stopover question
 

My question is if Im having a stopover in a third region on an award ticket, do I have to continue my journey from the same airport I began the stopover in or can I continue my journey from a different airport in the same region? I want to know if the following routing is permitted-I'm presuming its not:

outbound: ORY-CAY (then take bus to) PBM-CAY-FDF-PTP
inbound: IAD-CDG

or

CDG-AMS-PBM (then take bus to) CAY-FDF-PTP
IAD-CDG

Ideally I would like to visit both French Guyana and Suriname and would rather not backtrack at all, or if I must, by plane as opposed to take a bus from Cayenne to Paramaribo and back to Cayenne.

I called and confirmed that ORY-CAY stopover CAY-FDF-PTP, then CDG-IAD, is a permitted routing for 50k in Y. I suppose I could call again with this question, but Ill ask here first. BTW< these are with Delta Skymiles...maybe this thread should be moved to that forum?

My understanding of the rules is that you are allowed one stopover and one open jaw on a reward. You have the open jaw (in to PTP and out of IAD) and the stopover (CAY). I wouldn't think that they'd allow you to do it, but that's just my guess. The DL agents are the ones with final say.

I know I'm a bit late on this:

but last year, we booked this for 30k:
AUS-ATL-TAB DL
CAY-PTP AF (overnight stay, <24h)
PTP-MIA AF
MIA-ATL-AUS DL

if we had stayed >24h in PTP they would have charged us more miles.

As it worked out DL first cancelled the ATL-TAB flights; we had them switch us to ATL-ANU. Then the AUS-ATL flight was late, which would cause us to miss the ATL-ANU. So they put us on AA, AUS-DFW-MIA-BGI instead.

For award travel, keep in mind that a stopover is considered as a connecting flight more than 24hrs. Open jaw segment must be shorter than the longest distance between 2 cities. I tried to redeem KUL-AKL-open-BKK-KUL, but couldn't b'cos AKL-BKK is further than the longest distance flown (KUL-AKL).

These rules apply to paid tickets as well, not just reward travel.

Hmmm.

I just booked BUF-ATL-AMS-(stopover)-LCY, and CDG-DTW-BUF return. I asked about doing something like NCE-CDG-(stopover)-DTW-BUF and was told it's OK, since both AMS and CDG are gateway cities.

Not too sure about that NCE-CDG leg, though, since it's quite a distance.

Not sure what you mean by this. As long as the open jaw is shorter than each of the other two segments you'll be fine. In your case it would be BUF-LON/NCE-BUF, so you've got plenty of padding to work with on that middle segment.

As for the stopover, you should be able to do either one of the ones you have listed, but not both.

I should be able to multi-city search an award w/ stopover, right? CO keeps spitting this message at me:

! We could not process your request. Please see the message below and make revisions.

! Itinerary not valid for Reward Travel; see rules regarding Open-jaw Travel.


LAX-EWR-CDG-VIE
A regular itin gives me a forced overnight in CDG on the return, so I thought why not extend it by a couple nights.

I'm a NW Plat, not a CO OP member. And this is my very first ST redemption.

OT: would you route through IAH or EWR and why?

I'm pretty sure that the CO site can only do open jaw but not stopover; you may have to call it in.

I'd route through IAH as much as possible. You are guaranteed the 772 versus the 752 you could get from EWR and you also get a longer flight on the way over so there is time to eat dinner and then sleep at a comfortable pace. Coming back you get to clear immigration in IAH instead of EWR, and the onward connection is a more manageable 3-4 hours instead of 5-6.

If you are flying up front the 752 will have AVOD while only ~25% have it up front. In the back only ~25-30% of the 772 and 752s have AVOD. If you're in the elite seats you get power in Y either way, though the AVOD planes have "normal" outlets instead of emPower.

In the end I'd take whatever you can get for standard prices, but if both are available I'd try the IAH connection; I think it is more compelling for the outbound.

Thank you, sbm. You answered my questions and more. ^