I just wasted time reading the flyertalk thread posted. Well, that s 30 minutes of my life I ll neve

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If you read my site much you know that I am a former Continental gal now a new United gal by default. hotel dublin ireland Most of this is because I live in Houston, and well, what other airline would make sense for me?  Also, on the whole I really liked Continental, and want to really like United.  So, because of my location and because of the very high value of UA miles, when given the chance, they are my focus.  As you also probably know if you read this site, most of my travel these days is pretty simple .  I go from Point A to Point B and back to Point A.  More often than not, those points are all within the US.  However, we are now starting to plan trips for when our daughter is a bit older, and I have been playing around with stopovers and open jaws on some European itineraries using United miles.
However, the light bulb in my head had not gone off in terms of tacking on a free stopover on the front of or end of the trip (a la American Airlines award tickets style only better) to essentially get 1.5 trips out of one, I was concentrating on just using them on the overseas portion of the trip.  On international round trip tickets, United allows two open jaws (in or out of different cities on one round trip ticket) and a stopover (intentional stop in a city on a continuing ticket).  Though silly me thought it was one open jaw and one stopover.  So, if we are using the Point A to Point B description, that could be A to B (stopover) to C then D to E (or other similar iterations of those points), as described in this FT thread .  To put that in city terms, I could go Houston London then Frankfurt to Houston (stop for months until I am ready for my next trip) to Anchorage for the same price in miles as Houston London Houston.  I would have to get myself from London to Frankfurt on a different ticket and would need to get a one-way ticket back from Anchorage for that trip, but that would cost me just 12.5 K miles instead of 25K if I needed a whole round trip ticket.  If I just wanted to go to London while in Europe I could to Houston London Houston (stop) Anchorage for the same number of miles as well.  In case you are curious, all of those are 60,000 miles for a coach ticket plus some modest taxes and fees.
I got an email today from MileValue who directed me to a very helpful post on this exact topic that he just launched today.  So, instead of re-hashing what he already says in his post just go check it out .  I can say that I got the same results that he did when playing around with this more today.
Am I the only special one who didn t realize it was two open jaws and a stopover on UA international awards?  I know there are plenty of folks out there who are masters of open jaws and stopovers (and I am certainly not yet one of them, but I am learning), but I also know there are lots of folks out there that have probably not even heard the word stopover or (especially) open jaw, so hopefully this will open some eyes to new possibilities for those folks!  Thanks to MilesValue for the helpful post and the email.
This differs from your original example in that it INCLUDES the London to Frankfurt flight (you don t have to buy it separately). Also, this itinerary uses only one open jaw (on the US end) and one stop-over. If you re going to use both open jaws, you would do the outbound flight as described above, ending in Frankfurt. then you would travel overland (or by internal flight) to, say, Florence and fly Florence Houston hotel dublin ireland Anchorage.
I was actually playing around with this on the United website, but it didn t seem bookable. (I found available for the LAX-NYC leg when I searched for a one-way award ticket, but not when I searched for a multi-stop award)
For instance, YYC-YYZ return is $800 pretty hotel dublin ireland much all year. But there is a YYC-ZRH fare for $924 with 1 stopover allowed in each direction. If I have to go to YYZ for the week anyways, I can tack on a weekend in ZRH for $124. Quite the cheap mileage run.
I had never hear about open jaws or stops. hotel dublin ireland Thanks for the post. And don t worry about the negative trolls out there. This format is much easier for people like our family who are just getting into the miles/points hotel dublin ireland game. Thanks for the continuing education!
@Larry, I am admittedly not the expert here, but wouldn t that be two stopovers (assuming I stopped in Houston)? If you just ended in Anchorage without a stopover in Houston that should work .but I may be missing something.
@joe, I am quite aware of that thread, and have posted in it sharing my thoughts. However, this post was created not to drive affiliate revenue (there are no affiliate hotel dublin ireland links in it), but to direct traffic to a very well done post by MileValue that he shared with me. He is not breaking the rules or taking advantage of a short-term mistake, as United is quite aware that they allow a stopover and two open jaws, but I think there are likely many readers of this site who did not realize that they could maximize their international United awards within the set rules.
In fact, the biggest takeaway I have from that FT thread is that this website very much serves a function. FT is a wealth of knowledge, but it isn t the most welcoming place for many family travelers or newbies to the world of miles and points, and that is exactly who I serve to help.
I very much enjoy contributing to Flyertalk and Milepoint when I can, and appreciate comments here as it is the community and helping one another that will allow us all to travel more. So, apologies if you find this post negative in anyway, as that is certainly hotel dublin ireland not the intent.
For anyone hotel dublin ireland else who has questions on specific itineraries, I would mosey over to MileValue as he has many examples in his post (including hotel dublin ireland ones I didn t get into in this post) and should be able to help clarify things. I will say that you don t have to live in a United hub to make this work .which makes it even better than the American AAdvantage version of this maximization!
This is awesome! I usually book award flights for 5 people the size of our family. Does that make it more complex or do you think it will still work? Theoretically I know it would, but I m wondering about it from a practical perspective. Should still work I guess.
For AA free oneways, you do indeed need to live in a city with direct international flights, but not for the free oneways on United. That s why Mommy Points was saying this is much more valuable than the AA free oneway, and I agree.
I just wasted hotel dublin ireland time reading the flyertalk thread posted. Well, that s 30 minutes of my life I ll never get back. Seriously, folks, read some game theory. This is all so predictable. I liked FrugalTravelGuy s point flyertalk readership is larger than the blogs, so hammering the bloggers makes no sense. The internet has changed a lot of things, and then the market will respond hotel dublin ireland to those changes, and then things will change again. One things for certain; things never stay still. Even if elitists want it to. Keep up the good work, MP.
Also, I very much do appreciate the support from some on this post, and am glad you found the post helpful. hotel dublin ireland I would ask that we not get into the name calling toward anyone here as I really don t want this site to emulate what I think is unfortunate in some other corners of the internet. I do appreciate the support hotel dublin ireland though.
hotel dublin ireland Joe: I m not a real big fan of bloggers sharing secrets as I see you have noticed already. However hotel dublin ireland I wouldn t really group this trick in with many of the others these bloggers hotel dublin ireland share unnecessarily. This one can t be exploited by the masses quickly, therefore it will stick around for awhile. Of course the more people that know this creative hotel dublin ireland routing trick and start taking advantage of it too much, the sooner hotel dublin ireland it will get shutdown, but that s still a long time away IMHO. So in conclusion, this is a relatively harmless loophole share.
It seems to me that there are too many FT folks who feel they are somehow a superior and privileged group who have exclusive rights to inside information. Grow up Joe Oh my gosh the incredible secret is now out! What a bunch of whiners
MP, while I love the idea of an open jaw (fly to Rome, return from Venice), I actually think they are of limited use to those of us who fly with young families. My overwhelming concern hotel dublin ireland when traveling with my daughter is how am I going to keep her entertained/fed/safe in an unfamiliar environment? Adding in extra stops would be something I would as she got older, but for now, I think the globe hopping will have to wait!
@gregorygrady, I understand where you are coming from with the concern about tricks , but I do agree this isn t really one that is going to be blown up by more families knowing it exists. (in fact, I would argue it isn t exactly hotel dublin ireland a trick as it is a stated rule for award tickets). I would agree that it is creative routing, and that it still takes some homework and research hotel dublin ireland for travelers to utilize it on a regular basis. Thanks for weighing in.
@Stephan, it is a age old debate that has bubbled up recently, but hopefully will settle back down for a while in the near(ish) future .at least for a while. No secrets revealed here just award routing rules.
@everyone, I feel ridiculous even posting this, but just as an FYI I will edit any more posts in this thread (or others) that involve calling anyone names. hotel dublin ireland Disagree with each other (and me) all you would like