I am trying to book two intra-africa awards from LOS-CAI & LOS-JNB both of which have a stopover in NBO. When the agents enter the info it shows up as two awards for 100K total (business). I did the LOS-CAI first and the rate desk did a manual sell to put at 50K each. I then called up to book LOS-JNB. I asked her to read the fare rules to make sure that she knew a stopover was permitted. But the same problem of 100K miles came up and after spending 30 min with the rate desk they said that "references" were not updated and so stopovers were not permitted. I didn't mention the other resv as I was afraid if they would cancel my resv.

When I call up again what would you recomend as an approach:

Should I straight away mention the example of LOS-CAI and say that it has to manual sold to be used at 50K. Would they cancel my LOS-CAI resv if they come up with the excuse of "references"?

Or should I just try my luck and keep trying till I get some do the same as above?

To clarify, for the LOS-JNB, you want to route via NBO with a stopover in one direction?

yes.

Hmm, well, try to first book the round trip LOS-JNB with an immediate connection, ask the agent to price it to make sure it comes up at 50k (which, BTW, is an excellent use of miles), then ask him/her to find availability for a stopover itinerary and plead the case that NBO is the most logical stopover point within Africa and it should still price at 50k. I would not use the other reservation as reference- not at this point, anyways. Good luck!

Yeah I actually tried doing this, LOS-JNB prices at 50K but when i ask for a stopover their system keeps increases it to 100K. Also today i noticed that when I ask agents to look at the fare rules and see if a stopover is allowed they mention that it specifically states that it is not, unlike yesterday. i wonder if they updated their fare rules.

Do you think they would cancel the other resv if I brought it up?

Especially it if hasn't been ticketed yet, they may refare it at the higher rate.

If it has already ticketed, I'd say to keep it in your back pocket for now and just continue to press the issue--- although if the rules explicitly state no stopover, then I don't know...

I finally got an agent who said the fare rules allowed a stopover. As usual she could not do it and the supervisor did it. But she mentioned that the ticket would take some time to be issued.

I found my itin on nwa.com and it shows a bar code and says that all flights are confirmed. but under e-ticket it says "none". Does this mean the itin has not yet been ticketed? Just want to know if I can rest in peace and not worry about an agent calling up and saying, "Sorry we reviewed your itin and it is not allowed under the rules" Thanks.

BTW I called from a different phone this time.

Yes, your itinerary has been reserved/booked, but it just hasn't ticketed yet. No big deal. It should ticket within a few days or even a week, although technically it doesn't have to ticket until a few days before your departure.

But you don't have to worry anymore. It will ticket and won't have any issues with the fare rules or anything. It's just a waiting game until you've got a ticket #. Nice work calling back. I knew you could do it.

I would certainly not just hope that it will be issued. I've had a number of purchased and reward tickets that were stuck in the que, or even disappeared. If there is no e-ticket number two weeks before your flights, I would definitely contact them.

Don't call up unless you need to, of course. 95% of the time these situations work out fine.

Thanks, is that basis for your signature?

I was just wondering what are some of the precautions NW takes to ensure that people do not use others miles fraudulently. When i booked the first ticket the agent gave me the impression that they would only send the actual eticket (with the etix#) to the email on profile of the account holder. That is why i thot the etix said "none" in the first booking. On the second round the agent offered to send the ticket to my email as well and so now I am wondering what NW does to prevent such fraud. UA makes the person go to the airport and AA makes the account holder pay the taxes.

Yup, one C tix is USD 1963 , so its 3.9 cents per miles.