORD, etc) and you can stay for nearly a year (well, the whole ticket is valid for a year). So, for example, you could do something like this:LAX-DFW-MSY<stopover>-MIA<open jaw>NYC-LAX.

Other airlines that I know allow stopovers on domestic award tickets are DL and AS, but on AS you're pretty much locked into PDX and SEA as stopover cities. Furthermore, on both of these airlines, if you opt to stopover, then you can't take an open jaw as well.

The other carriers I fly (UA, NW, CO, US) permit open jaws but do not allow stopovers on domestic award itineraries.

United allows selective stopover.

More important facts about awards

Award travel must be on a United or partner flight routing exclusively between valid cities or continents described in the United and partner awards charts, with no connections or stopovers on additional continents (or cities, where appropriate).

Travel on code share flights operated by other airlines is excluded.

All flight awards are valid for roundtrip travel. If you choose to use an award for one-way travel, no residual credit will be issued for unused segments.

One stopover en route to your final destination or one open jaw is permitted for a flight award on United between the continental U.S. and Hawaii or between the U.S. and the Caribbean, Asia, Australia, Central and South America or Europe. No stopovers are permitted within a geographic region.

I believe NW allows either a stopover or and open-jaw on their award tickets, but not both.

nw and ua don't allow stopovers on domestic award tickets, but do on international. as you point out, if you take a stopover, you can't do an open jaw.

Stopover means more than 24 hours based on flight schedule, as opposed to transit which is up to 23 hours 59 minutes.

Stopover can be any length pver 24 hours, subject to any limit on the ticket validity duration (and flight schedules).

the op asked about stopovers on DOMESTIC US awards, in which case the break point is usually 4 hours or the next flight out, whichever comes first.

Sorry I thought I saw mention of international.

Wow - is 4 hours considered a stopover in US?

As others have noted, each carrier/program has its own interpretation for award tickets. Generally, the domestic stopover permitted on an overseas award ticket is at the NAmerican gateway city, that is the airport at which you connect to your overseas flight. Some carriers/programs may, however, permit a mid-point stopover as long as it is on a permitted routing. In many cases, this is rather difficult when most carriers still operate hub and spoke route systems.

For example, if you live in BUF and are flying UA to SIN on an award, your routing would be via one of their major overseas hub airports: JFK, ORD, SEA, LAX or SFO. You'd be permitted a stopover at any of these, and you might de able to do a stop-over in DEN if you flew BUF-ORD-DEN-SEA/SFO/LAX-NRT/HKG-SIN. But you most likely could not do a stop-over if you wanted to so it in Kansas City, which is considerably off-line [BUF-ORD-KCI-ORD-NRT/HKG-SIN].

At least that's how I would interpret the matter based on my experience with awards on several different carriers/programs.

actually; it looks like the oversight is mine after all. back to the topic, 4 hours is the rule here unless the ticket is booked as an international itin, in which case the 24 hours applies.

4 hours, or the next flight out if it's more than four hours after you arrive, is the maximum length of time for a stay not to be considered a stopover. If you want to stay for longer than that, if you could continue your trip within that time frame, it's a stopover.

And why shouldn't it be? Since "stopover" means you're staying someplace longer than you have to en route to what you say your destination is, I don't think this is unreasonable. I don't know why the international rule allows longer stays, unless it's to let people adjust to time changes (without the added complexity of making up different sets of rules for east-west and north-south travel).

As for airlines allowing stopovers on awards - I don't see what the big deal is. Since they already apply capacity controls to the individual flights, why not just let it happen? Why should it matter to them if I take the next flight out of Chicago or another one three days later? Then again, I've never had much luck finding logic in airline rules...

Actually, at least CO BusinessFirst award flights can have both an open jaw and a stopover- I just booked one that has both. I would assume the rules apply also to coach award flights, at least to Europe. The only restriction on the stopover that I was quoted was that the stopover has to be along the most direct route. Ie, going Paris -> Seattle, they aren't going to fly you CDG-HNL, 2 day stopover, HNL-SEA on the way home. But a stopover in NYC is fine. :D

I am not saying its a dumb rule. I guess I am too used to the 24 hour version, which can come in handy for high-frequency routes where maybe next flight is full in preferred class but a later one isnt.

Sorry for the confusion about domestic vs. international, folks; I was a little too wordy in my original post. My question was about stopovers on an international award itinerary, and it sounds like in most cases that means a >24hr stay.

Assuming you are wanting to stop at an appropriate hub for your carrier, does it matter whether the stopover occurs on the outbound portion of your itinerary or the inbound (i.e., return portion)?

Thanks to everyone for your responses!

no

I recall doing a NW award on CO that permitted me a stop-over at a non-hub: YEG-MSP-Cleveland s/o Cleveland-EWR-SCL.

This works well for college students on spring break. Three times I've
brought a daughter home from college 4-5 days, and then on to
Europe or Japan for 4-5 more days using the "stopover" feature of an
international frequent flyer ticket.

Stopovers vs Transfers
 

As mentioned with previously, an international transfer is < 24 hours. I found this "loophole" as cost effective in scheduling business meetings accross the US. A recent itinerary;

Tu - SFO to DEN - Depart 6:49 pm, Arrive 10:11 pm
We - DEN to DFW - Depart 6:30 pm, Arrive 9:30 pm
Th - DFW to ORD - Depart 7:15 pm, Arrive 9:38 pm
Fr - ORD to LHR - Depart 6:20 pm, Arrive 8:15 am (Saturday)
Su - LHR to IAD - Depart 4:30 pm, Arrive 7:30 pm
Mo - IAD to SFO - Depart 5:50 pm, Arrive 8:36 pm

The fare was priced as a SFO to London roundtrip (approximately $650). This was much less expensive then pricing individual, point to point fares. The other benefit, is that I was able to upgrade these flights using 2 United SWU's.

A couple of weeks ago, I booked an award ticket for an upcoming trip.

Mo - SFO to LAX
Tu - LAX to OKC
We - OKC to PHL
Th - PHL to IAD
Fr - IAD to LHR
Tu - LHR to SFO

It was not easy booking this award, as there appears to be additional restrictions (versus paid ticket). After several calls with the award center (and various explanations on why this routing is not permittable), an agent did ticket this itinerary.

The one major catch was the mileage limitation on an award ticket.

HChrist, you may be able to spend 2 days with your friends (coming and going) by transferring via their city.

Thanks. All of the responses on stopovers have opened my eyes to some interesting techniques. The <24hr transfer idea is really fascinating. It had never occurred to me that you could arrange 23-hour stops in three or four different cities on an international itinerary and have them treated as simple transfers!

I called UAL about an upcoming award flight, and I was able to arrange a 6-day stopover in DEN with no problems at all. Seems like a great option -- at least if you have friends/family in major hubs..

Anyway, thanks FT! A month ago, I wasn't even sure what a stopover *was* :)