There are various methods to take advantage of your hard-earned journey rewards. And in the case of redeeming airline miles, using stopovers and open-jaw award tickets can do exactly that. With choose loyalty applications, this could let you go to a number of locations for the value of 1.
Nevertheless, understanding the complexities of stopovers and open jaws might be overwhelming. So right now, we’ll outline stopovers and open jaws to provide the context it’s essential to start trying to find these award tickets.
What’s a stopover?
Of the 2 phrases, this one is extra easy. Put merely, a stopover is whenever you cease in a metropolis for a longer-than-normal time en path to a vacation spot. This prolonged connection time is what differentiates a stopover from a layover, the place you join in a hub airport (and by no means depart the airport) earlier than persevering with in your journey.
That mentioned, the size of time to qualify as a stopover vs. a layover can range, relying on the route. For worldwide award tickets, nonetheless, the final rule of thumb is that any connection lasting not less than 24 hours is a stopover, whereas something lower than 24 hours is taken into account a connection.
In practicality, this offers you the chance to fly right into a metropolis, keep for a number of days, after which proceed to your final vacation spot — like this instance from Houston (IAH) to Istanbul (IST) by way of Frankfurt (FRA). If you happen to simply had a connection in Frankfurt, you’d keep within the airport for 2 or three hours. Nevertheless, should you spent 4 days there, it is a stopover.
Sadly, not all applications permit these on award tickets. Air Canada Aeroplan, Alaska Airways Mileage Plan and Air France-KLM Flying Blue are among the many applications that permit for stopovers — although every program has its personal phrases and situations for stopovers. As well as, you might have to name to e-book one (as is the case with Flying Blue), and there are sometimes airline or routing restrictions as properly.
Associated: Fast Factors: See two cities for the value of 1 with stopovers
What’s an open jaw?
No, an open jaw just isn’t a visit to the dentist in the case of award tickets. As a substitute, the time period comes from how the flight path seems on a map.
Right here’s an instance. Let’s say you’d prefer to e-book an award ticket from San Francisco (SFO) to London-Heathrow (LHR). An open jaw would let you return from one other airport, say Madrid (MAD).
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A double-open jaw goes additional and returns to a different airport, like flying again to Los Angeles (LAX) as a substitute of SFO. Typically, you may additionally hear this known as two dangling legs.
You could possibly e-book the above routing as two one-way award tickets, however you then’d probably have to pay two change or cancellation charges if it’s essential to modify your journey.
No matter whether or not you’ve got one (or two) open jaws, it is as much as you to “fill” that open jaw in an effort to take the return flight. For some vacationers, this implies paying for a separate, one-way ticket — probably on a low-cost service that is not available utilizing miles. Different instances, it could contain a distinct type of transportation, like a practice or bus.
Instance of a visit with a stopover and open jaw
To indicate you the extent of what is attainable, let’s undergo an instance of an award journey with each a stopover and an open jaw.
With United MileagePlus, a round-trip, economic system award flight from the U.S. to Europe is usually 60,000 miles on the saver degree. Nevertheless, United’s Excursionist Perk means that you can add a free stopover inside Europe. Then, as a result of this system permits an open jaw, you possibly can add a number of cities for the value of 1.
On this instance, you possibly can fly from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to London-Heathrow (LHR) and cease for 3 days. Then, you proceed from London to Frankfurt. From there you possibly can discover Germany at your leisure earlier than ending up in Munich (MUC) on your flight again to Chicago.
And the value? The identical 60,000 miles you’d pay for a easy, round-trip award ticket from Chicago to Munich.
That is simply an instance of what you are able to do with these kinds of award tickets.
Learn extra: The whole information to maximizing stopovers and open jaws on award tickets
Backside line
If you happen to’re conversant in stopovers and open jaws, you may have the ability to add one other vacation spot to your award ticket for few, if any, further miles. As at all times, we advocate confirming award charges and area earlier than transferring your bank card factors.
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