How to Add Free One-Way Trips On United Airlines Awards

181 Comments

1. Nice post TMP! Will this only work if the layover is in a gateway city? In December, I’m on an award RT that is SAN – DPS with a layover in Koh Samui. My US gateway is LAX, but I’d rather not fly out of LAX as SAN is my home airport. Will the rules allow me to add an open jaw on my return that routes from DPS – LAX – SAN – somewhere in the US (NYC or Hawaii for example)?

   1. You do not need the stopover in the gateway city. You can stop anywhere along the way. I did not fully understand your routing. Is it SAN – Koh Samui (stop) – DPS (destination) DPS – LAX – SAN? If so, you already used a stopover on the round trip in Koh Samui and cannot have another stopover in SAN. Only one stopover over 24 hours per round-trip is permitted. If it’s SAN-DPS (destination) DPS – LAX – SAN, then you can add another trip SAN to NYC, for example. If you are flying from Asia to Hawaii, you are not allowed to route Asia – Mainland US – Hawaii so you cannot add a one-way to Hawaii from SAN later on.

      1. Thanks TMP – you got my routing right the first time, SAN – Koh Samui (stop) – DPS (destination) – LAX – SAN. Now that I’ve re-read, I’ve got it. I was thinking one open jaw and 2 stops was the allowed routing. So although I won’t be able to add a US leg to this, I still get a 2 resort trip over the holidays (Conrad Koh Samui & Conrad Bali) thanks to your sage advice! Again, thank you as I really enjoy your blog!

         1. Hi TMP

            I am planning a trip to DPS, Bali, this October on United from SFO. Is it possible to add a one-way to HNL, Hawaii as part of that ticket on miles. Please advise. Your column is followed diligently for some time

2. hi there! thank you so much for such a wonderful post! i got linked to your post/blog while i was doing research for an upcoming trip of mine. i just want to say that i must have read so many blogs on collecting miles/credit cards etc. and i think your blog is the best! the way you write is so helpful and straight forward and makes everything so easy to understand. some of the other blogs are confusing.

   anyway, since i am new to this, i was wondering if you know if this route is possible for an upcoming trip i want to take:

   NYC to London
   London to NYC (stopover)
   NYC to Anchorage (open jaw?)
   Vancouver to NYC

   I am not sure if the open jaw I have is possible since it is in the same region even though it’s technically two different countries.

   I am not redeeming miles for this since I don’t have enough so I will be paying out of pocket for this.

   Thanks in advance! (PS – I’ve subscribed to your blog and I have been reading all of your posts. Please keep it up!).

   1. Paying without redeeming miles has completely different specific routing rules so what I say about miles does not apply there.

      With miles, however, your itinerary would actually have two stopovers. One in NYC and one between Anchorage/Vancouver so it would not be valid. The most you can do is:
      NYC to London
      London to NYC
      NYC to Anchorage

      This has a stopover and one open jaw. Adding another segment would entail another stopover.

      Thank you for the blog compliments :)

      1. thanks so much for your response! do you know where i can find those rules if i am paying and not redeeming miles?

         do you think it’s more worth it to get the free one way ticket to alaska or hawaii? i am trying to decide which is more worth it. i know i will need to book a one way back from either alaska (vancouver possibly) or hawaii either by cash or miles. the only reason why i am not thinking hawaii is a good deal is because i often see roundtrip airfare economy flight deals from nyc to hawaii and the deals aren’t too bad when it’s off season so i wouldn’t mind paying if the deal is good enough.

         do other airlines besides AA/Delta/United have these free one way/openjaw/stop overs? does cathay pacific allow anything like this? i know that is a popular airline that a lot of people redeem miles for.

         1. Routings on paid tickets is really not my forte at all (award routing rules are far more flexible), but Flyertalk.com is a great community of people with a wealth of information that will be extremely helpful. I think in general, Alaska is a more expensive destination than Hawaii and a great resource for following low fare deals is The Flight Deal, a website tracking low fares to popular destinations from major cities.

            I actually have a post discussing adding free one-ways on American Airlines when using miles. While I did not post about this, Delta also allows a stopover and an open-jaw on its round-trip awards so you can similarly add free one-ways using the same methods I covered here.

            1. just wanted to say thank you for the helpful links and taking out your time to answer me =)

            2. Glad to help :)

            3. i’m back with another question. =)

               i was able to book hkg to lhr, then lhr to ewr, then ewr to hkg for my super saver award redemption. actually flying out next friday.

               i know i could have added in an open jaw after london, but could i have added an open jaw after returning to hkg? maybe tokyo to hkg or something? i don’t think i can add a stop over because i am using london as my stop over. if i could add an open jaw after returning to hkg, is it too late to make the change now? it did not occur to me that i could until recently and i was just happy to be able to book the above trip under the super saver redemption.

               i also read that the citi thank you premiere card is going to change in october so i redeemed my citi points for my ewr to lhr/lhr to ewr flight on united. since i used the citi site to redeem points for this trip, i wouldn’t have been able to add in any free one way/open jaw + stop overs right since i technically paid for this trip via citi points rather than redeeming united miles.

               thanks in advance and sorry for the tough question.

            4. In terms of paying for flights, routing rules are completely different and the award rules I mention here don’t apply.

               As far as your United miles question, you could end your trip somewhere other than HKG, but you cannot go there after stopping in HKG. For example, you can do HKG-LHR (stopover) LHR-EWR (destination) EWR-TYO and then you’d have to find your way back to HKG if that’s where you live. You can actually still make changes to your award tickets even when you are mid-trip, but you have to end in the same region. You will also be charged a $75 destination change fee and a $75 close-in change fee if the flight you change to is within 21 days from when you make the change.

               Have a great trip!

            5. thank you for your reply =)

         2. Hi again! i’m trying to plan my next trip and i have another question for you. your long weekend trip to milan has inspired me and i am thinking about taking one during thanksgiving weekend. i actually left you a comment on your milan post asking you if you think 3 full days in milan is enough or too little. (i plan to fly out of ewr the day before thanksgiving and come back that sunday).

            anyway, i was wondering if the trip below is legal. i’m trying to see if i can have my bf meet me over in milan.

            hkg to ewr
            ewr to mxp
            mxp to hkg

            i am thinking it’s not legal, but not sure of the reason. i tried doing a dummy booking, but it’s not showing up for me.

            i am assuming this would be legal?

            hkg to mxp
            mxp to ewr
            ewr to hkg

            as always, thank you for all your help =)

            1. Your first itinerary is not legal as you are trying to route from Asia to Europe going through North America and that’s a valid routing. Routing to Asia from the US going through Europe, is legal, however, and that’s why your second itinerary is ok. I’ll respond to your Milan questions on that post as well :)

            2. Hi tmp! I tried to make an award booking earlier today and the agent wouldn’t let me.

               I tried to do JFK to NCE (nice France), then NCE to JFK. Then stopover at JFK/NYC to HNL later in the year.

               The agent said this is impossible. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

            3. Hi ANG,
               It’s possible to do JFK-NCE-JFK-HNL.
               You can even book it online yourself with 62.5K miles for the trip.(I tried and it works online).
               Or try to call the support team not the customer service. They are more knowledge than customer service.
               Hope it helps.

            4. thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly! i tried doing it online and i got that dreaded error message =( i tried on different browsers at work and at home and no go. maybe because i am trying to do business for two passengers?

               i just got an agent that was able to book it for me, but he wasn’t seeing the same flights as i could online for the NCE to JFK part. very odd since i am able to book the same flights for two passengers online. he kept saying he couldn’t see it. i am on hold with the third agent to see if she sees the flight i need.

               i do have a question though, lets say i am booking online for myself and my bf is booking for himself through his own account. how can we make sure there are two seats for the flight if we are only searching for 1 passenger when we book? i know we can search for two passengers to see which flights are available, but is there another easy way to tell

               as always, thank you so much =)

            5. brian – the third agent was able to see the flights i wanted and my itinerary is now booked! i have no idea why the first agent said no stop over allowed and why the second agent wasn’t able to see all of the flights. it took me 3 hours on the phone. not sure if that is typical or not.

               i am glad i was able to burn my united miles for business before the devaluation. thanks again for answering my question so quickly!

               EWR to NCE
               NCE to JFK
               JFK to HNL

            6. I’m using Firefox and it works. If you have error message after select the date click back button and re-select it again. It happened to me couple times while I tried to use your route.
               Often agent can’t see what we see online just break down each flight segment and flight number. Again, ask for support team phone number and call them cause customer service agent not much help (learn from my own experiences).
               There will be no warranty you and your bf will be seat together. You can ask 2 seats together at the time you check in.

               Sorry professor if I stepped on your toes. Just try to help out and share my experiences. :)

            7. Thanks Brian for the additional tips regarding firefox and the support team # vs the CS agents. I never knew that existed! You learn something new everyday! I am still very new at this. I did have to pay the $25 fee however.

               I just want to say how thankful I am for TMP and her blog and also for reader’s like you Brian that are willing to help out a stranger like me. I hope I can pay it forward and help out someone in the future too.

               Now that the hard part is over, I have to figure out how to pick my seats since these are on Lufthansa/US Airways.

            8. Glad everyone worked out their itineraries and thank you so much, Brian, for helping out with your experiences and advice! It’s great everyone is sharing tips and helping each other out :) ang, Nice is one of my favorite places and I loved it when I went. If you haven’t been there, the blue water is the most amazing color! Congratulations on a great use of miles.

            9. thanks tmp! i am in the middle of doing my research for nice now. i am so happy to hear you loved it! haha it seems like i am going everywhere you went! =P i am actually doing a Mediterranean cruise. it was really hard to find business class flights that worked with the itinerary + price i want since i am on a strict schedule. i am staying in nice/cannes area for a few days before/after my cruise though.

               now i need to go find a way back from hawaii to nyc. i’ve never been to hawaii before and i am so excited! any good tips? i am thinking AA coach at 17.5k miles or united economy 20k ? i will probably do economy and not business for the way back.

               i also need to burn my us airways to asia.

            10. ANG,
                For HNL … you must….
                Do List …
                1. hanauma bay
                2. polynesian cultural center (take 2 days but only pay for 1 ticket once).
                3. Pineapple field (you can pick a pineapple for free … they will not tell tourist that but you can at no charge … just ask them).
                4. Pearl Habor
                5. Dinner at Todai (expensive but worth the money).
                6. Walk around the international market area at night time. Plenty activities for you to see.
                7. Chinatown
                DO NOT LIST
                1. Submarine (nothing to see and staged)
                2. LUA dinner (over price)

                There ia a super walmart center at Ala Mona for groceries… save money since Waikiki for tourist and everything will cost you dearly.

3. I understand now you can get a free one way to Hawaii but how would this work for those of us living and starting from Hawaii? Would we be able to get a free one way to US mainland after an Asia or Europe trip? Example please? Thanks!

   1. You can get a free one-way to the US mainland when traveling to Asia with no problem. Hawaii is on the way from the US from Asia so “stopping” is no issue. An example would be:
      HNL – Singapore (destination)
      Singapore – HNL (stopover)
      HNL – NYC

      You should also be able to do it with trips to Australia or South Pacific. As far as Europe goes, because Hawaii is not on the way from Europe to the US, it’s unlikely you can get a “stopover” there for a free one-way to the mainland. But I never tried this so I cannot say 100%.

      1. Thanks TMP for your reply!! If I went to Europe on the way to Asia – Could I do this HNL-CGD(OJ2)-TPE(OJ2) -HNL(Stop) -SMF?

         1. So that itinerary actually has two stops and an open jaw. In this itinerary, your destination would be Paris (because Europe is the more expensive region from Hawaii in terms of award points) and your stop would be in Taipei. Since you’re already using a stop, you can’t have one in your home city and add another segment afterwards. The most you can do here is then visit Paris with a stop in Taipei on the way back.

            1. Hi, It’s me back again..Would any of these work? Are the mileage costs correct? As long I stay within the 4 transfers each way, I can add less than 24 hrs layovers in each direction.

               HNL-EWR – LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-HNL (75K in business?)

               HNL-TPE(stop)-LHR(dest)-HNL (115K in business?)

               LAX-EWR- LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-LAX-HNL (120K?)

               Thanks!

         2. Glad you’re trying out some cool things with your miles! I am quite curious to see how your trip ends up working out :)

            Hawaii is always really tough. I haven’t booked any of these myself and it often comes down to spending time on the phone and being able to convince the customer service agent what you’re doing is reasonable. I wouldn’t be surprised if one objects non-stop that you cannot route through Asia to Europe while another has no issue at all.

            HNL-EWR — LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-HNL (75K in business?) You cannot route to Asia through Europe from Hawaii. That is, it’s actually that LHR is the destination and TPE is the stop, in which case it should price the same as the second itinerary, provided you can get the agent to price it.

            HNL-TPE(stop)-LHR(dest)-HNL (115K in business?) should be allowed as you can route to Europe from Hawaii through Asia if you get a helpful agent. The 115k miles will be correct, in that case.

            LAX-EWR– LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-LAX-HNL (120K?) is not allowed. You are not allowed to go through the US Mainland to get to Hawaii from Asia. You can, however, do LAX-EWR-LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-HNL and this will cost 97,500 miles in business class. I am not sure LAX is necessary here since your stop would be under 24 hours?

            1. “LAX-EWR– LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-LAX-HNL (120K?) is not allowed. You are not allowed to go through the US Main­land to get to Hawaii from Asia. You can, how­ever, do LAX-EWR-LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-HNL and this will cost 97,500 miles in busi­ness class. I am not sure LAX is nec­es­sary here since your stop would be under 24 hours?”

               I was thinking the LAX-HNL would have been the free one way. So if TPE-HNL (OJ?)

               So, PHX-EWR-LHR(stop)-TPE(dest)-HNL should work with 97,500 miles too?

               Thanks!

            2. Yes, that should work. You can route to Asia through Europe when going from the U.S. Mainland.

            3. Is there a UA rule that says to get to Europe from HNL, it has to be routed from the Atlantic and not allow a stop over in Asia?

            4. I did some more research on this. It seems that you cannot, in fact, go through Asia from Hawaii to Europe. This makes Hawaii a slightly less flexible origin point, unfortunately.

            5. Thanks for your advice on FT!

               So I had booked PHX-ORD-LHR(dest)-LHR-VIE-TPE(stop)-TPE-ICN-HNL (97.5 K miles in Business) + $410

               I have changed it to PHX-YYZ-LHR (dest)-LHR-VIE -TPE (stop)-TPE -SIN – SGN – ICN – HNL for $425.

               Would I be able to change LHR-VIE to CDG – VIE or have I already used the OJs with PHX & HNL? I’m trying to save the fees coming out of LHR.

            6. Great job on using the routing rules so well! You really got around the inability to route to Asia through Europe from Hawaii by starting in PHX. Right now, you have just one open jaw at the origin (PHX/HNL) and you are allowed two. Adding an open jaw at the destination between LHR/CDG is completely legal, but do expect some trouble and resistance with customer service objecting that you are not allowed two open jaws, you cannot stop on two different continents, you cannot return to Hawaii, etc. Just calmly explain you are permitted to add an open jaw at your destination and you are allowed two open jaws and, as always, you can always hang up and call again. Good luck!

            7. Hi TMP, I’m still in Taiwan on the above ticket(Thanks again for the information!!!) but am trying to make another r/t award ticket from HNL to DTW for my husband. We’ve done quite a few r/t in the last few months since his dad was sick but never took advantage of the free one way. So HNL-ORD-HNL HNL-LAX (or any other city). According to the rules, this should work right? OR because Hawaii is such a pain in the neck:), will not apply? Thank you.

            8. Glad to hear you’re enjoying your trip. Your itinerary won’t work. Essentially, your “return leg” involves flying from ORD-LAX and routing through HNL. You cannot route through Hawaii on a leg within the continental US… sorry!

4. Hi-
   I’m still trying to fully understand this – I’m planning a trip to Melbourne Australia in January of 2015 – But I’m also planning a trip to San Diego in March of 2014 – Is it possible to fly from BOS to SAN DIEGO, have a stopover in San Diego for 9 months or so, then fly from San Diego to Melbourne and Sydney, returning to Boston?

   1. Yes, you can do the following:
      BOS – San Diego (stop)
      San Diego – Melbourne (destination/open jaw)
      Sydney – Boston

      You’ll just have to find your own way from Melbourne to Sydney, but Star Alliance doesn’t have any efficient routes between those two cities anyway. You can actually use 4,500 British Airways Avios redeemed on Qantas for that or tickets are not super expensive anyway.

      Another thing you can do is the following:
      San Diego – Boston (stopover)
      Boston – Melbourne (destination/ open jaw)
      Sydney – Boston

      This is if you plan to return to Boston after your trip San Diego. Then you only have to buy/use miles for a one-way ticket to San Diego. Of course, if you plan to stay in San Diego for 9 months, you’ll want to use the other method.

5. Thanks for the info. But still confused. Here’s my trip.

   SFO – ICN – HKG (stopover) – HKG – SGN (destination) – TPE – SFO

   Is it going to work?

   1. Yes, that’s perfectly fine. You have a stopover on the way to your destination and that’s allowed :)

6. Hi TMP. I enjoy reading your website. I am planning a trip as follows: NYC to VCE/CDG to NYC/NYC to HNL. Is this doable? Thank you!

   1. Yes, that’s completely right! You have one open jaw here in VCE/CDG at the destination, a stopover in NYC and an open jaw between NYC and HNL on the start and return. The multi-city booking on the website may not let you do it as it’s quite limited and quirky, but if you find your flights and call customer service, they can book it over the phone. Always be prepared for some objection and an agent not knowing the rules so just confidently explain you are allowed a stopover and two open jaws and this is completely legit :)

      1. Hi TMP. Thank you for your big help. I was successful in booking EWR-FRA-VCE/CDG-EWR/EWR-HNL. Departure date is in mid-August to for the European trip and January 2014 for the HNL trip. As a MileagePlus CLUB credit holder, my close-in booking award fees ($50 each) was waived. I had to bring this up with the UA agents because the agent didn’t know. They attempted to charge me $50 each. I informed agent that the close-in fees is one of my benefit as a MileagePlus CLUB holder. Overall, my taxes is $128.70 per person. I already made two changes to my itinerary. Without the MileagePlus CLUB card, I would have spent $200 already. In addition, they also gave us a courtesy upgrade seats.

         1. That’s great! I am so glad when these itineraries work out. And it’s a good idea to make sure to always inform the agents about any waived fees and rules and take control of the process. Enjoy your trip as Venice, Paris and Hawaii are definitely some great destinations :)

            1. Hi TMP. I wanted to thank you again for you great help. The trip to Europe was great! We stopped in FRA for nine hours. Our relatives picked us up and took us to Frankfurt (downtown) via train. As a MP CLUB holder, we also stayed at the lounge for a couple of hours before we continued our journey to VCE. While in Venice, we visited Lido, Murano, and Burano in addition to Venice. We used our AA miles for the hotels in Venice and we used our AVIOS points (7500 points and $50 each) for the VCE to LGW flight to London. We stayed in London for one night and used our AA miles for the hotel. For the London to Paris train ride on the Eurostar, we used our AMEX points. For 39 GBP each, we upgraded to business class on the Eurostar. In Paris, we used our UA miles for the three nights stay. Our only expenses were meals and our purchases at Louis Vutton. We also visited the Star Alliance lounge for a couple of hours at CDG. The last leg of our itineary in HNL in January. I was wondering, can we go to another continent or another country instead of HNL? We have SILVER status now and will have GOLD by October and PLATINUM by November. Thank you in advance for your help!!!

            2. That’s a great trip report and I am so glad everything worked out really well! Paris is my favorite city, but I’ve never been to Venice and I am definitely planning to go at some point.

               On your question about being able to go elsewhere after your stopover,
               1. Once you’ve started your trip, I have never been able to change the ticket regions although I’ve been able to do all kinds of reroutings. That is, if your return is Europe to Hawaii, you must now end in Hawaii given you’ve started your ticket. Another option is to change the routing you take to Hawaii going through a city you want to visit and just abandon the segments from there to Hawaii. Unfortunately, you cannot legally route to Hawaii from the US through any other continent.

               2. In general, you can actually travel from Europe to South America on the return leg as an open-jaw routing through North America. While it won’t be a free one-way, it will be a significant miles savings over booking the two trips separately. I explain the details in this post: “Maximizing United Miles: Saving 30,000 Miles in Business Class With Open-Jaws on Different Continents

            3. Hi TMP –

               As per your response to R Sonny, it is almost impossible to change the region. Have you had any success in deleting rest of the journey?

               Lets say I have an upcoming travel from Chicago to New York. I may or may not want to take a trip to Puerto Rico in future.
               I book CHI-NYC(stopover)-SJU(destination)-NYC for 35000 miles (instead of 10000 + 35000), so that I can have the CHI-NYC free one way attached to my probable future travel.

               But later, I decide that I dont want to go to Puerto Rico. Will I be able to cancel my NYC-SJU-NYC segment, and get a refund for 25000 miles (since CHI-NYC has a cost of 10000miles)? I am Premier 1K member.

            4. If you make the change before your trip to Chicago, then it’s no problem to reprice the ticket and redeposit any miles fee free as you are a 1K member and can change award tickets as much as you want.

               If you first take the trip to Chicago, then in short, I don’t know the answer 100% as I haven’t tried to do this. I’d say it will be very difficult or next to impossible, but all kinds of strange things have happened on award bookings. This would still change award region type mid-trip and it’s unlikely an agent will be able to do this without significant overrides. They will likely be more willing to accomodate you if there is a significant schedule change on your flights and you can make a case the schedule is no longer possible, but it’s hard to rely on that scenario. You should be able to change destination to other islands in the Caribbean though within a year of ticket issue.

            5. Thanks for your super quick response.

               I may play with the fire sometime or the other (I like experiments). I will let you know if I learn otherwise. :)

7. Love your blog. Came across this last week and have read all your articles. Wish I had found this earlier. I travel to India every couple of years and never took advantage of miles. Do you know if the following routing will work?

   PVD – MAA – SIN – PVD – LAX? Or am I missing something here. Thanks for your help!!

   1. Thanks! Glad you enjoy it :) Can you clarify how long you’re trying to spend in each region? If you spend more than 24 hours in SIN, you’ll have used your one stopover. United only allows one stopover per international award.

      1. Was hoping to spend a couple of days.. Does that mean the trip will stop at PVD which is fine. I was hoping to go to singapore on my trip to India..

         1. Yes, exactly. You can do PVD-MAA-SIN-PVD and stop as long as you want in MAA and SIN each as long as the whole trip ends within a year of ticket issue. It’s best to look for flights one leg at a time (PVD-MAA, MAA-SIN, SIN-PVD) and then if multi-city booking doesn’t work (it’s quirky and limited), call United customer service and give them your flight numbers.

            1. Awesome. Thanks for all your help!!

            2. One more possibly stupid question !! When you book trips using miles do you still accumulate miles on the trip that you take?

            3. You do not :( Otherwise, you’d probably get half yours back with the long route you’re taking ;)

            4. lol!! Can’t be too greedy, right ?

            5. I was reading your other post of 65K miles to go to Asia. You mention 1 stopover is allowed. In my case, doesn’t it come down to 2 stopovers? MAA and SIN? Or is one of them treated as an open jaw?

            6. It’s one stopover not counting the destination. Like if no stopovers allowed, you can still go where you want to go :)

            7. Thanks for the clarification!! One more question. Sometime (not really needed right now) can you elaborate on the united 1K? How do you acheive that and what do you have to do to keep it at that level

8. Hi–Does this trick work with a Business class redemption. So, could I do

   BOS to WAW
   WAW to BOS (6 month stopover)
   BOS to ASE

   All for the same 100,000. And if I needed to change the date of my BOS to ASE leg after my WAW to BOS leg could I do so without a change fee as long as the new departure date is more than 21 days in advance?

   Also, I know you mentioned a 2,500 mile extra charge for doing say BOS to Hawaii in Economy. What would the extra miles be for that leg in Business using this technique?

   Thanks!

   1. Yes, that’s exactly right! You can do this in business class for the same 100,000 miles. The routing rules are the same. Unfortunately, United changed the policy very recently that a date change even 21 days in advance is $75. This is waived for anyone with elite status, however. That is, elites can change dates freely as long as the trip date changed to is more than 21 days away.

      If you wanted to do BOS to Hawaii, the additional charge would be 7,500 miles in Business Class.

9. I am seeking advice about using FF miles. We live in Chicago. We like to travel the world. We would like to “follow the sun” with about two international trips per year, about three weeks each, during the period September-April. We would like to spend one week each year in HI, and one week per year in Caribbean/Central America. We would like to visit our Son in LA about three times per year. We are retired. Can you give us any general or specific stratagies to follow?

10. Really nice post!! Thank you.

    I have a question for the trip TPE-BKK-TPE-NRT:

    TPE-BKK: 15,000 miles
    TPE-NET: 10,000 miles

    But I booked the trip from United and this trip costs 30,000 not 25,000. I don’t know why this happened. Do you have any idea? Thanks. :-)

    1. Sorry. I think I know the answer! It should be 15,000 (TPE-BKK) + 15,000 (BKK-NRT). :-)

       1. Yes, that’s exactly right! And that’s a good stopover you used :)

11. Here is another one for you.

    I am in ORD (Chicago) , and my family is in DXB (Dubai).
    Now, ORD-DXB is 40,000 miles (80K rt).
    But, ORD-BKK is 35,000 miles (70K rt).

    Can I plan a trip to Bangkok with a stopover in Dubai to save 10miles and add a holiday to Bangkok?
    ORD-IAD-DXB(stopover)-BKK(destination)-ORD

    To take it to next level, maybe add two open jaws (one at destination, and one at return)?
    ORD-IAD-DXB(stopover)-BKK(destination)-Phuket(OJ1)-NYC(OJ2)

    Overall, I suppose what it comes down to is if I can make a stopover in a different “region” (that may or may not be on the way).

    1. Everything you said is exactly right! You can have an open jaw at the origin and destination. Here is something I booked recently: RIO-NYC (stopover), NYC-Milan, Zurich-NYC. That’s an open jaw on both ends and you don’t even need to end in the same region where you started (have a post coming up explaining this point this week!).

       As far as stopovers in different regions, you can fly over the Atlantic to get to Asia and stop anywhere along the way provided you don’t exceed 4 connections in each direction. The 4 connections is specific to routing to Asia over the Atlantic. People routinely work in stopovers in Europe en route to Asia and visit two continents for the price of one. So if you have the time, it’s the perfect way to stretch your miles!

       1. Thank you. :)

12. Pingback: The Miles Professor’s Top Stories: July 2013
13. Pingback: Saving 30,000 United Airlines Miles Combining Multiple Trips

    1. Hi. What is the best way to use this strategy to fly AUS->FRA, stay in FRA for stopover, then FRA to Rome, stay few days, Rome to FRA, and then later MUC- back to AUS?

       1. When you say stopover, I presume you mean more than 24 hours? You can stay in FRA for up to 24 hours without it counting on the way to Rome. If you do want to have a true over-24 hour stopover in FRA, you can have at most 3 legs on a United itinerary and would need to find your way from Rome to FRA separately.

          Here is what you’d be able to do, including a few days stop in FRA on the way to Rome!
          AUS-FRA (stopover) FRA – ROM, MUC-AUS

          1. Thank you! I will call United to check. I plan on not flying United on this trip (want to try some other airlines, and when I was able to get the site to show me correctly, I was able to get Air New Zealand to LHR, Asiana to NRT, and then United back home. Hope it will still work. I will let you know. Thanks again.

14. Another spectacular post. They keep getting better and better. You’re now at the top of my RSS Feeds!

15. Pingback: Maximizing United Miles: Saving 30,000 Miles in Business Class With Open-Jaws on Different Continents | Hack.Travel

16. Hi there, I’m trying to figure out this trip:

    I’m based in the Bay Area with family in Hawaii.

    I’ve been unsuccessful after plugging it into the multi-destination search engine.

    SFO > BKK (destination), RGN>SFO (stopover), SFO>HNL (at a later date)

    It seems that I have an open jaw in Bangkok, and open jaw when I “arrive” in HNL. Am I missing something?

    Thanks!

    1. Unfortunately, you cannot route from Asia to Hawaii through the US Mainland. So adding a Hawaii one-way will not work on trips to Asia… you can, however, add one-way trips anywhere else in North America!

       1. Hello! I have a similar question: I’m trying to do SFO- Kathmandu, BKK- SFO, and then SFO-HNL. So if I understand correctly, it seems that guess Hawaii will not work coming from Asia? What about SFO- CUN or elsewhere in Mexico? Thanks so much for your incredibly helpful blog!

          1. Hi Joanna. You’re correct that you cannot route through the US when traveling to Hawaii from Asia. But adding SFO-CUN should be no problem. Kathmandu sounds super exciting, I hope to go there someday myself!

             1. Just got off the phone after an hour with a United rep– tried SFO- KTM, KTM- BKK, SIN-SFO and then a month later SFO-CZM. She said this was completely impossible since KTM is considered a stopover and thus SFO-CZM would be a second one. Is this true? Should I try calling again to speak to another person?

                Thanks!

             2. Hello- I saw my error in the previous post, and today I have been trying to book the following. I can’t figure out why this is still invalid. Please help! SFO – Kathmandu, Kathmandu- Bangkok, Singapore– SFO. Do I have too many legs for a roundtrip ticket? Thanks.

             3. That should be valid and is almost the same thing I booked a few months ago for an upcoming trip to Asia: Singapore, Phuket and Tokyo for 65k United miles: 1 roundtrip, 3 girls, 3 destinations. You just have to confidently explain to customer service a stopover and open-jaw are allowed. Just avoid going through the same airport twice on one leg.

             4. Thanks for the reply. I’ve argued with three reps today and they have all adamantly stated that it can’t be done. So frustrating!

17. Hi, I am planning to go to Buenos Aires Argentina from my home base of Los Angeles, what is the best way to utilize my miles from AA (have more than the other two!) and United, and BA please?

    Thank you very much in advance.
    Reza

    1. I haven’t been to Buenos Aires yet, but really hoping to go someday!

       British Airways will charge you by distance per segment so they’re generally not a good program to use for further destinations such as Buenos Aires.

       American Airlines has an off-peak period to Argentina for 20,000 miles each way if traveling March 1 – May 31; August 16 – November 30. Also, if you can get an LAX-SCL or LAX-LIM flight on LAN into your itinerary to Argentina, you can check out this post to add a free one-way with American Airlines by creating a stopover in your home city: How to Add Free One-Way Trips on American Airlines Awards

       United Airlines will cost 60,000 miles round-trip, but you can add a free one-way afterwards or beforehand if you follow the directions in this post.

18. This is great info, but still trying to wrap my head around it. What happens if you have 3 or 4 different regions involved? I’m trying to do some approximation of:
    Seattle > Lima
    Brazil > Philly or Newark
    Philly or Newark > Seattle

    Piecing it together on their site looks like 85,000 miles + $79 (for First/Business First Saver), but would it be better if I found my way back to a one of the major cities in the Northern South America region?

    1. That routing should work and be 85,000 miles, as you said. Are you stopping over in Newark/Philly for more than 24 hours? If so, you’ve used your stopover. If not, you can add another one-way trip from Seattle later on in the itinerary. The following two posts may be helpful examples of what can be done with itineraries spanning open-jaws across different regions:
       Maximizing United Miles: Saving 30,000 Miles in Business Class With Open-Jaws on Different Continents

       Cayman, Panama, Rio, Cancun: Svetlana’s Southern Adventures with United Miles

       1. Yes, I need to go to NJ for about a week and then head back home to Seattle. So, I guess I’m a little confused then. In the scenario I listed, which part is considered the roundtrip and which are the open jaws (you’ve already mentioned that Newark/Philly is the stop over)?

          Also, would it be better to find my way back to a Northern South America airport (Lima, Colombia, or wherever else United has a partner with a major hub)? By my estimate, that would save me 15,000 miles. Using a rough $0.02/mile value, that would mean I’d need to get to that other airport for less than $300. Am I on target here?

          1. I see. In your example, Newark/Philly is the stopover and your one open-jaw on the itinerary is at the origin between Peru and Brazil. As far as saving 15,000 miles, you are completely correct that you would save a value of $300 if that’s where you value your miles. However, you would also be giving up a not so short business class flight as part of a fairly long journey from Brazil to Newark. In addition, buying a separate ticket can potentially lead to a mis-connection on separate itineraries and then it’s harder to rectify the situation. If all your seats are available, I would personally probably just stay with your business class flights for a much smoother journey… in particular, if you can get the flat-bed seats with United BusinessFirst from Rio to Houston/Sao Paolo to NYC or the Envoy Suites with US Airways connecting in Charlotte or Philadelphia.

             The only exception is if you want to create an additional stopover somewhere else in Northern South America, which you cannot on this itinerary as you’ve already used your one stopover. But of course, you’re familiar with that as you’re doing this to spend time in Peru and make your way to Brazil.

             1. Great, thanks for your input and help!

                One issue is that I’ll be flying back from Brazil right after the World Cup next summer, so I may need to find other options. Right now, options are pretty limited out of Rio and Sao Paolo in July 2014 (I’m guessing because of World Cup).

19. I have an existing reservation ticketed on Mar 19, 2013. It is SDF-ORD-LHR CDG-ORD-SDF Departur is in late Sept and returniing early Oct. This is essentially a roundtrip with one open jaw. Can I add the free oneway to this already existing ticket?
    Say a SDF-OGG? Would I have to call this in to do so? Would there be any fees?

    1. Great idea to stretch your trip to Hawaii! That would be a valid routing and you can make a change to the ticket. You would have to call to make the change and would incur a $75 change fee, in this case, if you have no status. And, of course, your new trip would be another few thousand miles depending on whether you are flying business or economy.

20. I am not sure I understand how open jaws work, my understanding is that on United, I can have 1 stopover with 2 open jaws. I tried this on united.com with multiple destinations
    IAD-IST
    IST-NAP
    GVA-IAD

    IST is the stopover, and the open jaw is GVA-IAD, or am I looking at it wrong?
    And can another leg be added to this if its valid, DCA-LAX at a later date?

    1. It’s a bit confusing as open-jaws are basically counted separately from stopovers and destinations. On any itinerary, you have three points. An origin, a stopover point and a destination. Here, your stopover is at IST and your destination is NAP; you can also look at it the other way since it doesn’t change anything. So that uses your one stopover.

       Now we count the open jaws separately. This itinerary has an open-jaw at NAP/GVA. While you can change your itinerary to have two open jaws (e.g. return to NYC or have an open-jaw at the stopover), you would not be able to add another segment at a later date as that would require another stopover and you have already used one stopover.

       1. I think what I have, should work. IAD to IST, IST to NAP, GVA to IAD but when I try to reserve it united.com with my award points, I get an error even though the one ways for the same dates do show availability…

          1. Yes, that works! UAL.com is very quirky when booking multi-city awards and is notorious for not showing award space on multi-city search when flights are available. You need to write down the flights you want and call customer service and have them book the award for you.

21. Hi TMP

    Thanks for all of the wonderful information! I ditto comment from Angeline earlier that your writing style is one of the easier one to follow and understand among your fellow bloggers. Just tried to test an Economy award for next summer around early May. SFO-JFK (4 day stop)-CDG, then CDG-SFO. Everything came up fine to select from. When I added OGG to return portion CDG-SFO (2 1/2 month stop)-OGG, I got an error message that there was no availability. Yet when I checked the segment separately, there was plenty to select from. Is this one of those situations where UAL gets kind of quirky or do I have the routing for free one-way wrong? If it is correct, should the total miles be 62,500 because of Hawaii vs 60,000 without?

    Also, on return from CDG-SFO, it is connecting through Germany (Frankfurt or Munich) and depending on which, the return flight is either Lufthansa Airbus 340-600 or United Boeing 747-400. Do you have a recommendation on which one may be better for seat space, service, food?

    Lastly, I also have AA miles but award availability particularly for off-peak appear to be very limited including red-eye for SFO-JFK. But I did not check each segment separately there yet. Any advice?

    Thanks for any assistance. Can’t wait to read your next trip report!

    1. Hi, Peter. Glad you’re trying out some routings and thank you for the blog compliments! :) If you’re doing SFO-NYC (4 day stop) – CDG and then CDG-SFO, you’ve already used your one stopover. To add SFO – CDG afterwards after a 2 1/2 month stop requires using another stopover in SFO, which is not permitted as then you’d have two stopovers on the itinerary. Notice that in all my examples, the free one-way is added on itineraries with no stopover. That is, if you want to fly SFO-CDG, CDG-SFO (stop for 2 months) – OGG, that’s fine and should cost 62,500 miles. On the quirkiness of the UA search engine, multi-city search on UA often does not work well, unfortunately, and you usually will need to find award availability one leg at a time and then call in for the full itinerary.

       On the aircraft recommendation, I actually have not flown Lufthansa, but I’m always comparing seat width, etc on SeatGuru, which has all the aircraft maps and specifications.

       On AA, there is also the option to fly on Iberia Airlines, which American Airlines does not show availability for. You can search on the British Airways website for those segments (or Qantas), but then you have to try to piece together trips one segment at a time with those websites.

       1. Thanks for the quick reply! That’s the other thing I noticed about your blog was that you seem to be able to reply quickly to questions. Awesome.

          I can see now the obvious 2 stopovers included in my itinerary (duh!). However, do I understand correctly for AA that you can get the free one-way (stopover) for each one way booked? In other words, if I booked the above on AA as two separate one-way itineraries, I would get a separate stopover for each? But for United, it only works if you book round-trip, is that correct?

          1. That’s correct about UA. You only get a stopover if you book a round-trip.

             AA is a little more flexible in the sense that you can get a stopover in each direction, but it is more restrictive in that you can only have a stopover in your North American gateway city – in other words, you can only stop in a city if it’s part of a non-stop segment to another continent.

             Examples:
             HNL-LAX (stop) LAX – DUS – CDG is fine because LAX is the gateway city to Europe on a non-stop flight to Dusseldorf.

             SFO actually does not have any direct flights to Europe so there is no way to have a stopover in SFO on a trip to Europe with AA miles. You can, for example, create stopovers in SFO if you travel to Asia. e.g. include SFO-Tokyo on Japan Airlines or SFO-Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific.

             1. Ok, I think I get it now. In the two examples above, the HNL-LAX is then the free one-way, is that correct? But you also said: “LAX — DUS — CDG is fine because LAX is the gate­way city to Europe on a non-stop flight to Dusseldorf”. How is that a non-stop if the final destination is CDG?

                Last question, in the SFO-Tokyo or Hong Kong, I can then add JFK to SFO before the Asia trip for the free one-way?

                Thanks again for explaining all of this!

             2. No problem, I am here to explain! :) The LAX-DUS is a non-stop flight to Europe as Dusseldorf is in Europe (there are no stops before getting to Europe). Your final destination is irrelevant as long as your stopover is right before or right after a non-stop flight from North America to Europe.

                Yes, HNL-LAX is the free one-way and. You are also correct on the Asia flight that you can add a free one-way from JFK to SFO right before. You can also do something like HNL-LAX-SFO (stopover) SFO-Tokyo and have Hawaii as the free one-way.

             3. Awesome! Can’t wait for my trip SFO-CDG with a 4 day stopover on JFK next spring. Been wanting to take my wife to Paris for sometime now. Thanks again. Happy travels!

22. Hi TMP, great advice.

    Does this work if you book one leg of your flight first, then add on the return with a one-way? I’m looking to book NYC-EZE for April, and I found a good flight there, but not back – so I was thinking I’d lock in the first leg now and buy the return when something comes up. (I don’t have elite status, so I’m thinking it doesn’t make sense to book the return now and then pay to change it later.) But will United read that as two one-ways instead of a RT, and therefore ineligible to tack on a free one-way to the return?

    1. This wouldn’t work, unfortunately, if you book the two legs separately. They would both be considered one ways in that case. You’d have to change your ticket to a round-trip ticket when you book the return rather than a one-way and this would mean you’d have to pay the award ticket change fee.

       1. Darn, that’s what I was afraid would happen. Thanks for the response!

23. Hi TMP,
    Thanks for the advice. I’m trying to get my family of 5 (wife & 3 young girls) to LIH, Kauai next summer after June 5th for two weeks when they are out of school (my family has a small condo in Poipu). I had about 53,000 miles & my wife 89,000 miles. Of course the saver awards to Hawaii were already gone but the saver awards back LIH to HNL to SFO to SBP were still available. What upset me is that 2 years ago you used to be able to get Saver Awards to/from the other islands (Maui, Kauai, Hawaii) direct from SFO or LAX. Now ALL saver awards require a stop in HNL first thus they then can charge you ANOTHER 5,000 miles for an interisland flight from HNL. So I’m taking a little gamble. I’ve booked 5 saver awards from Lihue to San Luis Obispo, CA (SBP) via the red-eye. LIH-HNL-SFO-SBP. Each one cost me 25,000 miles/person. I think I’m taking a gamble here but hoping I can get 5 CHEAP one way tickets on Allegiant Air to HNL sometime in the furture between June 6 & June 10th. Flying out of Santa Maria (SMX) but if we have to will try LAX. We live in SLO and Allegiant air had seats last summer as cheap as $119 one way SMX to HNL but stopped service due to decreased demand. Allegiant says they will bring it back SMX to HNL for “Seasonal” service but I don’t know when or if they even will. So we will probably spend a couple nights in Waikiki maybe try to get a time-share hotel deal. Any recomendations? After a couple nights I’ll try to get 5 interisland tickets from HNL to LIH. How far ahead do you think I should try to book Allegiant and/or the interisland tickets on United via Hawaiian or Island Air?

    1. Wow, a family trip to Hawaii sounds great. I have been wanting to go there and, hopefully, sometime soon! I am really unfamiliar with Allegiant so can’t comment on that, but if you can do $119, that’s a great deal! It does seem that it is tough to find direct flights to other islands during high season and you can only get to Lihue directly from San Francisco in off-season with Saver awards.

       By the way, if you can find non-stop availability, you can use 12,500 British Airways miles each way from LAX to the Hawaiian islands so that may be worth taking a look at. 62,500 miles may be easier to collect so it’s an option to think about: West Coast to Hawaii for 12,500 British Airways Avios Each Way! Or if you can possibly find a few award flights (less than 5), perhaps you can get some with miles and some paid.

       Interisland tickets are generally not super difficult to get so I would not worry about booking those too far ahead of time, just when you’re pretty set on your other plans and times.

       On time share hotel deals, Hilton does have a few properties there, actually. When I call Hilton for unrelated reservations, I am often asked if I want to be transferred to their promotional deals desk and am offered a timeshare few days promotional. I took one in New York and will have to attend a timeshare presentation, but I don’t mind that so much.

24. Hi Professor,

    Yesterday I booked a RT from New Orleans to Roatan in November, and taking your advise simply used the multi-city button on the MileagePlus Awards page, and was able to add two one way tickets from New Orleans to Vegas for next summer. Using your excellent advise and technique, I booked two round trips to Roatan (Honduras) and two one ways to Vega, all for 70,000 miles, and 55 bucks, with no hassle!

    Thank you very much for your informative blog. Congtats too, as I see your subscriber numbers are going up and up. Great Work, Mileage Professor!

    Sincerely,
    Jerry
    New Orleans, LA

    1. Hi Jerry. Thank you for your kind words about the blog and I am glad you are benefitting! That’s a really great use of free one-ways on both ends and you were able to get a completely free trip this way! While it’s satisfying to use miles for travels, it’s even more fun to optimize the rules and know we really stretched our miles. :)

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26. Just discovered your blog! Very informative and well-written! I tried (as a test run) to do what you suggested with United, but for some reason, I keep encountering errors in their search engine. It’s fine when I input the one-way searches, but then when I put it all together under the “multiple destinations,” it gives me an error message in the end (after I’ve chosen the separate legs). If I understand correctly, I’m allowed one stopover and two open-jaws. I wonder if the system gets tripped up when some of the segments are connecting flights vs direct?

    Here are some itineraries I played around with, all to no avail.

    SFO to Taipei (stopover). Taipei to Paris. London to SFO.

    SFO to NYC. NYC to Paris. London to SFO.

    SFO to NYC. NYC to Paris. Vienna to SFO.

    Can you please explain if I’ve missed something?

    1. The United award multi-city booking just doesn’t work very well. You need to find flights with individual legs and then call customer service to book the whole itinerary. All the itineraries you mentioned are perfectly legit!

27. Is this a legit route or does it have to be an international flight?

    MCO to PHX in March (Orlando to Phoenix)
    PHX to OGG in June (Phoenix to Maui)
    OGG to PHX in June (Maui to Phoenix)

    1. That should work! It’s no problem if you’re going to Hawaii. It just has to be to a different region (i.e. not mainland U.S. or Canada)

       1. Thank you so much! I was able to find each segment as an available reward online but was not able to complete the booking using multiple destinations so I called in and completed the reward that way. I was able to have them waive the fee since the internet search was not able to piece it together.

          Thanks again

          1. Excellent! Glad it worked out. :)

28. Thanks for the great post! I was wondering, what qualifies a city as a stopover? In one of the comments you say “You can stop any­where along the way”, however, in the article, it says “It’s no prob­lem to travel from Grand Cay­man to Can­cun with a stopover in San Francisco” (but following the first statement’s logic San Francisco is not “on the way” from Grand Cayman to Cancun). Or is San Francisco considered to be on the way because UA/Star Alliance don’t have a more direct route?
    Thanks in advance!

    1. By along the way, I mean along the route. That is, if you can book a routing from Grand Cayman to Cancun that ends up going through San Francisco, it’s no problem to stop there. As an example, we booked GCM-HOU-SFO-NYC-CUN and any of those cities it would ok to use the one stopover. United does allow quite a bit of backtracking so one can be a bit creative in the “free one-way” destinations!

       1. Thanks for the information! I tried booking the following rewards trip with United:
          -EWR to SCL
          -SCL to EWR
          -YVR to EWR
          The web site wouldn’t let me book it, and when I called to book it I was told this was not a valid round-trip. To me it seems to be valid, because my destination is SCL, and I have a stopover and an open jaw. Am I seeing something incorrectly here?

          1. Hi Stefan. You actually cannot have any stopovers or open jaws for trips within mainland U.S. The round-trip has to be across different regions. For example, if you travel to Europe or Hawaii or the Caribbean. But you must leave mainland U.S./Canada.

             1. Hello, it is round trip to a different region, SCL is in Chile.
                Thanks,
                Stefan

             2. Oh, got it :) I inverted the letters and read it as SLC as read it quickly and on the beach in Miami. Anyway, EWR-SCL, SCL-EWR, EWR-YVR should be no problem. I think the issue you’re experiencing is that you’re using a stopover that includes EWR on the way to EWR and that doesn’t make very much sense as a genuine stopover… i.e., the airports you transit on your inbound leg should not be your final destination.

29. Hello, my family is going to Greece next May and we live in Chicago. We are also planning a trip to San Franciso in the fall. Could we travel from Chicago to Athens, have a stopover in Chicago for a few months, and leave from Chicago to San Francisco (and then return home to Chicago)?

    I am not quite sure if this maximizes the open jaw/stopover rules. Is there a better way to maximize this, maybe by adding in a one-way??

    Thank you!!

    1. You definitely have the right itinerary! Maximizing would be having the following segments: ORD-ATH, ATH-ORD, ORD-SFO where the stopover is in Chicago until you’re ready to go to San Francisco. You’d have to return from San Francisco to Chicago on a separate ticket, of course.

       1. Since we need to return to Chicago on a separate ticket from SFO, is it even worth it to book these two trips as one trip? In other words, is it a better value to book it as one trip versus two separate round trips? Thank you!

          1. The purpose of adding your segment to San Francisco is your trip to Greece is you get it for free. It costs no extra miles above your trip to Greece. Otherwise, you’d have to pay 12,500 miles for it. A round-trip to San Francisco will cost 25,000 miles from Chicago. A one-way ticket will cost 12,500. Doing it this way saves 12,500 miles.

             1. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you! I have another question: Would I be screwing up that trip if while in Greece, I wanted to fly from Athens to Santorini? I think Aegean does that route. And then returning to Chicago from Athens or Santorini?

             2. You can do ORD-Santorini, Athens-ORD, ORD-SFO as long as your connection in Athens on the way to Santorini is no longer than 24 or you’d be using up your one stop.

30. Pingback: Rules for Open Jaw & Stopover Award Flights (Consolidated) - Page 136 - FlyerTalk Forums

31. Can I do this?
    TUL-LHR (layover)-SGN (32.5K miles) .. return SGN-TUL (32.5K miles)

    TUL-LHR (dest 30K miles) .. open jaw Paris – SGN-TUL (30K miles)

    Basically, I would like to make a trip to VietNam and lay over in Europe.

    1. Yes, these are both ok, but either will cost 65k miles where SGN is the destination on both.

       1. Thank you so much for your quick response.
          I have 2 more question.
          1. What if I would take … TUL-LHR (dest) … LHR-SGN(Layover)-Tul … would this consider as 60K miles instead of 62.5 since LHR now is my destination … not SGN?

          2. Can I take advance base on “Maximizing United Miles: Saving 30,000 Miles in Business Class With Open-Jaws on Different Continents ” post of your?
          TUL-LHR (dest)30K …(Oen jaw) PARIS – TUL(Layover) TUL-SGN (Hong Kong or even Hawaii)

          1. There are a few routing restrictions on United Airlines. You cannot route to Europe going through Asia from the US. So if you want to visit Europe and Asia, then your destination has to count as Asia. So itinerary 1 would cost 65,000 miles because it’s only allowed if Asia is your destination.

             Secondly, you cannot route to Asia from Europe by going through the US. So your second itinerary cannot work at all. Cheap one-ways can only really be added if one of your continents includes the Americas (e.g. South America, Central America, Caribbean).

             1. Hi Professor,
                I have few more questions.
                1. Can I book mix class for dept and return and still be able to take advance of layover and 2 open jaw rule? Such as Econ for departure and business for return.
                2. Due to availability constraint I have to pull a stop over for less than 24hrs. This will not count as layover correct?
                3. With the United Airlines Devaluation for MileagePlus Award Tickets effective 02/01/14, Can I go ahead and book the tickets (6) now and still be able to make the changes without being affect before the deadline (1/31/14)?
                This is crazy but we have 6 passengers and the availability out from TUL is not much so I am trying to work around it as below:
                Party of 1:
                TUL (stop over for 20hrs) – DFW-YYZ-LON (layover) – ROM- SGN (destination) (ECON) ** SGN-NRT-DFW (Business Class) 32.5K + 60K = 92.5K
                Parties of 2:
                DFW-YYZ-LON (layover) – ROM- SGN (destination) (ECON) ** SGN-NRT-DFW (Business Class) 32.5K+ 60K = 92.5K / each
                Parties of 3.
                TUL-YYZ-LON (layover)-ROM-SGN (destination) (ECON) ** SGN-NRT-DFW (Business Class) 92.5K/each

                Would this plan work?
                Happy Thanksgiving

32. Hi -Awesome web site- And thank you for all your tips – I’m still trying to wrap my head around all this – I’m Looking at flying from BOS-SYD , AKL-CNS CNS-PPT –>BOS Is this a valid routing? My other question – Since the availability to SYD is so rough I was hoping to book this the day the tickets are released – If I do this, then the return flights wont be available for another 3 weeks – How is this handled? I was hoping to do this all on United, If I need to throw in some miles from aadvantage I can as well..

33. Hi,
    First of all thank you for your wonderful blog. It gives so much information that I haven’t found anywhere else. I am still confused as to how I can book a free one way award on a trip that I would like to take to Thailand with a stopover in Cairo and returning home to JFK from Cambodia. I would also like to be able to use this itinerary to book either a one way to or from Madrid from my home airport of JFK. Is this possible? Thank you!

    1. Glad you find the blog useful! Unfortunately, if you are already using a stopover on your round-trip, you cannot get a free one-way. Getting a free one-way requires having a stopover in your home city and you are already using one in Cairo. Free one-ways can be added onto simple round-trips or open-jaws with no stopovers of over 24 hours. But your trip to Cairo, Thailand and Cambodia sounds like a great itinerary! :)

       1. Thank
          YOU! I kinda thought I was being a little greedy!

34. Hi Professor,

    1.Your analysis is awesome and very clear. However, I found out that someone is opposing to adding a free one-way. Maybe this is another point of view (http://travelisfree.com/2013/05/21/using-oneways-to-save-united-miles/#comment-18014). But… after I read for several times, I still couldn’t get it. Can you help me out and explain to me why the author thinks it’s not a good idea to add a free one-way?

    2.Another question is that, professor, this itinerary will not be valid right? ORD-CDG CDF-ROM(stopover)-ORD. Because we cannot have stopover within the same region?

    3. I’m based Asia. I’m thinking of this itinerary: TPE-MEL BNE-TPE(stopover)-ICN
    Is this valid? I added TPE-ICN as a free one-way. Both TPE and ICN are in North Asia region. This won’t incur other miles, correct?

    4.My final question.( sorry ha). If we add a free one way ticket. We also need to buy a flight ticket back to our origin. But usually one way flight ticket is very expensive, right? How do you usually deal with this problem?

    Thank you so much for your help!!

    1. 1. So I think the main argument against adding free one-ways there is that it takes away the ability to add a stopover somewhere along your destination. You can only add free one-ways onto simple round-trips or open jaws. He is saying that rather than breaking it up into two trips and having a free one-way, just visit both destinations to begin with in one trip. Of course, that particular discussion comes from someone who is unemployed… while we’d all love to have infinite time to travel the world with no responsibilities, many of us like to just take multiple trips. And that’s where free one-ways for 1.5 trips out of 1 come in :)

       2. That itinerary is absolutely valid! With United, you can have a stopover anywhere along the way on your trip!

       3. That itinerary should be fine too. It will cost you 70,000 miles in economy or 100,000 miles in business.

       4. I don’t typically buy tickets. I usually use miles to go back to my origin (or find a way to add a free one-way to a trip I am taking later on). In the US, however, one-way tickets are typically half the price of round-trip so I can buy them if I really want to. Regardless, even if I use miles to go back to my origin, adding a free one-way saves me half the cost of another trip. So it’s still a big miles savings!

       Glad you enjoy the blog and analysis :)

       1. Professor Thank you for your quick reply.

          1. That’s what I was thinking as well. Because sometimes we don’t have enough time, say two weeks, to visit so many cities, that’s why you suggested us add free one ways ;)

          2. Professor, but for this itinerary as you said in your post “NYC-LAX (des­ti­na­tion) LAX-NYC (stopover) NYC-Miami. Not valid. This award stays within a sin­gle region and you can­not have stopovers unless the award is between dif­fer­ent regions.” —> This stopover is not allowed?!

          3. Haha professor, how did you react to the devaluation this time? xDDD

          Take care and enjoy your next trip very soon ^^

          1. 2. You basically have to have both legs between different regions. In that example, the award never leaves continental US. In your example, you have two legs and each is between different regions (leg 1: ORD-CDG is between continental US and Europe, leg 2: CDF-ROM is between Europe and continental US). So that’s no problem to have a stopover.

             3. Actually, that will now cost 40,000 round-trip in economy and 80,000 in business. So the new award chart definitely has some pluses! The devaluation is not good news by any means, but I am relatively ok with it. Besides, the more expensive the awards, the better the savings are with free one ways ;) … if you want to think of it that way.

35. What if i made a one way booking from Hawaii? HNL – ORD – HOU
    This shows 32.5k online. Should it be 20k?

    1. 32.5k is correct if you have a stopover in ORD. Stopovers are not permitted one one-way flights so you need to pay 20k for HNL-ORD and 12.5k ORD-HOU.

36. Miles Professor,

    i tried doing a simple RT from NYC to ATH and then a one way from NYC to Honolulu or LAX and its not letting me, did they remove the ability for the free one way?

    1. You typically cannot book these online. You have to call customer service and have them arrange it for you. I did it a few weeks ago so definitely still works :)

       1. aww shucks, also my wife has less vacation days then I do, do i have to book both of us for the free one way to hawaii? or can i just book my self and leave her out? Or should I just book our tickets seperately?

          1. You should be able to book the two separate itineraries together on the phone.

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38. If I cut out the trip to San Francisco, and just wanted to go from Chicago to Athens to Santorini and back home to Chicago, what is the best way to do this? I’m so confused!!

39. I am trying to use United free one way by going to India from Zurich and returning to Washington, DC and going to Hawaii at a later date. ZRH to BOM to IAD to HNL. United won’t allow me to book it. Called CSR and even she was not able to book it. I even tried just ZRH – BOM – IAD and I can’t even do that as well. Only option is doing two separate one way. I am not sure if free one way only works when the first leg is from US. Can you suggest ?

    1. Thanks for reading. The first is definitely not allowed, unfortunately. You cannot do the free one-way to Hawaii as you cannot route to Hawaii from Asia and stopover in the US in the process. If you go from Asia, you must go to Hawaii immediately.

       ZRH-BOM-IAD may be fine, but I admit I never tried it. The United routing rules are a bit undetermined… some region combinations are allowed and other aren’t.

40. Thank you for your clear explanation. Do you know the rules by which United determines if a particular route is valid? I would like to set up a round trip from San Francisco to Sydney, with a stopover in Manila. (SFO -> MNL and MNL -> SYD each require a single connection, so there will be 3 connections and 4 segments in the outbound part of the round trip.) It could also be structured as a round trip from San Francisco to Manila with a stopover in Sydney on the return.

    A United representative told me, after 10-15 minutes of research, that this could not be booked as a round trip because Manila and Sydney are in different “regions.” Does that routing restriction make sense?

    1. United representatives, unfortunately, are not so knowledgeable about award rules. There is no problem to route through Asia when flying to Sydney and you can stop anywhere along the way. Your itinerary would be SFO-MNL-SYD-SFO with stopover in MNL and destination Sydney and you would be charged SFO to Sydney for the whole thing. My suggestion would be to hang up and call again, hopefully getting a more knowledgeable agent. Calmly explain you are permitted to route through Asia to Sydney and you are allowed a stopover. :)

       1. On my second try, I was able to book SFO – SYD – SFO with a stopover in MNL over the phone, being charged the roundtrip miles for SFO SYD. I prepared for the call by finding a route through the same regions that I was able to price online using the “multiple destinations” option on United’s award booking page. I used ORD – SYD – ORD with a stopover in SIN to verify that the route from mainland US to Australia with a stopover in South Asia would be charged at the mainland-US-to-Australia amount. (That route needed one fewer connection and had more segments on United than the route I actually wanted, so the online program didn’t choke.)

          The preparation turned out to be unnecessary. The second phone representative I spoke with was knowledgable, and I did not need to prove my point with her. And I was even able to have the phone booking fee waived, since the web site was unable to book the trip.

          Thanks once more for sharing your advice. If I’d accepted the first agent’s “logic” I would have burned almost 30% more miles for exactly the same itinerary.

          1. Glad it worked out! And I am glad you came prepared with the information and did your research ahead of time :) Never let those agents take your hard-earned miles!

41. I have a question about using a one way ticket at the end of a trip but have it “back track”
    I live near San Francisco and I would like to travel to Europe somewhere. I would also like to return to San Francisco as a stop over but at that point nothing else seems to be “”on the way.” Could I make a stop in San Francisco and then go to say, Seattle or Salt Lake City LA or NYC? Thanks.

42. I tried to search your site, but couldn’t really find an answer. Might you know how easy it is to book two travelers but pay using miles for only one of them? I’m on the United MileagePlus program and my husband and I are going to Britain, but only have enough miles for 1 roundtrip at the moment. We would like to be on the same flight! ha ha And if possible, sit next to each other. Know how that would work?

    1. You can call customer service at 1-800-United1 and tell them which flight you’d like to book one ticket with miles and one with cash. Just make sure that
       1. There is award availability (you can search on the United.com website).
       2. The cash price for the ticket is not very expensive (again, search on the website).
       You can request two seats together then. Good luck!

43. Hi,
    I am already booked Mia-HNL on a one way. Can I get a free one way from Mia-NYC? If I already booked is it too late?
    Thanks!

    1. You can only add free one-ways to round-trip awards between regions, unfortunately. This will not work for one-ways.

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45. Thanks so much. Yes, would be staying in FRA for a week. This helps a lot, now I guess I only need a one way from Rome to FRA.

46. Does this also work if you are paying for the tickets instead of using miles, or only for mileage rewards usage?

    1. Some tickets may have a stopover ability in their routing rules where a stop in Frankfurt on the way to Rome may be no more expensive than buying separate tickets. But these particular rules here I outlined only apply to United award tickets.

47. I live in Indianapolis…can I book open jaw tickets from this city for a trip within the US and to the Carribean OR am I better off using Chicago as my gateway city?

    1. That should be fine, although it is easier from Chicago. The only thing to watch out for is going through the same airport twice on the same leg. That is you cannot do Indianapolis-Paris and return Paris-Chicago-Indianapolis-Chicago-Aruba.

48. Hi! First I want to say thank you for a great explanation! I never thought about doing this. Was wondering if you can help me out here.

    I am planning on visiting a friend in Tokyo next month, and would like to route through Asia. I am based out of SAN, but don’t mind using LAX.

    Ideally, I was thinking of doing this: LAX-LHR (Open Jaw) CDG-NRT-SAN(or LAX). With SAN, I know this will be two open jaws, and a stopover in LHR, then flying from CDG. I also don’t mind doing the reverse (NRT first and then Europe last). I’ve been able to get it to show up sometimes on the United website, but mainly I get errors (I know I need to call).

    If too complex, I don’t mind skipping CDG and just doing LAX-LHR-NRT-SAN (or LAX). Or swapping out LHR for CDG. I have a lot of options :)

    So my questions are…

    1. Are these valid routes (including in reverse as well)?

    2. I know in Economy it’s about 70K, but I am not able to see the miles for Business overall. Would you be able to determine based on your experience? If it’s maybe under 100K I’d consider buying some miles to fly Business instead.

    I also know that there’s better availability to booking last minute for some airlines, so I’m open to that as well.

    Thank you!

    1. Two open jaws is no problem as you are allowed a stopover and two open jaws. However, if you fly LAX-LHR (OJ) CDG-NRT-SAN, then NRT will be your desitnation as that’s the more expensive region. You then have an open jaw at the stopover, which is very very hard to convince the customer service agent to do as they seem to object to that all the time. LAX-LHR-NRT-SAN (or LAX) should be no problem, though. Just be prepared for an agent to tell you you can’t cross both oceans on one round-trip… this isn’t true, but they bring it up all the time. It is much easier to cross both oceans, however, from experience, than to try to get an open jaw at the stopover. Though you may get lucky on that :)

       With business class, it’s 65,000 miles each way to Japan (your destination) if you fly with United Airlines only (though that’s not really possible to fly to London from Tokyo with them) or 75,000 miles each way. So unfortunately, it is much more.

       1. I’m too agree with professor on LAX-LHR (open jaw) CDG-NRT-SAN.
          I’m speaking from my own experienced. Believe me I’ve tried for days, weeks.
          TUL-ORD-YYZ-LHR (OJ) CDG-BKK-SGN (destination) – PEK-IAH-TUL.
          Calls and after Calls with no result. They can’t price it in the system therefore it’s not a valid (open jaw). Furthermore, I tried to stop in YYZ arrive at the evening and fly out the next day, less than 24 hrs and they could not be able to do so.
          When you call UA, don’t call the regular number. Try 1-800-396-1751 UA Customer Support Team, they are more supportive and aware of stopover, open jaw rules more than other number.
          Good luck

          1. Hey Brian,

             Thanks for the tip! I actually already just booked my ticket LAX-CDG-NRT-SAN on first try with no problems yesterday. I didn’t inquire about the LHR/CDG, but I’m alright with that — a stop in CDG will be good enough for me (first time). Will definitely give it a try in the future if I can!

49. Thanks! What a great post! Would starting in STT work? I am thinking STT (Jan 2015) to EWR (Home Airport) then in September 2015 EWR to BCN and then MAD to EWR?

    1. That should work, provided you can find availability!

50. I read thru all the comments and your informative follow-ups. Thanks for taking the time to do this! If SFO is my home base (versus your NYC), does it mean that the free one-way has to be in the same direction? ie. SFO-Budapest, London-SFO, SFO-Honululu would work because the return trip’s going west vs. SFO-Budapest, London-SFO, SFO-Orlando Florida wouldn’t work because the return trip’s going west then east again?

    Also, how does the baggage policy work for stopovers? I know United allows 1 free checked bag for international flights, but for the SFO-say Honululu or Florida, is the checked bag still free as it’s part of the ticket? Or would I have to pay for the checked baggage for this leg? Many thanks!

51. Hi TMP – I recently booked a roundtrip from Chicago to India and back with miles for 2 adults, in December. Now, I just learnt about free one-ways. Is it too late to modify the ticket to add the free 1 way from, say Chicago to Baltimore in June? How can I do that? Will they be a charge? Thx!

52. Could you guys help me with the following. I am seeing if there is a better way to use my miles for a bug upcoming trip.

    I am getting married this year in Houston and was wondering how JAWS or Layovers work if if I can make something work to my advantage. We live in Philadelphia but family is in Houston so we are flying down.

    Here is a sample schedule.

    10/15 – PHL – IAH
    10/19 – IAH -> LAX -> OGG (MAUI)
    10/25 – OGG (Maui) -> HNL (Honolulu)
    10/27 – HNL -> LAX -> PHL

    THE LAX stops are only short layovers.

    Currently as it stands right now I spent 90K Points total for 2 sets of tickets for IAH – OGG and return HNL – PHL.

    I still need to get the tickets from Phl – IAH and one way tickets are super expensive (~$500) while round trip are about the same.

    They have shifted around the flight schedules to Hawaii a few times so I can change without penalty

    Is there a way to get multi city passes such as PHL – IAH (4 day wedding layover) – LAX – OGG? Any suggestions would help.

    Then HNL – PHL and add a segment?

    Ask any questions and I can help clarify

53. Hi TMP, I booked a trip that ends in Istanbul in april 2014. Now I have to book my trip home to iad. I am trying to maximize miles. Am trying to figure out if I can get to hawaii or bkk somehow in all this. I am wondering if I can fly ist to iad w a stopover in either bkk or iah for a week, round trip back to somewhere fun during the next year? Do I have to return to europe on the round trip?
    Thanks
    Donna

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