Yup, I called them twice and talked to two different agents. Both confirmed that I can book this open-jaw ticket with a free stopover (I will probably do a stopover in Zurich).

Stopover rules for award travel?
 

I'm trying to book 2 one way tickets from MSP to AKL. the routing is MSP-ORD-PEK-AKL. The facts are laid out below:

-All segments are in business (I) except the msp-ord segment, which is in econonomy (X)

-There is a 2 hour connection in ORD and a 19 hour connection in PEK

-The mileage should be 135,000 but it is showing up on the award booking engine as 220,000

-I attempted to book it as a multi-segment award booking based on flights found using ANA and UA's award searches

I've tried calling 3 seperate UA agents on the phone now and each person is saying that it must be <4 hours to be considered a "connection" rather than a "stopover". Has this changed after the merger? Or is there a website or something that I can direct the agents to that clearly states 24 hr connections are allowed on international awards in order to book this itinerary for the 135,000 miles? Thanks in advance for the help

EDIT: the agent i'm on the phone with is saying that PEK is not a "connection city" according to the booking engine. Any ideas?

can't really help, but I think the 4 hours is for domestic flights. Hope it hasn't changed. Also I heard the same thing pre merger with co about a city not being classified as a connection city. I believe they said I could route through Sin but not through hkg or nrt.

good luck and update us on the outcome

You can absolutely have connections of more than 4 hours in international cities. I believe the max at least used to be just under 24 hours, and I've previously booked connections of 19 hours.

As far as PEK as a connecting city goes, I just pulled up plenty of itineraries showing 8-10 hour connections in PEK using united.com. For example, look for one-way awards from BKK to ORD (pick any date you want, but I was just looking at several dates in September). Several options with connections in PEK came up.

Hmmm, so I got off the phone with "Alan" who used to be a continental rep and was very helpful. However, after ~50 min of trying to book it at the lower mileage he came to the conclusion that I couldn't connect anywhere in Asia besides NRT when traveling to AKL from North America. He said if I were traveling to BKK as a final destination that MSP-ORD-PEK-BKK would have been fine because the final destination is in Asia; since AKL is in the Pacific, the routing simply wouldn't be allowed and would have to be 2 seperate one-ways. I guess there isn't any way around it and I'll have to look for some Business class availability from LAX/SFO/YYZ/NRT....I was really looking forward to the flight over the North Pole and a day in Beijing too :(

Ok. . . well at least that explanation makes much more sense!

The route you're interested in spans 13,300+ miles.

[KVS Availability Tool 6.9.6/Diamond - Reference: Maximum Permitted Mileage [MPM]: MSP-AKL/UA]
Using PEK at a transfer point is so far off the charts that this is likely why you've received the answer you have.

Makes sense....I didn't even think about the MPM!

Tried calling back a few more times and was able to get it ticketed! So glad I decided to try calling back a couple more times!

Transiting thru PEK at the lower mileage? I'm surprised that you could connect in NRT.

The rule is still 24 hours for international itineraries and agent roulette is always the best option.

You are off by a minute. It is not a stopover as long as the transfer is max 23 hours and 59 minutes to be exact.

I was surprised as well, but definitely not complaining :D Booked it as MSP-ORD-PEK-AKL

I wish we could see what their screens look like so we could help them "find" the availability

Very good news indeed! But i just can't handle the wait times.
How long was your wait time, and what time did you call?

I called around noon and from 9-10PM central time.

I used this link to have united call me and never waited more then ~5min