PV_Premier

I think this is legal but I'm not sure if it is permissible to transit a stopover en route to a destination, or transit a destination en route to a stopover (depending which order I build the itinerary).

SFO-xxx-AKL-ZQN (stop/open jaw)
CHC-AKL (destination)
AKL-xxx-SFO-yyy ("free" one way open jaw to yyy)

xolerf

I booked a an award ticket w/ UA and I am trying to make a change, but was told that my itinerary change is not valid.

My current itinerary is:

HNL-NRT-PVG (destination)-PEK (stopover)-TPE-YYZ-MCO

My proposed itinerary is:

HNL-NRT-PVG (destination)-PEK (stopover)-TPE-YYZ-MCO (open-jaw)-IAD-HNL

I want to tack on a one-way award ticket from IAD-HNL, so that I can return back to HNL and I would simply use Avios to get from MCO to DCA/IAD. The agent told me that I cannot add the IAD-HNL segment as it would mean my itinerary would have TWO STOPOVERS and would need to book a separate award ticket. I tried to explain that I only had one stopover in PEK and that adding IAD-HNL would use one of my two open-jaws. He wouldn't budge and I thanked him and hung up. I did call after hours, so I'll definitely try during normal business hours. I booked this ticket as a round-trip and was priced at a OW from Hawaii to North Asia in J and a OW from North Asia to North America.

So, am I missing something here or what? Is it valid to add my IAD-HNL leg and only pay a change fee?

Kacee

Agent was correct. The OJ counts as a stopover and you cannot have two stopovers.

alex_b

Provided you're not stopping at SFO (i.e. less than 24hrs) you should be ok. Also I would suspect that ZQN is your destination and AKL is your stopover, not that it matters.

Stopovers and open jaws ARE NOT ADDITIVE, this is pretty clearly explained in the wiki.

If you want to go back to HNL on this trip you'll probably need the trip repriced (Hawaii not N. America), not stop anywhere for less than 24hrs on the way home, not have more than 5 segments after PVG and you probably can't get UA to allow that amount of backtracking. In other words I think this is a complete non-starter.

xolerf

Thanks for your responses. It seems that I will have make other arrangements to get back home.

elliott44k

I'm trying to book IAD-NRT-XXX-ICN-LHR(stopover)-IAH or
IAD-NRT-XXX-ICN-LHR-XXX-MAN-IAH

Is either of these a valid itinerary? I was able to do it the first one before on the site, but I can't anymore. I just wanted to confirm that it's valid before I call to book.

zubar

I would like to know too. I've been able to do it in the past but recent posts suggest otherwise so if someone can confirm..

1353513636

What region is XXX in? I would guess no, based on recent experience and new routing rules that seemed to have come into affect in April.

See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...gh-n-asia.html

zubar

SFO-CDG (stopover)-NRT (destination)-SFO

Basically, US to north Asia with an Europe stopover.

elliott44k

Well, up until about a few weeks ago, I was actually able to book it online, I'm not sure what would have changed between then and now.

IAD-NRT-XXX-ICN-LHR(stopover)-IAH
Well what I'm saying is XXX is an open jaw, so I'm flying from DC to Tokyo and then open jawing and buying a separate flight and stopping over in London before flying back to Houston as my 2nd open jaw.

I didn't really know how I should notate that, I'm pretty new at this.

jackal

Ah, that makes sense then. On FT, XXX typically means "a city that I prefer not to name" (which never made much sense to me and usually just adds confusion).

I'm not sure what the "official" form of notating an open jaw on FT is, but I've always used a double slash, like so:

IAD-NRT//ICN-LHR(stopover)-IAH

I've seen other methods, though like "IAD-NRT, ICN-LHR//LHR-IAH" or whatever (where the double slash means stopover, then). Maybe someone can enlighten us both.

Anyway, the official UA policy is one stopover and two open jaws, which would fit your award. Not sure if the fact that the open jaw is in two different regions is complicating things, though (NRT is in the Japan region and ICN is in the North Asia region--dumb because they're really not that far from each other, but Star Alliance puts them in separate regions). Someone more knowledgeable will have to comment...

elliott44k

Well, I was actually able to book the itinerary over the phone (The first guy said I can't cross two oceans and that it has to be an around the world ticket, but then he transferred me to star alliance and they had no problem booking my ticket).
IAD-NRT//ICN-LHR(stopover)-IAH

Now my question is, what counts as an open jaw? I was wondering if I can add a leg from somewhere else in Texas to IAD, like Dallas or San Antonio. Would that be possible? I'd like to add that as soon as I can, if possible, to avoid any additional fees.

Kacee

You scored. Technically the two oceans is not supposed to be allowed anymore. It's getting to the point I'm about to throw up my hands and say there really aren't any consistent rules, it completely depends on the agent.

You can't add an OJ at IAH to that itinerary. It would count as a stopover and you already have one of those. You can add a domestic segment out of IAH, but the connection time must be <24 hours.

elliott44k

Got it, thanks for that info.
Yeah, from my experience in booking this. Just call and if you don't get the answer you like, call again. (We've been given similar advice from teachers and advisors at my school (Berklee)).

pushmyredbutton

So I have this booked for this week:

7/5 SIN-CGK
7/8 CGK-BKK-VTE
7/11 VTE-BKK-PNH


I really want to close this round trip somehow with a final leg like PNH-SIN, but it looks I already have a stopover in CGK.

Adding PNH-SIN would create a second stopover, so would a final leg like PNH-KUL be legal since it's an open jaw?