How to Add Free One-Way Trips on American Airlines Awards
If you’re lucky enough to live in one of American Airlines’ or oneworld’s international gateway cities, a whole new style of award booking opens up for you. Every time you book a transcontinental award trip, you have the opportunity to add a free one-way ticket within North America. This makes use of American Airlines generous stopover rule. The North America region even includes Hawaii and the Caribbean. I already went over adding free one-way trips when I discussed how to fly from the Caribbean in winter and to Europe in summer for 20,000 American Airlines miles total, but it’s worth going over this by itself as well. It’s just such a valuable trick that it would be a shame for anyone to miss out!
At the end, I’ll give some more cities and routes you can use for adding on free one-ways. We don’t want everyone to be stuck with just trips to Europe and the Caribbean!
Free Stopovers in North America
American Airlines allows a free stopover in the North American gateway city on any transcontinental award between North American and another continent. Here, gateway city refers to the city from which you enter or leave the region.
American Airlines defines North America as the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean . Keep in mind you must start or end outside of North America for the award to count as transcontinental and to get the free stopover. If you try to arrange a free stopover traveling from Mexico to the U.S., for example, it won’t work.
Examples:
1. Miami-NYC-London-Paris: the gateway city is NYC and a free stopover is allowed in NYC only
2. Grand Cayman-Miami-Rio de Janeiro: the gateway city is Miami and a free stopover is allowed in Miami only
3. Aruba-Dallas-Los Angeles-Berlin-Oslo: the gateway city is Los Angeles and a free stopover is allowed in Los Angeles only
4. London-NYC-Hawaii: the gateway city is New York
Note that all the above routings go through different airports. You are actually not allowed to have a one-way routing that goes through the same airport twice. The idea is that everything on your routing should be (loosely) on the way to your destination and going in a loop means you’re going out of the way.
5. Aruba-Dallas-Los Angeles-Dallas-London: this is not a valid one way-routing as it goes through the same airport twice
6. Vancouver – Los Angeles – Miami – Cancun: there is no gateway city here as the routing never leaves North America.
Adding free one-way trips within North America
If you are lucky enough to live in a city in North American between which American Airlines or its oneworld partners flies flies to another continent, you can stop over for up to a year from the time your ticket is issued.
For example, if you live in Los Angeles, American Airlines flies directly to Berlin on air berlin. You can even search for award flights on air berlin on AA.com.
If you include the flight from Los Angeles to Berlin in your routing, you can add either before or after a flight anywhere to North America.
Some examples:
1. Aruba — Miami — New York – Berlin is considered a one-way trip from Aruba to Berlin and allows a stop in New York up to a year
A route from Aruba to Berlin allows you to stop in New York for up to a year
2. Berlin — Los Angeles — San Francisco is considered a one-way trip from Berlin to San Francisco and also allows a stop in Los Angeles for up to a year
The one caveat is that the overseas carrier must have a published fare that includes your itinerary. I personally have been able to get around this rule by asking enough phone agents to override it and it rarely comes up, but it’s good to be aware of it.
Booking a ticket with stopover in North America on AA.com
To actually book the ticket on AA.com, you need to go to Plan Travel and then Flights. Under the AAdvantage Award tab, select the Multi-city button and type in your details. Here, I am looking to fly from Honolulu to Los Angeles in June and from Los Angeles to Japan in September.
As my example, I am going to look for a business class ticket from Honolulu to Los Angeles and then from Los Angeles to Tokyo. I first type in my dates for both segments.
Once I click Go, I will get a date selector for the first segment and the second segment. The whole thing is priced as an award from Honolulu to Tokyo and it also says:
This international award allows a stopover at Los Angeles — LAX for no additional miles. Mileage required for both flights is displayed on the Award Legend for the international flight.
Once I select both dates and flights, the whole award will price to 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles + taxes.
Routes and cities for adding free one-ways
As I said, you can add an additional trip within North America before or after any international trip as long as your home city is the gateway city. I’ll list a few direct flights you can use. You can find additional routes using the American Airlines route map. Maybe someday I’ll make a complete list, but here are a few routes from major cities to get you started on planning your trips with free one-ways.
Don’t forget that American Airlines will have a hefty fuel surcharge for flying British Airways so it’s best to avoid including any trans-Atlantic British Airways flights in your itinerary. For that reason, I won’t list any of these. Also, some of these you cannot book online or search for availability on the American Airlines website. And, of course, some of the airlines involved do not always have award seats available.
New York:
- JFK to Helsinki on Finnair
- JFK to Berlin or Dusseldorf on air berlin
- JFK to Madrid or Barcelona on Iberia and American Airlines
- JFK to Milan, Paris or Zurich on American Airlines
- JFK to London on American Airlines
- JFK to Rio de Janeiro on American Airlines
- JFK to Santiago on LAN
- JFK to Buenos Aires on American Airlines
- JFK to Tokyo on American Airlines or Japan Airlines
- JFK to Amman on Royal Jordanian
- JFK to Doha on Qatar Airways
- JFK to Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways
Los Angeles:
- LAX to Lima on LAN
- LAX to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane on Qantas
- LAX to Tokyo on American Airlines
- LAX to Shanghai on American Airlines
- LAX to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific
- LAX to Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui
- LAX to Fiji on on Air Pacific
- LAX to Berlin, Dusseldorf on air berlin
- LAX to London on American Airlines
Miami:
- MIA to Lima on LAN
- MIA to Santiago on LAN
- MIA to Rio de Janeiro on American Airlines
- MIA to Buenos Aires on American Airlines
- MIA to Paris on American Airlines
- MIA to London on American Airlines
- MIA to Berlin on air berlin
- MIA to Madrid on Ibera
- MIA to Barcelona on American Airlines
Chicago:
- Chicago to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific
- Chicago to Shanghai on American Airlines
- Chicago to Beijing on American Airlines
- Chicago to Tokyo on American Airlines
- Chicago to Paris on American Airlines
- Chicago to London on American Airlines
- Chicago to Berlin on air berlin
- Chicago to Helsinki on American Airlines
- Chicago to Amman on Royal Jordanian
- Chicago to Doha on Qatar Airways
- Chicago to Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways
Boston:
- Boston to Tokyo on Japan Airlines
- Boston to Paris on American Airlines
San Francisco:
- San Francisco to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific
- San Francisco to Tokyo on Japan Airlines
Dallas:
- Dallas to Seoul on American Airlines
- Dallas to Rio de Janeiro on American Airlines
- Dallas to Buenos Aires on American Airlines
- Dallas to Santiago on American Airlines
- Dallas to London on American Airlines
There are also ways “better than free” one-way trips on American Airlines Awards (that’s right, you can SAVE miles by adding on a one-way trip in North America to an international award). Take a look at some of my posts on adding segments in North America to make your international trips cheaper:
- From the Caribbean in Winter + to Europe in Summer for 20,000 American Airlines miles TOTAL
- Adding “Better Than Free” One-Ways on American Airlines: Fly to South America for 20,000 Miles All Year!
So where do you plan to take your next North American free trip?
Very informative and helpful site. Definitely want to subscribe.
Wow, this is super helpful! Thanks so much
I am trying to figure out a trip for my wife and 2 kids this year into next year. I live near Chicago and want to fly into London or Madrid then go to Hawaii later. Is this possible to do without using more miles for 2 seperate trips? I have BA and AA miles. Can i fly into London then depart from Madird to Chicago then Hawaii later?
That’s exactly right. American books all awards as one-ways. You can fly from Chicago to London with American miles. That’s one award. That route tends to have excellent availability though do make sure you fly on an American operated flight and not British Airways as otherwise you’ll have fuel surcharges. For the next ticket, combine a trip back from Madrid to Chicago, stopover in Chicago until you’re ready to go to Hawaii, and then continue to Hawaii and it will be the same miles (20,000 or 30,000 depending on season) as just Madrid to Chicago. Just keep in mind the AA website does not always show Iberia award availability (unless it’s a codeshare) so read my post on searching for those flights: How to Redeem American Airlines miles on Iberia Airlines. That’s another award. Then you’ll tickets back from Hawaii to Chicago (which you can look into combining with another international trip later – after all, a one-way from Hawaii is already 22,500 miles in high season).
Hi Professor
I had booked using 67.5K AA miles a one way ticket from JFK-HKG for this coming November. Trying to understand how and what free one way trip I can get. Based on what you stated “you must start or end outside of North America for the award to count as transcontinental and to get the free stopover”
I will be in LAX in early September, which means I can add another segment from LAX or ONT to JFK then stop over until November and continue to HKG, correct?
What about a little extreme, let say from EZE. which makes my route EZE-JFK-HKG. Is this a valid route?
Hi,
You can do the following: LAX-JFK (stopover) JFK-HKG as long as you do not have any stops in North America once you leave JFK. i.e., if your routings is JFK-HKG direct, that’s fine, but not if it’s JFK-SFO-HKG, for example. Changing the origin will incur a $75 change fee for non-elites at this point, though.
With EZE, that won’t work, unfortunately. You can only have stopovers on an award specifically between North America and another continent. But here are some examples of things you can do:
Cancun – JFK – HKG
LAX – JFK – HKG
Aruba – JFK – HKG
Montreal – JFK – HKG
You just have to start in their “North America” region.
Thanks for the update and information. I called and spoke to AA agent yesterday. I asked her to add another segment from LAX-JFK for Sept 5, 2013. Stop over in JFK until mid Nov then continue as my main itinerary JFK-HKG (nothing in between, it’s direct flight for 16 hrs). She said the following:
– $150.00 fee for adding additional segment
– I can only have 24 hours stop over in JFK
I mentioned about the award booking rules about 1 year stop over and she said that was an old rules. I thanked her and planned to call again on Monday.
That said, Iwhat do you think?
Apologies. The $150 is the award change fee for origin or destination; it’s $75 for United (where I usually book my award travel!) or for date changes on AA within 21 days. Verified on this page: AA Awards
As far as 24 hour stopover, you need to make sure New York is the last place where you touch North America and then you can stopover for up to a year. I just tried online LAX – NYC (stop for a few months) – NRT online (I can’t search for HKG online) and the whole thing priced at 62.5k AA miles in first class. It could be a case of the agent just not knowing the rules – it happens all the time when I try to book travel, unfortunately.
I’m trying to wrap my head around this awesomeness, but have tried some example itineraries on AA.com (that’s who my miles are with) and it’s not working out.
Can you give me a couple of examples of combining, say, a trip to southern South America and the Caribbean for 20,000 miles departing from DFW?
My other question is since these are one-way tickets, do the return one-way reward tickets tend to be more expensive?
Basically, I’m hoping to find a way to get RT tickets for two people for two great international vacations a few months apart for 80,000 miles (returning to DFW for the months between trips). Is that ridiculous or might there be a way?
80,000 miles total for two vacations (one to Caribbean and one to South America) isn’t really possible. The least you can really do with American Airlines miles with those destinations is:
12,500 to the Caribbean if you go between Sep 7 and Nov 14.
20,000 to the Caribbean and then to South America a few months later provided you return from the Caribbean no later than Nov 30.
20,000 to return from South America if your return dates fall within Mar. 1 – May 31; Aug. 16 – Nov. 30.
So that’s 52,500 total per person. Of course, if you only have 80,000 miles, you can just buy a one way ticket from DFW to a Caribbean island and then use the 80,000 miles to cover the remaining 1.5 trips (from Caribbean and round trip to South America).
In terms of using the free one-way as explained in this post and getting it in the off-peak period, try the following as an example:
Go to multi-city on AA award search and type in GCM to DFW with a date between Aug 16 and Nov 30. Then type in DFW to Rio any date you want (there is a direct flight to Rio from DFW, which is what you want). You should see some options coming up for 20,000 miles total.
Thank you for the quick response.
Indeed, I have a better grasp of the benefits of this play now. Example: Buy one-way from DFW to Cancun (CUN) and book a rewards flight from CUN to DFW (allowing some cheap fun in the sun in Mexico–not in Cancun, but in other less touristy places) with a layover of several months at home in DFW and then continuing on to Rio or Argentina. It basically saves you the cost of a one-way ticket to CUN.
I’m exploring some other options, too. Seems you can play this game when departing from North America and when returning–get free layovers both ways, but only in North America (such as arrive to ATL from another continent, enjoy a multi-day layover and then continue home to DFW…all included in the awards itinerary).
Much better deal if you can arrange it to work for both ways…or if you find yourself elsewhere on the continent and have the ability to travel abroad and return to a different destination.
Good work! Thanks for sharing this info. Now we can visit family in two different parts of the U.S. AND travel to South America or Europe in between–all for the cost of a one-way domestic ticket + taxes.
Yes, that’s exactly right! You can also schedule three separate trips, one international and two domestic all months apart and pay for a single roundtrip out of pocket if you use miles. Example:
DFW – ATL (pay or redeem miles)
ATL – DFW (stop for months) DFW – Rio (20,000 or 30,000 miles depending on when trip starts)
Rio – DFW (stop for months) DFW – LAX (20,000 or 30,000 miles depending on when trip starts)
LAX – DFW (pay or redeem miles)
And don’t forget that if you have British Airways Avios, they charge you by the distance. Since DFW is in the middle of the continent, you may be able to get to many destinations with relatively few miles. DFW to ATL, for example, is only 7,500 Avios each way.
I know that scheduling several trips at a time is more cumbersome than just one, but I always do and the rewards are worth it when you plan ahead :)
Hello there.
Can someone verify if i got this correct. I am going to travel from DFW to south Korea ICN and was hoping to get a free stopover in Hawaii ( via American Airline). How do i book my trip if i plan my visit to Korea in February.
One multi citi one way ; DFW – HNL depart Feb 4
HNL – ICN depart Feb 7
Then buy another one way ticket from ICN – DFW.
I guess i am a bit confused if i got the right?
Thank you
Yes, your first part is good DFW-HNL-ICN. You get a free stopover in HNL with your one-way ticket. On the way back, you would have to buy another one-way ticket from ICN to DFW, but if you manage to arrange your itinerary so that DFW is the first city where you touch North America, you can get another one-way within North America later on for a different trip :)
Hello The Miles Professor,
can you tell me which way is best to add a free one-way? I live in NYC and planning on going to HKG in Aug of 2014 and would love to go to HNL or PUJ in Nov of 2014. Would it be possible to add HNL or PUJ as the free one-way?
Thank you so much for any info you have!
All you have to do is make sure you have a segment that flies non-stop from Asia to NYC in your award itinerary and then you can stop in NYC up to a year from the date of ticket issue and then fly any route to HNL or PUJ. Cathay flies non-stop NYC-HKG, Japan Airlines flies non-stop from NRT to NYC and AA flies non-stop from HND to NYC. The American Airlines website will not show Cathay or JAL availability for awards so you’d have to search on the British Airways website and then call customer service to book. Here’s an example of a few route that would work:
HKG-NYC (stop, then take any route to) PUJ
HKG-NRT-NYC (stop, then take any route to) HNL
HKG-HND-NYC (stop, then take any route to) PUJ
HNL and PUJ are both in North America so you can travel there after a stopover. Good luck with your plan and let me know if you have any more questions!
Thank you Miles Professor! So I plan on flying to HKG in business and that would cost 55K one way; would I also fly in business for the free one-way going to HNL or PUJ? Since I’m using AA miles should I check on AA website for JFK to HNL or PUJ for avilabilityand is it the light blue that I should look for or light green? Thank you again!
Yes, the free one-way is part of the same award ticket so it’s whichever class you book into for the transcontinental. Look for light blue on the AA website.
My cousin is actually doing exactly the same thing with AA miles for his trip to Asia. BKK-HKG-Beijing-Chicago (stop for 4 months) Chicago-MIA-CUN in business 55,000 miles total on the way back. Post hopefully written up next week. So we know for sure this works when you call in :)
This is probably a stupid question but if I can’t find any availability in business from JFK to HNL or PUJ can I downgrade to econ if there is availability? Thanks again!
It’s a very reasonable question! You can use economy segments, no problem. Just get as many segments as you can in business. You may also be able to reassign your seat for free if business becomes available later as you already paid for a business class ticket – United always allows this, but it hasn’t come up on AA awards for me yet.
This is amazing. AGAIN, you are a genius!!
My wife and I will be planning a 10 year anniversary trip to celebrate our original honeymoon to London and Paris next year. I would like to request your assistance in planning the best trip ever. We have over 300,000 American miles and would like to take advantage of this deal using first class. What would be the most cost-effective and enjoyable (first class) option to fly out of Washington, DC (DCA, BWI, IAD) for a two week trip? Any ideas? Open to suggestions from all.
Is it possible to combine Hawaiian airlines and American on a one way award? I’m trying to price HNL-JFK with HA and then JFK to LHR a few days later. Separately they price as MileSaaver but I cant combine them for 20k. T
You may be running into the rule that your overseas carrier needs to publish the fare you are using from Hawaii to London. I have often seen this issue with Hawaiian Airlines in that American Airlines does not publish fares with them to Europe. I would call customer service and see if you can combine for 20k.
I love this idea, but I’m failing to understand if you’re “starting” your trip in the caribbean or Rio what is the best way to get there in the first place? Thanks.
Using other miles, of course! Maybe add it as a free-one way on the way back from somewhere else. Always add free one ways :)
Hi Professor,
I’m still confused as to how to add a free stop over for one way award flight using AA miles. We would like to travel 1st class to HKG from LAX with Cathay Pacific. From HKG would like to go to Chiang Mai and/or Singapore possibly using Avios. For our return flight would use United mileage points (and hopefully booked before Feb.1, 2014 to still use the old award chart). We’d like to fly 1st class or business on our return flight to LAX, possibly flying from Korea or Japan. For this segment, if we don’t have enough points would be willing to pay in cash. At what point do we add free stopover from LAX for 4 mos to either Hawaii, Caribbean or Mexico. We have between me & my husband 130,000 AA; 150,000 UR points, 114,000 United mileage, 22,000 SPG points, 15,000 Avios,
Would you please show me the sequence and how much points would we need for each segment. We are intending to use AA points one way, and United on the return or vice versa. I’m fairly new at this, and despite how organized and clearly you explained things…I still stumble on some concepts or steps. Or would it better serve me to pay a fee for the experts to book my planned award flight? Do you offer a booking service?
Thank you so much for your help. I appreciate your blog and all the helpful, inspirational tips you share to your readers.
Glad you find my blog helpful. I don’t offer an award booking service and I would definitely say http://bookyouraward.com/, which is run by Gary Leff. It charges $150 per ticket, which is not so cheap. I’ve never used the service myself, but I do know Gary personally and can definitely vouch for him as an expert at long haul premium award bookings. It may be worth to book with him, not only to save time, but for peace of mind that you really got the best value. He should be able to handle free one-ways also.
Given how many miles you have, you should not need to pay cash for any part of the trip. Something helpful to you may be my two-part series on how I helped my cousin book his award trip to Asia:
Planning a Trip to Asia with American Airlines Miles: Part 1 of 2
Planning a Trip to Asia with American Airlines Miles: Part 2 of 2
In it, he has a free one-way he adds to Cancun after returning.
But here’s also a quick explanation of free one-ways:
If you’re flying LAX-HKG with American Airlines miles, you can add a free one-way before. For example, you can do CUN-LAX (stop for 4 months)-HKG for 55,000 miles in business class.
Also, if you don’t have your heart set on Cathay Pacific, I would consider using United Airlines miles for two trips in business class. You can do LAX-HKG, Singapore to Seoul (stopover for a few days) and then fly home. You’d just need to buy or book with Avios a ticket from HKG to Singapore. This would cost 120,000 United miles per person (booked before Feb 1) and then you don’t even need to worry about free one-ways. Keep in mind you can transfer points from ultimate rewards to United. Here’s an example of how we set up a similar itinerary LAX-SIN, Phuket-Tokyo, Tokyo to LAX: Singapore, Phuket and Tokyo for 65k United miles: 1 roundtrip, 3 girls, 3 destinations
I want to go to London from DFW and then return from Paris to DFW in 2014-dates are flexible, for myself and my husband. I then want to go to Maui in early 2015 us and our 2 kids. How many points do i need? I already have 136,000 AA miles.
I listened to your talk in Tampa and was very excited to finally understand the free one-way awards. DFW is my home airport and I would like to add a PHL-DFW free one way in April with my base trip DFW-CNS in October. After my trip starts in April, does that limit the ability to change the routing after April if something comes up (i.e., do I lose some flexibility in doing this?) I am AA EXP so I get free award ticket cancellations…but, not sure how it would work after the trip starts.
I am so confused. I booked a first class award ticket using AA miles from Miami to Washington Dulles, then from Dulles to London in March 2014. Is there a way to use this free one way to go to Honolulu Hawaii in July 2014?
I live in Miami and am hoping to go to Hawaii in Feb. 2015 and to Italy in May of 2015. Would it be possible to do a one way from Hawaii-Miami-Rome?
Yes, definitely possible and will only cost 20,000 miles for both one-ways together in Economy :) Business availability is far tougher. You just have to make sure to have a Miami-Europe segment in there. I’d also avoid British Airways for the trans-Atlantic portion as their fuel surcharges are high. An option is to connect through Berlin or Dusseldorf on air berlin or fly MIA-LHR-Rome on a combination of American Airlines and British Airways. My parents are going to Rome this summer… trip planning is under way :)
When I first learned of this trick (through your blog, so a great, big “Thank You” for all of your great tips and travel stories), I looked into combining a 1-way back from PUJ to MIA to position for a Tran-Atl. cruise I’m taking late next month to Barcelona, with a subsequent 1-way to Berlin in early September to do some traveling, culminating in Oktoberfest in Munich. At that time, as your list above points out, aa.com was showing AirBerlin flights from MIA to TXL; I just wasn’t prepared to commit to anything then.
Now, for some reason, aa.com only shows BA flights, no matter which dates or arrival city in Europe I test things out with. Do you know whether something has changed with American’s website such that it no longer shows AB availability? I’m pretty sure I wasn’t just imagining things when I saw AB months ago. Is this probably a case where I have to call AA up now to do this?
P.S. Are you planning to speak at FTU in Seattle, or attend?
Hi! Glad you’re trying to leverage this awesome trick with free one ways :) American Airlines is still showing air berlin availability and I checked quickly from New York to Berlin. Most likely, the availability for your dates disappeared, unfortunately.
I won’t be joining the Seattle FTU. Living in New York, it’s tough to go back and forth across the country for a weekend (I was lucky enough to have the Tampa FTU a two hour flight away, where I spoke last year). I am going to be attending the Mile Madness Seminars in Charlotte in May so will get my share of mileage junkie interaction :)
Hello, and thank you. You know what I think the problem turned out to be? I feel dumb even saying this, but I think I must not have logged into my AA account when I was searching at first time time around. It still showed BA but not AB. When I was logged in last night, to my surprise and delight what I wanted was there. So I snatched it up immediately! Got an itinerary back from SEA (for FTU, instead of the original PUJ idea) to MIA for my cruise, and then the flights in September to Berlin TXL(via BCN) for 20K, and it should work out to 18K after “rebate” since I used my Citi AAdvantage Plat. The itinerary priced out on ITA matrix at $3,500 (bizarre for coach), so a pretty decent points value for 18K, I’d say ;-)
Thank you again!
Have used this a few times, but tried tonight and it looks like it’s not working anymore. Can anyone confirm?
HI TPM
Thanks for all of the really helpful info. I thoroughly enjoy your trip reviews also.
Back on 1/5, I had booked an AA award on CX for SIN-HKG-SFO travel on 11/25 and then continue on AA for SFO-DFW on 11/29. Had originally wanted SFO-MIA on that “free one-way” but could not find the availability I was looking for at that time. Is it possible for me to change that to SFO-HNL? I understand it would be subject to $150 change fee if this was doable, but was not sure if I can “backtrack” direction for the free one-way.
forgot to ask if I’m able to do an open jaw change for say SJC-HNL or OAK-HCL since Hawaii flights from San Francisco Bay Area are available on AA partners like AS and HA which fly mostly out of SJC and OAK.