United award availability error/user error
 

Hi,

I am trying to piece together United award ticket to Europe and noticed something.

Under Multiple destination, I picked the following:
newyork-> madrid 5/6/2014
madrid-> paris 5/9/2014
paris-> london 5/13/2014

There is availability for this. I added one more flight to this. An openjaw/stopover like this.

newyork-> madrid 5/6/2014
madrid-> paris 5/9/2014
paris-> london 5/13/2014
rome to new york 5/27/2014

This shows no availability. I thought there was no availability. So, I tried the following

newyork to rome 5/6/2013
rome to newyork 5/27/2014

So, rome to newyork availability is fine which makes me think that I am not following some rules. I tried looking but could not find what I did wrong, Can someone please explain this to me?

Thanks.

Since your open jaw is over 24hrs, it is also counted as an stopover. Thus, you have a stopover in paris as well as one for your open jaw, making two stopovers total. You are only allowed to have one stopover; thus, this is where you are breaking a rule.

Then why does the first one is OK where madrid and paris both will be stopovers since they both are over 24 hours?

You have two stopovers (MAD, CDG) and one open jaw. You can only have one stopover and an open jaw at the origin and/or desination. Even if it was a legal award, the web site has trouble with complicated reservations and you often have to call to book.

In the first one, Madrid is the stopover and Paris is the destination. (Or, if you like, Madrid is the destination and Paris is the stopover.) So, one stopover.

In the second one, you have three breaks in your journey of more than 24 hr. So you have one destination and two stopovers.