While booking award tickets outright using miles and points is their best use, sometimes it also makes sense to buy a cash/revenue ticket and then upgrade that to a premium cabin using miles/points. Sadly, the process is not as easy as you’d imagine – upgrading cash tickets to a premium cabin is actually more complicated than booking an award ticket directly. That’s because there are a ton of restrictions on what tickets can be upgraded and with what miles, which sometimes makes it not worth it – there are however occasions where it does make sense (for example, your company buys you a ticket for business travel in Economy and you’d rather fly in a premium cabin so you use your personal points for an upgrade).

upgrade your ticket to a higher class with miles

Fare Class Restrictions

The biggest challenge of upgrading a cash ticket to a premium cabin is whether or not your ticket is actually eligible to be upgraded – generally speaking, the cheapest tickets booked in the lowest fare classes are not upgradeable. Usually you have to purchase a mid-tier/flexible fare in the cabin you’re upgrading from – so that’s why the cheapest, non-refundable and non-changeable tickets are not generally eligible for upgrades. These include tickets like Basic Economy and Economy Light – when you go to buy a flight you are generally shown several different types of fares in the same class of service:

• Economy Light / Basic Economy
• Economy Regular (non-refundable and non-changeable)
• Economy Flex (changeable but non-refundable)
• Economy Fully Flex (refundable and changeable)

There may be more fare options, but those are generally the typical four fares – they range from the least expensive to the most expensive. Sometimes a flexible Economy fare costs more than a cheap, non-changeable Business fare. In order for your ticket to be eligible to be upgraded to a higher class, most of the time you have to book a fare above the Economy Light / Basic Economy fare.

Upgrading: “One-Class” Restriction

Another major aspect of upgrading your ticket to a higher travel cabin, which is entirely determined by the specific airline you are flying and the miles you are using to upgrade, is whether or not you can skip “over” an upgrade to Premium Economy. This only matters when you book an Economy Class ticket as most airlines have a policy of “one-class” upgrades – meaning that if an airline offers all four cabins:

• Economy Class
• Premium Economy Class
• Business Class
• First Class

and you book Economy Class, you might only be able to upgrade to Premium Economy Class and not to Business Class because of the “one-class” upgrade policy. Some airlines will let you skip over the upgrade to Premium Economy and upgrade from Economy to Business Class, but again, this all depends on the rules of the airline. If an airline doesn’t offer Premium Economy, you generally have nothing to worry about.

This policy only matters if you book an Economy Class ticket and want to upgrade to a higher cabin. If you book Premium Economy or Business Class, the upgrades almost always can be one-cabin only so in other words, you most likely won’t be able to upgrade from Premium Economy to First Class.

use miles for upgrading a cash ticket

Award Availability

On most airlines, the availability for upgrades is the same as the availability for award tickets. For example, if you book an award ticket on Lufthansa in Business Class, you will be booked in to the “I” fare class and Lufthansa also uses the “I” fare class for upgrade availability. That means if there is space in “I” class, you can either upgrade to Business Class (if you have an eligible ticket) or you can book a Business Class award ticket outright.

Some airlines have different availability space for upgrades and award tickets, so it is important to check with the airline you are flying and the frequent flyer miles you are using to upgrade your ticket. All of the aspects mentioned above should be checked prior to booking your initial cash ticket.

Amount of Miles Required for Upgrade

The amount of the miles required for your desired upgrade is determined by the frequent flyer program you are using to make the upgrade. If you have the most expensive, flexible fare booked, you can sometimes use miles from other airlines to upgrade your flight – for example, if you book an Economy “Y” fare (the most expensive ticket in Economy) on Lufthansa, you should be able to use Air Canada Aeroplan miles to upgrade this ticket into Lufthansa Business “I” class, as the two airlines are both Star Alliance members. If you book a flight on Lufthansa and you want to use Lufthansa miles to upgrade, you will have more fare classes that are eligible for upgrades, since you are using the airline’s own miles for an upgrade.

There are times when an upgrade to a higher class on a cash ticket costs almost the same as an outright award ticket on a given flight – so sometimes you might actually not be saving many (or any) miles if you book a cash ticket and want to upgrade it. This is why it is very important to check all of this information before booking your flight. Some airlines also make you pay a “co-pay” in addition to the miles required for an upgrade – at this point, the upgrade is probably not worth it at all when you factor in that you have to book a mid-tier fare, then pay a co-pay to upgrade, all in addition to the miles required.

check with your frequent flyer program for upgrade details

All in All: Upgrading with Miles

Upgrading cash/revenue tickets sometimes is a good value and sometimes isn’t – it all depends on the fare you book and the miles required for an upgrade. For most people, these actually won’t make much sense and you’re probably better off just booking an award ticket outright on your desired flight. It does make sense to upgrade a cash ticket if, for example, your company is buying you an Economy Class flight and you want to travel more comfortably using your personal miles – in this case, you aren’t actually paying for the cash ticket and rather only the upgrade, so it could make sense.

Upgrading cash/revenue tickets is not as simple as most people think due to all of these restrictions mentioned above. It is very important to check award availability, the miles required, and any additional fees prior to booking a revenue ticket and ideally you will want to upgrade your ticket while you are still within the 24h cancellation window so you have some flexibility in case something unexpected comes up while trying to process the upgrade.

The post Upgrading Cash Tickets with Miles appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

Stop in Multiple Places with a Stopover

Mileage tickets can be very powerful – not only are you redeeming miles for a free flight, you can often also include more than one destination for no additional cost. A stopover. Many airlines allow passengers to redeem their miles for an award ticket which features 1 or 2 stopovers in addition to their destination for no additional mileage. Additional taxes will be required.

As explained in this article, a stopover is:

• Stopover: a stop in a city that is not your final destination for more than 24 hours
  • example: New York – San Francisco – Honolulu, you spend more than 24 hours in San Francisco and therefore it is considered a stopover (if it was less than 24 hours, it would be a layover)

not to be confused with a layover:

• Layover: a connection (less than 24 hours) between two flights on one ticket
  • example: New York – London via Frankfurt, the layover is in Frankfurt as you are just “connecting”

Basically, a regular round-trip ticket consists of something like Seattle to Los Angeles to Seattle, all on one ticket. This one would have no stopovers. However you could add in San Francisco and fly something like Seattle to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Seattle and stopover in San Francisco while making your destination to be Los Angeles.

Which Frequent Flyer Programs Allow Stopovers?

Most frequent flyer programs allow you to stop in one additional city in addition to your destination city – a stopover. Here are the rules:

• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
  • one stopover allowed, even on a one-way ticket
  • two stopovers on a round-trip ticket
• British Airways Executive Club
  • unlimited stopovers – each flight is priced separately
• Lufthansa Miles & More
  • up to 2 stopovers and/or 2 open-jaws on a round-trip ticket
• United Airlines MileagePlus
  • one stopover and/or one open-jaw allowed on a round-trip ticket

Those are the major frequent flyer programs that allow stopovers and open-jaws on award tickets. An open-jaw is if you fly from city A to city B and then fly from city C back to city A, but have no flight between city B and C.

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines do NOT allow stopovers. However, you can have long layovers of up to 24 hours on an award ticket.

Visit Lots of Places on one Ticket

How To Book A Stopover

I always search one-way and then put together the entire itinerary once I have found all of my desired flights. For example, if my trip was Seattle to New York (stopover) to London (destination) to Miami (stopover) to Seattle, I would search each leg of the trip separately and find award availability.

• Seattle to New York
• New York to London
• London to Miami
• Miami to Seattle

Once I have found my desired flights on all of my legs of the trip, I would proceed to book. You can book most simple itineraries online with airlines, but more complicated ones that involve stopovers and open-jaws will have to be booked over the phone.

You will have to read the rules of your frequent flyer program first to ensure they allow the number of stopovers you would like. Remember that you can add in additional trips during your “big” trip with additional award tickets and cash tickets. For example, while in London, you could add in short flights around Europe using British Airways Avios.

How Long Can Your Stopover Be?

As long as you want! It has to be longer than 24 hours (because if it isn’t, then it is considered a simple layover). Keep in mind that you can only book at most 11 months prior to your last flight in the journey – so you cannot have a one year stopover, it all has to fit into 11 months.

I love to book long stopovers and then add-on additional tickets using cash or other miles. For example, when I had a stopover in Paris (on my way to Cape Town), I added flights from Paris to London to Stockholm to Krakow to Vienna to Zurich to Paris. Some were paid with cash and some with miles.

Beach? City? Ski? All on one ticket? Yes!

In Conclusion

Award ticket stopovers are very powerful. They allow you to visit additional destinations for no additional cost in mileage. You will have to pay the taxes and fees on the additional flights, but no miles will be collected. It is important to note that the rules of the frequent flyer program you are using will always apply – not the rules of the airlines you will be flying.

My favourite way to put together a multi-stop journey is by searching each leg of the trip individually using United.com and then booking it all together once I have located all of my desired flights. Remember you can use United’s website to search for award availability and then call any Star Alliance program to book the flights you found.

The best multi-city tickets involve 3 things: Sand, Snow, and City. You can really have fun with award tickets and stopovers and get very creative.

Happy Booking!

The post Understanding an Award Ticket Stopover appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

An Open-Jaw allows you to explore more!

Do you ever book a round-trip ticket and then add on a separate round-trip ticket within your original ticket to visit another city? Well, you likely won’t ever have to again! For example, if you book something like New York – London round-trip and also want to visit Paris, you may think that you’d need to purchase London – Paris – London separately on another ticket… which, yes, you can do, but it will cost you more!

An open-jaw is basically flying from city A to city B and returning to city A from city C. There are no flights between city B and city C. For example, you fly New York to London and from Paris to New York on the same ticket – you have an open-jaw between London and Paris if you have no flights between the two cities. Make sure to refer to The Differences Between Layovers, Stopovers, Open-Jaws, and Destinations to learn more about the differences.

When Are Open-Jaw Tickets Allowed?

Almost all the time – and most often than not, it would price the same way as a normal round-trip ticket. For example:

• New York – London – New York

would likely price similarly to:

• New York – London, Paris – New York
  • open-jaw between London and Paris

Many airlines allow you to book open-jaws on both revenue and award tickets – therefore you don’t necessarily have to redeem miles to take advantage of an open-jaw.

What if you want to add in a flight between London and Paris in the same journey? No problem! Just purchase an additional one-way ticket between the two cities or redeem British Airways Avios (or other miles).

What if you want to include all flights on the same ticket? That is fly New York – London – Paris – New York. You can try, but it will likely price out more than if you just book the open-jaw ticket and then a separate ticket between London and Paris.

Why Not Just Book Two One-Way Tickets?

You may be thinking that it might just be easier to book two separate one-way tickets instead of adding in an open-jaw on one ticket. That is book New York – London and Paris – New York separately on different tickets. This method works on North American flights because each leg of the trip is priced separately – but that doesn’t always work for intercontinental flights.

Have you ever noticed that a one-way flight from New York to Europe costs more than a round-trip ticket? Exactly! Airlines love to sell one-way tickets on long-haul flights for often double the cost of a round-trip ticket. More people fly round-trip and therefore they might have an empty seat on the return flight if you only book one-way, therefore they account for the empty seat on the return flight even if you fly one-way. Yes, this doesn’t always make sense, but that’s how it is.

So, no, it is not easier to book two separate tickets instead of one ticket with an open-jaw. Always book open-jaws.

This above applies to revenue tickets, as one-way mileage tickets obviously cost half of a round-trip ticket.

Explore More with Open-Jaws

What’s a Double Open-Jaw?

A double open-jaw is when you depart from city A and fly to city B, but return from city C to city D. You have an open-jaw on both ends of the trip. For example, you fly New York – London and Paris – Miami all on one ticket – that’s a double open-jaw.

Double open-jaws can price a bit more than a ticket with a single open-jaw, but it shouldn’t price more than two one-way tickets. That is, the above example should cost less than if you were to book two separate, one-way tickets on those routes.

When Should You Book an Open-Jaw?

There are many reasons why you should book an open-jaw. The most basic one of them being that you want to explore more than one city on the same trip but do not want to backtrack to your first city to return home – that’s the whole point of open-jaws. If you want to visit London and Paris on the same trip, you shouldn’t have to return to London to fly back home.

Other reasons why you might want to consider an open-jaw:

• Cruise
  • for example: departs from Rome and arrives in Athens
• Train
  • for example: departs from New York and arrives in Miami
• Hiking/Camping
  • for example: start in Barcelona and end in Madrid

Important Note Regarding Regions

Open-Jaws are usually only allowed in the same region. That is you cannot fly New York – London and Tokyo – New York on the same ticket because London and Tokyo are not in the same region. You would need to have your open-jaw in the same region as London.

Double open-jaws work the same way – they need to be in the same regions. You can’t fly New York – London and Tokyo – Sydney, that would never work (it would just price out as two one-way tickets). The whole point of open-jaws are for you to explore more than one destination in the same region.

Visit Paradise with Open-Jaws

How Do You Book an Open-Jaw?

You use the multi-city feature of the airline’s website. Simply enter in your first leg and second leg of the journey, desired dates of travel, number of passengers, and class of service. You should then get a list of results and you can pick and price your desired flights.

Note that some airline websites do not allow you to book an open-jaw, therefore you might have to call in and book over the phone, which might be subject to an additional fee.

Mileage tickets work the same way – just make sure you check the box that says “use miles”. More often than not, you will have to call in for more complex trips.

In Conclusion

Open-Jaws allow you to see more. You can visit more than one destination on the same ticket for a slightly higher cost. You do have to arrange your own transportation between the cities where your open-jaw exists – but this is usually a cheap revenue ticket, mileage ticket, or ground transportation – such as train or car.

Note that open-jaws are all determined by each individual airline’s fare rules. Therefore some airlines may allow open-jaws in one region while other airlines will not. The best way to put together open-jaw flights is to use the multi-city feature on Google Flights – as you will see a list of airlines and prices. You can then proceed to book once you have found your desired itinerary.

Happy Booking!

The post Understanding an Open-Jaw appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

Find Award Availability

When it comes to redeeming miles and points for “free” travel (plus taxes and fees), most people make a mistake when searching for award availability – there are ways to search for award availability and then there are accurate ways to search for award availability. The average passenger will visit the airline’s website and plug in their origin/destination and dates and search for availability – if nothing comes up, they will usually say “oh, well” and purchase a ticket.

Airlines love hiding award availability from us – whether that’s not displaying all airline partners online, having complex search engines for award flights, or even a glitch website. There are ways to find “hidden” award availability that you normally would not be able to find otherwise. Here’s how.

The Idea

This is the number 1 trick and tip for finding award availability – always search each segment (flight) individually. This will usually only work for longer trips and won’t work for short-haul, nonstop flights – that’s because there are only so many ways to fly from Seattle to San Francisco, for example. However, there are probably an infinite number of ways to travel from Seattle to Sydney, for example.

When you go to search for a basic, quick trip (like SEA-SFO), chances are that you won’t find anything better than if you “broke up” the journey. This is because this is a very short journey and the available flights will usually show up – even with connections. That’s because those connections are “logical” – for example if the nonstop is not available, options via LAX, DEN, SAN, PDX, etc. might show up. The point is that it is a short journey, so the airline systems won’t get too confused at searching all of the possibilities between Seattle and San Francisco.

When you look at more complex trips, like Seattle to Sydney, there are millions of ways to travel between the two cities and the airline systems are just not that smart to look at all the connecting options and find award availability because there are literally an infinite number of ways to travel between those two cities. The idea is to search each segment separately. Yes, this sounds like a very long process, but if you know how to use the internet, it isn’t that bad.

Breaking Up Each Segment

The idea to find “hidden” award availability is to search segment by segment. For example, you want to fly Seattle to Sydney. The first thing you need to establish is what miles you have and if you have enough of those miles for this trip. Once you know you do, you would have to first identify the long-haul flights to/from Sydney. The best way to check what options you have is to look at the Wikipedia airport page – it lists all airlines and routes to/from that airport.

Say you have Alaska miles, for example. You look at Sydney airport’s Wikipedia page and you see a few options. To name a few, you could redeem Alaska miles to fly from Sydney to Los Angeles on Qantas or on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Then you would continue this method and search available routes from your “connecting” city (i.e. in this case LAX or HKG) onward. In our case, I could fly directly from LAX or HKG to Seattle – so then I would search those segments individually.

Once you match up available flights, you will have to call the airline and put them together on one booking if you are not able to book everything online. Remember, you must understand the rules of that frequent flyer program and if your desired routing is bookable.

Find Award Availability

Another Example

Let’s look at another example:

• you want to fly New York – Johannesburg
  • when you search for NYC-JNB you get no results
• check the Wikipedia airport page for JFK/EWR and JNB
  • compare the origin and destinations and see where you could connect
  • some connecting cities: CDG, LHR, HKG, ATL, CAI, DXB, ADD, etc.
• check the availability of each segment separately
  • NYC – connecting city
  • connecting city – JNB
• if still no results, you may need to repeat the process until you find a combination that works
  • remember the connecting time/layover has to be under 24 hours
• once you find availability, call your frequent flyer program to book all flights on one ticket
  • if your layovers are under 24 hours and your routing is logical and valid (per the rules of that FFP), you should be able to book it all on one ticket

This is the general way to find “hidden” award availability. The process can be a bit confusing at times and can take a bit of research, however, you can really find hidden gems and great routes using this process.

It is also important to note that you do not always have to do this! It could be that on your first try, you see the entire itinerary you want on the website of the frequent flyer program – that’s great. However, more often than not, you will likely get no results for a longer international trip – especially in First or Business Class.

In Conclusion

Airlines love to hide award availability for us and make it harder to redeem our miles. Therefore it is important to understand how to search for award availability properly.

Remember that sometimes you won’t be able to search for all the award availability online and will need to either use another airline’s website to search or you must call in and ask for award availability over the phone. In our example above, if you were searching on AA.com, you would get no results for any Cathay Pacific flight as it isn’t shown online – but if you use the British Airways website, you can find award availability with Cathay Pacific and then you would call AA to book that over the phone.

I realise this process isn’t easy to understand for everyone, therefore please ask questions and I would be more than happy to help!

Happy searching!

The post The #1 Trick For Finding Award Availability appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines may not be the world’s #1 airline, but they do have one powerful aspect to them – their frequent flyer program, which is by far the best frequent flyer program in the United States. What makes Alaska’s Mileage Plan so incredible are the unique partnerships that Alaska Airlines has introduced – the Seattle-based airline is partners with airlines from every major airline alliance and then some more.

Alaska Airlines Award Ticket Rules

You can redeem Alaska Airlines miles to fly around the world on some incredible airlines such as Cathay Pacific or Japan Airlines. Here are the basic rules:

• You cannot combine partner airlines on award tickets
  • You can only fly one partner airline and Alaska Airlines (if needed) on one ticket
• You can have one stopover on a one-way ticket or two stopovers on a round-trip ticket
• There aren’t many restrictive rules
  • You can transit via a third-region
  • You can backtrack.. a little bit (for example: fly New York to London via Dallas on American Airlines)
• Cathay Pacific and LATAM awards need to be booked over the phone
• A $12.50 USD partner booking fee will apply per person per booking

Rules of the Award Ticket Stopover

The most powerful aspect of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan is that you can have a stopover on one-way tickets. A stopover is defined as a city in which you spend more than 24 hours in. While stopovers are powerful (because you can visit 2+ places for the price of one), there are some rules which apply to Alaska Airlines award tickets:

• Stopovers are allowed on one-way tickets
  • 2 stopovers on a round-trip ticket are allowed
• One partner airline is permitted on an award ticket
  • You can also add on Alaska Airlines flights to connect to/from the partner airline’s U.S. gateway city
• Stopovers are limited to hub cities of partner airlines
  • for example: Cathay Pacific in Hong Kong, Japan Airlines in Tokyo, Korean Air in Seoul, etc.
  • there are reports of stopovers being allowed in non-hub cities if flying that partner airline to/from the desired city
• Stopovers on Alaska Airlines
  • for example: fly Los Angeles to Seattle to San Francisco and stopover in Seattle for however long you want
  • some restrictions apply (for example: you cannot fly Seattle – Honolulu – Los Angeles and stopover in Honolulu and have the entire ticket price out as a one-way award from Seattle to Los Angeles via Honolulu)

Booking Award Tickets Online

You can book award tickets online for all Alaska Airlines partner airlines EXCEPT Cathay Pacific and LATAM. You must call in to book these two partner airlines.

To search for award space and with a stopover, simply visit Alaska’s website and be sure to click the “All search options” link below the flight search box on the home page. Then you will redirected to a more advanced flight search:

Alaska Airlines Flight Search

Be sure to select the “Multi-city” and “Use miles” options on the left side and then type in your desired route with stopover city (in this case it would be Los Angeles to San Francisco with a stopover in Seattle), your desired dates of travel, and the number of passengers.

You will then be presented with a calendar for that week of travel with available flight options. Note that you may need to adjust your dates based on award availability.

Alaska Airlines Flight Search Results

When the search is complete, we will be presented with several flight options. You can play with the calendar, dates, and prices until you find your desired flight combination and desired cost.

Alaska prices out flights starting at just 5k miles + $5.60.. so why do two flights cost only 5k miles and not 10k? Because Alaska knows you are flying Los Angeles to San Francisco via Seattle (stopover in Seattle) all on one ticket… and since you can have stopovers on one-way tickets, they only charge you a one-way price. You do have to pay the TSA Security fee twice as you have a stopover in Seattle for multiple days and will leave the airport and need to pass through security again.

Alaska Airlines Flights

If you were to book these flights separately, it would cost 10k miles because you would be booking two one-way flights instead of a single one-way flight with a stopover.

You can follow this procedure to book flights with partner airlines. For example, say you want to fly from Los Angeles to London with a stopover in New York on American Airlines. Not a problem! You would simply type in Los Angeles to New York and New York to London and your desired dates of travel. You will be presented with flight options and will be able to select your desired combination.

In Conclusion

Alaska’s unique airline partners and powerful Mileage Plan frequent flyer program allows passengers to visit 2+ destinations for the price of one at very low award rates (especially if flying domestically). Keep in mind that it is always better to book two one-way awards instead of booking a round-trip award on Alaska since you would then be able to fly different airline partners on each ticket.

Happy booking!

The post Alaska Airlines Award Stopovers Explained appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

Fly Lufthansa to Europe

The differences between layovers, stopovers, open-jaws, and destinations can sometimes be quite confusing.. .especially if you are just becoming involved in the miles & points hobby. You can often use these four “travel points” to your advantage when redeeming miles.

Most mileage programmes allow you to visit multiple cities on one award ticket for the same mileage price as if you were just flying to one destination.

Award Ticket Routing Rules

The rules that apply to your award ticket are always determined by the issuing airline of the ticket, or whichever airline’s miles you are using. For example, if you are using United Airlines miles to fly Lufthansa, United’s award ticket rules would apply as United issued your ticket. If you wanted to change or cancel your ticket, you would go through United and not Lufthansa.

Each airline sets their own rules for their mileage programmes. This means that using United Airlines miles is subject to different rules than using Lufthansa miles, for example. Please be sure to remember that if an airline is a member of an alliance, you can redeem your miles from any airline in that alliance for travel on other airlines in that same alliance. For more information see: Redeeming Miles from Airline X on Airline X’s Partners

The Differences Between Layovers, Stopovers, Open-Jaws, and Destinations

• Layover: a connection (less than 24 hours) between two flights on one ticket
  • example: New York – London via Frankfurt, the layover is in Frankfurt as you are just “connecting”
• Stopover: a stop in a city that is not your final destination for more than 24 hours
  • example: New York – San Francisco – Honolulu, you spend more than 24 hours in San Francisco and therefore it is considered a stopover (if it was less than 24 hours, it would be a layover)
• Open-Jaw: departing from a different city than you arrived in
  • example: New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco – New York all on one ticket, the open-jaw is between Los Angeles and San Francisco as you don’t have flights booked between the two cities and you must arrange your own transportation
• Destination: your ultimate destination on the ticket and the reason why you booked the trip in the first place, usually the furthest point from your origin
  • example: New York – London – Rome, your destination would be Rome (London could either be a layover or stopover)

visit multiple places on one ticket for the price of one!

Layovers

A layover is a connection of less than 24 hours in one, single city. For example, if you fly New York to London via Frankfurt and you simply connect in Frankfurt with a connection time of less than 24 hours, you have a layover in Frankfurt.

Most airlines permit multiple layovers of under 24 hours to reach your destination. Layovers of exactly 23 hours and 59 minutes can be perfect for cities that you can explore in a single day. This trick allows you to visit another city for a day without using up a stopover or paying for two tickets.

For example, when redeeming American Airlines miles, you cannot have any stopovers (stops more than 24 hours), however you can (obviously) have layovers of under 24 hours to reach your destination. Therefore you could redeem miles for something like New York to London to Barcelona and have a really long layover of less than 24 hours in London for no additional cost. However, if the connection time in London is longer than 24 hours, this would price out as two tickets as American Airlines does NOT allow stopovers.

Stopovers

A stopover is in a city in which you stop for more than 24 hours. For example, if you were to fly from New York to Barcelona via London and stop in London for a few days, your stopover would be in London.

Always remember that the airline that issues your ticket sets the rules for your ticket. This means that if I were redeeming American Airlines miles to fly American Airlines from Los Angeles to New York to London, I could not stopover in New York. However, if I were redeeming Alaska Airlines miles (an American Airlines partner) for the same flights mentioned above on American Airlines, I could have a stopover in New York for however long I wanted because Alaska sets the rules which state you can have a stopover, even on a one-way ticket.

Open-Jaws

An open-jaw is between two cities in your itinerary where you don’t have flights to/from, and instead you arrange your own transportation. For example, you book New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco – New York all on one ticket. You do not have any flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco – this is your open jaw. You will have to arrange your own transportation between the two cities (i.e. another flight on a separate ticket, a train, or a car).

You don’t have to book open-jaws on one ticket and not all airlines permit them. For example, you could book the above mentioned itinerary as two one-way tickets. Open-jaws are usually only booked on the same ticket if you also have a stopover on that same ticket.

A double open-jaw is when you start your journey from city A, fly to city B, fly out of city C (no flights between B and C), and return to city D. For example, New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco – Chicago all on one ticket would be defined as a double open-jaw as you have two open-jaws: between Los Angeles and San Francisco and between New York and Chicago. You could also book this as two separate tickets.

Destinations

The destination on your ticket is the place you ultimately want to end up in. It is the purpose of your entire trip. The destination is usually the furthest point away from your origin (though not always). For example, if you were flying New York – London – Rome, Rome would be your destination and London could be a layover or a stopover.

You can only have one destination on one ticket and you must start your journey back home after the destination (you can’t have another destination).

layovers, stopovers, open-jaws, and destinations

An Example Itinerary

• New York – London (destination)
• New York – London (destination) – New York
• New York – London (stopover) – Munich (destination) – New York
• New York – London (open-jaw) Paris – New York
• New York – London (layover) – Frankfurt (destination)
• New York – London (open-jaw) Munich – Rome (destination) – New York
• New York – London (open-jaw) Paris – Frankfurt (stopover) – Munich (destination) – New York

The possibilities are endless.

In Conclusion

It is incredibly important to understand the differences between layovers, stopovers, open-jaws, and destinations when constructing mileage tickets. In addition to this, you need to be aware of the rules of the frequent flyer programme you will be using to issue your ticket. Always remember that each frequent flyer programme sets their own rules for award tickets and that rules widely vary between airlines.

To construct itineraries, I recommend searching one-way flights and “putting it together” later once you have found availability on a one-way basis between all of your desired places you’d like to visit on one ticket. Keep in mind, you can also build in side trips with different tickets outside of the larger ticket. If you need help searching for award availability:

• Alaska Airlines Miles: Partners, Routing Rules and Best Ways to Earn
• Searching Star Alliance Award Space using United.com
• Searching oneworld Award Space using British Airways

Please feel free to post your questions below and I will be happy to answer them and guide you! Happy Booking!

The post The Differences Between Layovers, Stopovers, Open-Jaws, and Destinations appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

Have you ever noticed when you go to buy a flight there are many price points for that flight? Aside from different fares for First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy Class, and Economy Class, there are specific fares in each cabin – for example, non-refundable, basic, standard, flex, fully refundable, etc. Generally, the less you are paying, the more restrictions come with the ticket and associated fare.

Airline Fare Information

A fare is very complex – it isn’t as simple as just a price (what the passenger sees), it is a long list of rules and restrictions that apply to that ticket for a certain price. Airline Fares usually have the following components (and more):

• Fare Basis
• Airline
• Booking Class
• Trip Type
• Fare
• Cabin
• Effective Date
• Expiration Date
• Minimum Stay
• Maximum Stay
• Adv. Purchase Requirement
• Rule Application and Other Conditions
• Eligibility
• Day/Time
• Seasonality
• Stopovers
• Transfers
• Combinations
• Blackout Dates
• Surcharges
• Accompanied Travel
• Sales Restrictions
• Penalties
• Ticket Endorsements
• Children Discounts
• Agent Discounts
• All Other Discounts

Fares are constructed, created, and priced based on some of the following criteria:

• Departing airport (or city)
• Arriving airport (or city)
• Purchasing city
• Depart date
• Return date
• Ticketing date
• Airline(s)
• Cabin
• Class
• Passenger type
• Currency

As you can see, those are some long lists. The reality is that each route/flight/ticket that has a fare has the above components in it.

Booking Class

Each flight is booked into a certain booking fare class – this is usually associated with a letter. For example, Economy (Y) tickets are usually the most expensive tickets in Economy because they are usually fully refundable and changeable for no fee. “Y” is usually the highest possible fare class in the Economy Cabin. “Y” tickets usually earn a lot of miles because they usually cost a lot of money and come with few restrictions.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, United Airlines Basic Economy tickets are usually booked into “N” class – which comes with a lot of restrictions – like no changes, no refunds, etc. You will probably earn very little miles for an “N” class ticket.

The letters are not ordered like in the alphabet. For example, here is United Airlines’ booking class list (ordered from highest to lowest):

• Business/Domestic First Class: J, C, D, Z, P
• Premium Economy Class: O, A, R
• Economy Class: Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N

Therefore, a ticket booked in Business “J” class will cost more than a ticket booked in Business “P” class, because “J” class is higher than “P”. “J” also comes with fewer restrictions as the ticket is more expensive than a cheap “P” class ticket.

Notice some letters missing?

• F: not used with United Airlines because they no longer have an international First Class
• I: Business/Domestic First Class mileage redemption booking class
• X: Economy Class mileage redemption booking class

Remember when you can’t find mileage seats on a flight? Well that means (on United), there’s no availability in “I” or “X” class, depending on what cabin you want to book.

Fare Example

Let’s look at an example flight and try to make sense of the fare:

• Seattle – San Francisco
• random Wednesday in June
• one-way
• United Airlines
• searched in January

We are presented with many flight options, nonstop and connecting itineraries, and we select a nonstop flight at 05:25. We see the following options:

• Basic Economy: $84 (N class)
• Economy (lowest): $99 (G class)
• Economy (flexible): $430 (E class)
• First (lowest): $276 (P class)

Why does flexible Economy cost more than First Class? Because the First Class ticket isn’t a flexible one, so even though “P” class is higher than “E” class, the fares are different for each, and “E” comes with less restrictions than “P”. “P” can cost less than “E”, for example, but “P” is still higher on the list because it is Business/Domestic First Class.

Let’s look at the following option:

• Economy (lowest): $99 (G class)

Here is the Fare Information:

• Airline: United
• Booking Class: G
• Trip Type: One-Way
• Fare: $84.00 USD
• Cabin: Economy
• Effective Date: none
• Expiration Date: none
• Minimum Stay: none
• Maximum Stay: none
• Adv. Purchase Requirement: 21 days
• Penalties: Cancellations – ticket is non-refundable

There’s way more to the fare information, but I would say those are the most important parts. As you see, the fare is $84, but the price is $99 – that’s because the fare does not have the government taxes and other carrier surcharges included in it. So this price of $84 is just the base fare and does not include the additional taxes, some of which are:

• U.S. Passenger Facility Charge
• TSA Security Fee
• U.S. Flight Segment Tax

There is no Effective Date or Expiration Date on this fare (start/end date), but airlines can and do change and update fares at any time, so just because there are no dates here doesn’t mean this fare will last forever.

There’s no Maximum or Minimum Stay on this fare as it is a one-way ticket.

You must purchase the ticket 21 days in advance in order for this fare to apply. Usually tickets purchased within 21 days of travel are more expensive and have a higher fare.

The ticket is non-refundable since we selected the not Basic, lowest Economy fare. Changes are allowed in case you want to apply the value of this ticket towards another ticket.

Airline Fares

Airline Fares are incredibly complex and most passengers aren’t actually aware that they come with so many restrictions and rules – they just see the price. You could actually spend hours reading each particular fare and deciphering it to see how you can apply it to your travels… but most people don’t. While there are more levels of complexity involved in airline fares, this is a very basic overview of what is included in a fare and how to make sense of it.

Remember that when the fare is higher than the normal price you expect, it means that the fare usually is more flexible than the cheaper fare you normally see. For example, a day before departure the ticket might be significantly more expensive, but come with less restrictions since at that point the only fares left for the flight are the highest fares as the lowest fares have been sold out and the flight might be full.

Fares are complex and vary widely based on many different criteria, they also frequently change and are updated by the airlines. It is very interesting to look at the fare rules of your ticket to understand how they all came together and how they are applied.

The post Understanding Airline Fare Information appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

American Airlines AAdvantage

The American Airlines AAdvantage frequent flyer program is one of the best in the oneworld alliance. While AA does have high mileage prices for some regions, the program is still worth looking into – especially when flying to Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East, or the Indian Subcontinent.

Sadly, AA miles are not the best if you want to travel to Europe – that’s because American Airlines rarely releases award seats in Business or First Class on their own flights, and their other European partners like Finnair and Iberia also rarely release award space… which means you are left with British Airways – which charges insane fuel surcharges on award tickets.

General Rules

American Airlines AAdvantage has many complex rules involved when redeeming miles for award travel. The best award redemptions with AA aren’t completed on AA.com, but rather over the phone. The general rules of award travel with American Airlines miles are as follows:

• No stopovers allowed
• A layover can be up to 23 hours and 59 minutes on an international award ticket
• Domestic layovers cannot generally be longer than 4-6 hours, with some exceptions
• Your routing must be within the Maximum Permitted Mileage
• There must be a published fare with the transoceanic carrier you are going to fly
• FREE changes

American Airlines B767 Business Class

Transit Rules

American Airlines has several rules regarding transiting en route to your final destination on award tickets.

• You must fly the most direct routing, but are allowed reasonable connections and routing within Maximum Permitted Mileage
  • so you can fly Seattle – New York – London, but obviously can’t fly New York – Seattle – London
• You cannot transit via a third region, with some exceptions
  • the first region is your region of departure
  • the second region is your region of arrival
  • the third region would be a transit region, only if allowed

Third Region Exceptions

With AA awards, you generally cannot transit via a third region. For example, you cannot fly from Seattle to Hong Kong to Tokyo as you would be flying North America -> Asia 2 -> Asia 1 regions – and you cannot transit via the Asia 2 region if flying from North America to Asia 1. However, you can fly from Seattle to Tokyo to Hong Kong as you would be flying North America -> Asia 1 -> Asia 2 and American Airlines allows you to fly to Asia 2 via the Asia 1 region in this case.

Here is a list of exceptions:

• North America -> Middle East, Indian Subcontinent
  • Europe
• North America -> Indian Subcontinent
  • Hong Kong (HKG)
• North America -> Africa
  • Europe
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• North America -> Asia 2
  • Asia 1
• Central America, South America 1, South America 2 -> Africa, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent
  • Europe
• South America 2 -> Africa
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Europe -> Asia 1
  • Asia 2
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Europe -> Asia 2
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Europe -> Australia
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Europe -> South Pacific
  • Asia 1
  • Asia 2
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Middle East, Indian Subcontinent -> Asia 1
  • Asia 2
• Middle East, Indian Subcontinent -> South Pacific
  • Asia 2
• Africa -> Asia 1
  • Asia 2
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Africa -> Asia 2
  • Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR)
• Asia 1 -> South Pacific
  • Asia 2

The above indicates, for example, if you are flying from the Europe region to the South Pacific region, you can transit via Asia 1, Asia 2, or via Doha (DOH) on Qatar Airways (QR). For example, if you want to fly from London to Sydney, you can fly:

• London – Tokyo – Sydney
• London – Hong Kong – Sydney
• London – Doha – Sydney

In each case above you are transiting via a third region en route from London to Sydney and all of those third region routings are allowed.

Qatar Airways, an AA partner

In Conclusion

American Airlines miles are incredibly useful when redeemed on their partner airlines – especially for travel on Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, Fiji Airways, Qantas, and Qatar Airways. My favourite redemption is Europe to the South Pacific in First Class – you can fly some incredible airlines for a great cost in miles – and you can also avoid British Airways, which means the taxes and fees will be very low.

Happy Booking!

The post American Airlines AAdvantage Award Transit Rules appeared first on Travel Miles 101.

What is a Custom Award?

A customised award itinerary is a flight booking whereby you put together your own flights in a booking. You essentially pick each flight separately and then connect them together as you wish as part of one bigger itinerary and booking. You will usually search for each flight separately and then put them together by calling your desired frequent flyer program.

For example, say you want to fly from Seattle to Houston, but you want to spend 20 hours as a layover in Los Angeles. You search for Seattle – Houston, but an itinerary routing you through Los Angeles doesn’t show up (or does but only with a short layover in Los Angeles). What you would do is search Seattle to Los Angeles and then Los Angeles to Houston – you then make sure the layover in LAX is under 24 hours and you call your frequent flyer program to book.

That is a custom award. This is not allowed with Delta or United. If your desired flights do not show up when searching from origin to destination, Seattle to Houston, then you can only book the flights you want separately. This is by far the biggest disadvantage that Delta and United have.

Maximum Permitted Mileage

Your custom award must fall within the Maximum Permitted Mileage between two cities (your origin and destination). MPM ensures that you do not fly crazy itineraries on one award. For example, you probably can’t fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles via New York on one award as that exceeds the mileage you can fly between SF and LA.

Every frequent flyer program has their own rules and can follow different MPM values – therefore you can always check with the program by asking them what the MPM between two cities is – then you can map out the distances of your desired flights and see if they fall within MPM. If so, you can proceed to book your custom award itinerary.

Award Ticket Routing Rules

The rules that apply to your award ticket are always determined by the issuing airline of the ticket, or whichever airline’s miles you are using. For example, if you are using United Airlines miles to fly Lufthansa, United’s award ticket rules would apply as United issued your ticket. If you wanted to change or cancel your ticket, you would go through United and not Lufthansa.

Each airline sets their own rules for their mileage programs. This means that using United Airlines miles is subject to different rules than using Lufthansa miles, for example. Please be sure to remember that if an airline is a member of an alliance, you can redeem your miles from any airline in that alliance for travel on other airlines in that same alliance.

Layovers, Stopovers, Open-Jaws, and Destinations

• Layover: a connection (less than 24 hours) between two flights on one ticket
  • example: New York – London via Frankfurt, the layover is in Frankfurt as you are just “connecting”
• Stopover: a stop in a city that is not your final destination for more than 24 hours
  • example: New York – San Francisco – Honolulu, you spend more than 24 hours in San Francisco and therefore it is considered a stopover (if it was less than 24 hours, it would be a layover)
• Open-Jaw: departing from a different city than you arrived in
  • example: New York – Los Angeles and San Francisco – New York all on one ticket, the open-jaw is between Los Angeles and San Francisco as you don’t have flights booked between the two cities and you must arrange your own transportation
• Destination: your ultimate destination on the ticket and the reason why you booked the trip in the first place, usually the furthest point from your origin
  • example: New York – London – Rome, your destination would be Rome (London could either be a layover or stopover)

Layovers

A layover is a connection of less than 24 hours in one, single city. For example, if you fly New York to London via Frankfurt and you simply connect in Frankfurt with a connection time of less than 24 hours, you have a layover in Frankfurt.

Most airlines permit multiple layovers of under 24 hours to reach your destination. Layovers of exactly 23 hours and 59 minutes can be perfect for cities that you can explore in a single day. This trick allows you to visit another city for a day without using up a stopover or paying for two tickets.

For example, when redeeming American Airlines miles, you cannot have any stopovers (stops more than 24 hours), however you can (obviously) have layovers of under 24 hours to reach your destination. Therefore you could redeem miles for something like New York to London to Barcelona and have a really long layover of less than 24 hours in London for no additional cost. However, if the connection time in London is longer than 24 hours, this would price out as two tickets as American Airlines does NOT allow stopovers.

In Conclusion

It is incredibly important to understand the differences between layovers, stopovers, open-jaws, and destinations when constructing mileage tickets. In addition to this, you need to be aware of the rules of the frequent flyer program you will be using to issue your ticket. Always remember that each frequent flyer program sets their own rules for award tickets and those rules widely vary between airlines.

Creating custom awards is the best way to maximise your miles further as you get to decide how you want to fly to your destination – it can be really fun to stop in one or two cities on the way to your destination. This way you can gain much more value from your miles.

Happy Booking!

The post Creating Your Own Award Itinerary appeared first on Travel Miles 101.