Stopovers And Open Jaws On Award Tickets

Just wondering - what did you book with Iberia Avios?

Thanks for this solid article. As this is an article for beginners, you may wish to note that what you call a "return," we in the U.S. call a "round trip."

Also just wondering - is it possible to book a (single) open jaw with IB? (without trnsferring to BA).

Thanks

The <24-hour stopover is especially valuable for London, because the exorbitant APD isn't charged if you're a transit passenger, defined as spending less than 24 hours in London. I just booked a trip this way, flying into LCY, spending just under 24 hours there, and flying out of LHR.

Even within programs, stopover rules can vary based on the metal on which you fly. You mentioned Singapore’s rules above being pertinent for Singapore metal. Emirates actively encourages long transits in Dubai by its business model, so the four hour limitation for transits in other cities are often suspended for DXB with Emirates.

I think you've got the BA open jaw rule wrong ?- I thought it was something like the "surface" sector can't be longer than the flight rather than a fixed mile distance

@ Sam G -- I apologize, that was bad editing on my part. You're absolutely correct about the "surface" point, so updated the post to reflect that.

Thanks for this great post! Really helpful, I appreciate it.

I was always told you could add a stopover to ANY singapore award if you pay a $100 fee? Even if its a one way saver award.

Aeroplan allows overseas itineraries to have either two stopovers, or one stopover and one open jaw. However, the open jaw segment must occur at the furthest point.

Wanted to book YUL-AKL, CHC-MEL, MEL-YUL, but couldn't because MEL was the furthest point from YUL, not CHC. Ended up booking the CHC-MEL leg on a separate ticket, which allowed a direct flight, instead of having to connect in WLG. Also, the total price came out to just a little more in cash than the award fees, because it meant fewer airport fees, and saving on the $35 per passenger (2 pax) booking fee when calling Aeroplan.

Another excellent article James. Thank you.

I already know about where i want to travel with my 90k Iberia avios and availability on my dates seems ok.

Now, does IB allow a single open Jaw? Sth like MAD-MEX and returning GRU-MAD? Much thanks.

Great informative post! Too bad there's no easy way to bookmark blog posts like this one.

Oh, better watch it on the top photo. Someday, the People's Republic of China may force you to label the photo as Taipei, China, not Taiwan and certainly not Republic of China.

Just a heads up, you cannot book a stopover using Iberia Avios. Tried booking a trip on Iberia metal with a stopover in Madrid and was told no.

Using our 90k IB+ avios (each), I booked Business seats in May 2019:
MIA - MAD - LIS and return MAD - JFK with 4500 avios remaining for each of us.

United did away with stopovers, and replaced them with what they call an "excursionist perk", where one gets a free segment for travel within a region that is different than the one where a reward trip originated.

Last year, I did:

Shanghai -> Chennai (India) -> Colombo (Sri Lanka) -> BKK

and got the Chennai-> Colombo segment for free, as an "excursionist perk"...

Aeroplan also allows a single stopover on an intra-North America trip.

Great article James! Good to see a fellow Aussie writing about travel 🙂

@sam

You can book MAD-MEX and GRU-MAD as two separate one ways with Iberia avios on Iberia metal

I love your website. Unfortunately you guys forget that we are not as well versed and proficient as you. This leads to a lot of frustration when doing complicated searches. I think you need develop a chart that has all the major airlines and shows which ones allow 1 ways, stopovers, open jaws, free one ways, fuel surcharges and maximum segments allowed. This chart should also show which Alliance each Airline is in where to search for availability and which credit card points are transferable to that Airline. If all this information could be put together in one spot it would make things a lot easier for us Layman. Thank you

Very helpful article James. Thanks

Definitely agree with Kenny.

What about Emirates? Recently read a blog that the person booked 4 segments all on 1 ticket. I am confused on how they made that happen. Multiple open jaws and srop overs?

Thanks James, too bad you don't cover Miles-and-More in your review. It is an important program for Europeans . . .

The news we got in the UK this weekend is that IB has backtracked and is allowing transfers to BAEC now. But nobody knows what happens once your IB account ends up 90k avios in the red...

I agree with Tm: What about Emirates?

Thanks for a good "refresher" post, James. Glad you're part of the OMAAT team.

@ RF - I'm not able to list every single program in the world as there are probably 100 of them, so I tried to limit it to the most popular and talked about programs on this site. Next time I will try and expand it to cover Lufthansa, Emirates etc.
Cheers.

@ Kenny D - that's an excellent idea for a long-term project. Please be aware it will take a LONG time to research and prepare so would be something we would look at doing down the track. If there are any 'Back to Basics' single topics you would like me to cover in a simple post like this please let me know.

A friend of mine explained this to me before but not nearly as well presented as this post. All the visual examples along with texts describing what was going on was extremely helpful.

Thanks!

How about an explanation on how to use the Cathay pacific website. If you don't use their planes, its extremly hard to find a flight with stopovers or open jaws on line. You have to fill out your destinations, but it never gives an answer, especially when trying to go to south east asia and Thailand. It seems like you have to submit a request and suposedly they will get bck to you.