I figured that I could save 25K miles getting to Europe in style if an open jaw is allowed. This would be the Distance Zone 3 (4001-9000K miles) award which is 100K miles for first. The regular all airline award is 125K miles for F.

here is the routing:

ORD-YYZ(AA)-LHR(BA)-MAD or BCN(IB)

LHR-ORD(AA)

Total mileage = 8720 +/- few.

So, open jaw ok?

Anything else I'm missing?

If you are transiting YYZ & LHR then the mileage calculation would be ORD-MAD (or BCN)//LHR-ORD. From memory your figure looks about right. Now as to the open jaw, I think your example is allowed however the open jaws I've done in the past have not involved a transit through the final departure point (in your case LHR). Getting the desired routing is another issue - in theory AA could force you to use IB from a U.S. gateway if it is available.

That's great news. The only reason I picked ORD as a starting point was to get under the 9K, but if what you're saying is correct, then I could do TPA-YYZ-LHR-MAD and LHR-MIA/JFK/ORD-TPA. If it's only the direct distance that's counted I should be able to do this. Obviously, availibility and willingness of a EXP AAngel to work this out would be crucial.

So this may be a problem, but I can't think of any other way where I would be able to fly in F on BA and AA. Just not too crazy about IB. I do need 2 other OW airlines besides AA, correct?

So basically, I don't have a right to pick routing on a OW award? I knew there was a weak point with this award scheme somewhere.

Thanks!

I just talked to EXP AAngel and according to her, this is what's possible:

Open jaw - ok

Transiting through the final departure city - ok

Miles are calculated according to the straight flight between the departure and arrival cities - GREAT! (best news of the day!)

It is possible to pick routing as long as I stick within all the necessary rules (the connection times, etc...)

So it's possible, but it may prove hard to do it exactly how I want it, because of the availibility and the connection times.

We'll see!

Thanks again for the great info!

It wasn't clear to me if you actually wanted stop-overs in YYZ or LHR, but you can save a few miles by just telling the agent that you want to go ORD-MAD. I assume you've already checked this routing (through YYZ) for availability, so you can suggest it to the agent. If they try to route you differently, then simply suggest that you must depart a given point by a certain time (or, can't leave until after a certain time) and the agent will be constrained into booking the routing that you truly desire.

There are obvious limitations to what they can do, but they're quite happy to meet you half-way.

I want to get to MAD or BCN, stay for few days, get on my own dime to UK and visit with friends in Edinburgh and Belfast and finally London where I would catch the return flight. So YYZ is only a transit point.

With the new info of mileage being counted just between the departure and arrival cities and I'm allowed up to 9K before the award price goes up, I could still do TPA-MAD/BCN and LHR-TPA and be under 9K miles. TPA is my hometown port. I only did the ORD in the first post because I didn't know about the mileage rules.

I would like to try BA F so that's the only reason I want to go through YYZ. So my outbound would be something like this TPA-ORD-YYZ-LHR-MAD/BCN.

The inbound is easy as I could do AA to JFK/MIA/ORD and connect there to TPA.

The OW award has to involve 2 other OW airlines if I use AA. This would be ideal as I would get BA and AA in F on the long flights and suffer with IB on the short 2 hour flight, thus satisfying the rules.

I won't need to do this till Oct/possibly Nov, so hopefully BA will give up 1 F seat on one of the days during not so busy season. That's probably the only possible problem, BA to have availibility. I know AA will not be too much of a problem and as far as IB is concerned, I could sit in Y for that short flight.

The agent made is somewhat clear that requesting the specific routing should not be a problem as long as it falls within all the rules of the award and there is availibility. Hopefully she's right so I won't have to play any phone games.

Thanks for the suggestions.

BTW: BA shows F (award) availability for YYZ-LHR-YYZ for every day in October and November.

Enjoy!