What is maximum mileage permitted?
 

I checked the NWA website about redeeming an award. It said that a stopover is allowed on most international trips. Travel must be via a published route and must not exceed the maximum mileage permitted.

What is the maximum mileage permitted?

Here is it.

Open-jaws and Stopovers

When you travel on a WorldPerks award ticket in some travel regions, your travel may include either one single open-jaw or one en route stopover per roundtrip journey, not both.
An open-jaw is when you travel to one city and return from another, or vice versa; for example, flying from Boston to Billings and returning from Denver to Boston. In this example, the open-jaw segment is Billings to Denver. Both flight segments must be of a greater distance than the non-flight (open-jaw) segment. If the open-jaw portion exceeds the maximum permitted mileage, two roundtrip award levels are required.
A stopover is a planned break of more than 24 hours on an international trip or four hours on a domestic trip between your point of origin and your destination or vice-versa. One free en route stopover is permitted on a Northwest, KLM or Continental flight from North America to Asia, Europe or Hawaii. Stopovers are permitted only in a Northwest, KLM or Continental hub, or at an international gateway city that is indicated on your flight itinerary. Free stopovers are not permitted for travel within Asia Pacific/Micronesia, or within/between the 48 contiguous United States, Alaska, Canada, Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Travel must be via a published route and must not exceed the maximum mileage permitted.

I have no idea how much miles you're allowed to travel but I've been told once by a WP agent about a maximum number of segments (she didn't tell me the allowed #, just that my itin. would require too many segments [no mention of max miles]). In my opinion, if you plan an itinerary of 3 segments each way, you shouldn't have to worry

One thing I wonder though, can WP agents bypass these mileage/segment limits if awards aren't available on all direct flights or flights with one or two connections? Does status (SE, G, PE) influence their decision?

Another question is if the itginerary exceeds in mileage of segments, can we spend more miles and get a ticket for that itinerary?

I tried to book a TPA-MEM-SEA-HNL-LIH (and return) once, but was told by a rep. that I couldn't do more than 3 connections each way on a WP ticket.

Re:

1. Award travel must be between city-pairs that have a published fare. For example, if I want to cash in NW miles for a ticket from ABQ to LAX... I'm outta luck on NW because, even though NW flies into both cities, they do not publish fares between the two cities. (Generally, this scenario will occur when major backtracking is required). For me to get from ABQ to LAX, I would have to backtract 'way out of the way' thru MSP and so, this would not be allowed - and I would have to cash in miles for two tkts on published routes - one between ABQ and MSP and another between MSP and LAX.

2. What is the maximum mileage permitted?

Many international fares have MPM's (Maximum Permited Mileage) associated with them. For example, if you wanted to travel from LAX to BKK... you could fly via Tokyo and not exceed the MPM allowable on the route with NW. However, one could not fly from LAX to BKK via Sydney, for example, as this would exceed the MPM for NW's LAX-BKK fare. The MPM will be listed in the tarriff of the fare in question.

Actually, MPM's are a good thing - because they allow one to deviate off of a straight line 'a little bit' and by doing so, to perhaps be able to include an extra city or two in ones travel plans. However, they are figured so that you just can't deviate 'too much' - so that the airline won't lose revenue off of an additional ticket or a higher fare that they might be able to sell to you.

Not really. However, you can cash in more miles for another award - and then do a separate side trip, for example.

Rules are rules and would apply regardless of status and whether or not seats were available. The maximum number of segments (for domestic travel) will be determined by the 'number of transfers' allowable on a given published fare between any two cities... which with NW, is often (NOT always) 6 in total, 3 on the outbound and 3 on the return. Again, this will be listed in the tarriff under 'permissible transfers' of a given fare. (If you are traveling on a freebie tkt - just check the rules for the cheapest fare in the market... and that will give you an idea of what you can and cannot do... i.e. number of transfers and/or the MPM which is allowable).



[This message has been edited by tvl4free (edited 11-19-2001).]

I've wondered the same question. Thank you for the great answer Tvl4free! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I would love to travel Heathrow to Gatwick (Or JFK to Newark for that matter) say via Sydney. That would be fun.