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By now, you may be well aware of the rule that on a United oneway award, you can’t take a stopover. On a roundtrip award, you get one stopover. (This is just for awards booked with United miles. Different airlines, different rules.)
In certain cases, though, you can add a stopover to your planned oneway award and even decrease the miles price.
Let use a sample itinerary to illustrate what I mean: Say you want to go from Los Angeles to Shanghai with a stop in Frankfurt.
United does not allow stopovers on oneway awards, so ordinarily this would price as two awards: Los Angeles to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Shanghai.
In business class those trips are 50,000 miles and 65,000 miles.
If you try to book these two separately or as a oneway with a stopover, that would cost you 115,000 miles!
The trick is to book this as a roundtrip flight and tack on a flight later on in the year even if you know you won’t take it. This flight should be in economy because Shanghai to Los Angeles in economy is only 32,500 miles. If we’re not flying the flight, let’s at least make it as cheap as possible.
How can spending 32,500 miles on a flight we aren’t flying save us miles?
Because a one way business class flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai is 60,000 miles. If we make it a roundtrip where the outbound is 60,000 and the “return” is 32,500, this itinerary can be had for 92,500 miles instead on 115,000.
The reason Los Angeles to Shanghai was pricing at 115,000 miles earlier was the stop in Frankfurt split the award into two expensive awards. As a roundtrip, we are allowed a stop in Frankfurt, and we are allowed to route to Asia via Europe.
All we have to do is find a “return” day to make our “roundtrip” work.
After you find your flights, just call up United at 1-800-UNITED-1 and put these flights together if you can’t book the award online, which may be difficult because the online pricing engine give a lot of error messages.
Bonus
If I booked one of these awards, I would be on the lookout for changes to me phantom “return.” If changes occurred, I would do nothing at first. After flying to Shanghai, I would then call United to cancel the rest of the award because of the changes to the schedule. Talking your way into a refund of the 32,500 miles for the return should be easy.
To maximize your chances of a favorable change for you, book the return for 11 months out to give the schedule plenty of time to change.
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What’s the best way to check for changes in flight schedules ?
You don’t have to catch it immediately, so just check it when you log into your account every month or so. Award Wallet will tell you about changes, but only on the airlines it supports (not United anymore.)
Thanks for the reply! Solid post
What’s the best way to check for changes in flight schedules ?
You don’t have to catch it immediately, so just check it when you log into your account every month or so. Award Wallet will tell you about changes, but only on the airlines it supports (not United anymore.)
Thanks for the reply! Solid post
You’re a genius!
You’re a genius!
What if the schedule does not change? The expense would be the cost of the return trip. Did I get that right?
What if the schedule does not change? The expense would be the cost of the return trip. Did I get that right?
In Tahsir’s example, if there is no schedule change, he has payed 92,500 miles for biz from USA-Europe-Asia. This would normally cost 110,000, so he has saved 17,500. If he can cancel the last part and get back 32,500 more miles, he saves 50,000 miles.
Just booked something like this for later this year, but I will legitimately fly all the segments. Free Europe trip after going to Asia!
Just booked something like this for later this year, but I will legitimately fly all the segments. Free Europe trip after going to Asia!
Any problems booking this because it is around the world.. just hang up and call again if they deny you?
Any problems booking this because it is around the world.. just hang up and call again if they deny you?
Yes, HUCA if they hassle you about this being RTW.
Scott,
I have recently done something quite similar to this and United’s policy (from several csr’s , supervisors and the email respondent) is that once a reward trip starts, any portion of the ticket cannot be refunded, even in the even of a schedule change. Having said that, you would be able to change your awards destination for no cost.
The similar trip I did was from CLE-BRI (italy) BRI-CLE CLE-HNL, and the last segments layover was changed to like 20 hours. I called to cancel and that agent said they would cancel it, only to have the miles never post and just a $5 refund on taxes. So after trying back they explained to me that the miles cannot be refunded in that situation, then I explained to them that the csr assured me they did. They have since responded saying they would credit miles back for the segment only because the CSR misinformed me, my point was why would I cancel a $5 ticket to hawaii. Because no one would do that. So the ticket originally was 62,500 miles in economy, and they have promised to return 20,000 to my account. The miles have yet to appear but they do say they take longer to redeposit in these situations.
If anyone has had a similar experience or can confirm this trick Scott posted I would love to hear about it. But for banking on the schedule to change and canceling it for the unused miles, I just don’t see a high success rate where the first agent will not know the rule and after several long phone calls they will eventually redeposit them, and they keep records so probably wouldn’t work twice. Still a savings (without refunding unused portion) in the end and you could also pay the change fee to change the last segment. Still a good post and it would work well.
IMPORTANT
for your example, you can make you dummy leg from Bangkok to Singapore and it would be only an ‘extra’ 12,500, there is no reason to make it back to the USA for 32,500 if its not going to be flown. It does not have to be a ’round trip’ returning to your home airport, I just put through a united booking that works like this myself.
So if you make your first two legs in business, and the dummy from bkk-sin in economy, out of pocket miles is 72,500. Saving even 20,000 additional miles on top of the savings explained in this article. And you can still change the last segment at a later date.
Scott, I only think/research about crazy stuff like this since first reading your blog. Thanks!
So it is still one way. How can you make a stop over in Europe???
Thanks for this great comment!
Your experience getting miles refunded is interesting. I think if there is a schedule change that would allow for a change of the award, you can eventually get a refund of the unflown portion as your experience shows. As your experience also shows, it will take work to get that refund.
You are correct that you don’t have to fly to the US. You can make the “return” dummy leg very cheap indeed. Nice sleuthing.
Scott,
I have recently done something quite similar to this and United’s policy (from several csr’s , supervisors and the email respondent) is that once a reward trip starts, any portion of the ticket cannot be refunded, even in the even of a schedule change. Having said that, you would be able to change your awards destination for no cost.
The similar trip I did was from CLE-BRI (italy) BRI-CLE CLE-HNL, and the last segments layover was changed to like 20 hours. I called to cancel and that agent said they would cancel it, only to have the miles never post and just a $5 refund on taxes. So after trying back they explained to me that the miles cannot be refunded in that situation, then I explained to them that the csr assured me they did. They have since responded saying they would credit miles back for the segment only because the CSR misinformed me, my point was why would I cancel a $5 ticket to hawaii. Because no one would do that. So the ticket originally was 62,500 miles in economy, and they have promised to return 20,000 to my account. The miles have yet to appear but they do say they take longer to redeposit in these situations.
If anyone has had a similar experience or can confirm this trick Scott posted I would love to hear about it. But for banking on the schedule to change and canceling it for the unused miles, I just don’t see a high success rate where the first agent will not know the rule and after several long phone calls they will eventually redeposit them, and they keep records so probably wouldn’t work twice. Still a savings (without refunding unused portion) in the end and you could also pay the change fee to change the last segment. Still a good post and it would work well.
IMPORTANT
for your example, you can make you dummy leg from Bangkok to Singapore and it would be only an ‘extra’ 12,500, there is no reason to make it back to the USA for 32,500 if its not going to be flown. It does not have to be a ’round trip’ returning to your home airport, I just put through a united booking that works like this myself.
So if you make your first two legs in business, and the dummy from bkk-sin in economy, out of pocket miles is 72,500. Saving even 20,000 additional miles on top of the savings explained in this article. And you can still change the last segment at a later date.
Scott, I only think/research about crazy stuff like this since first reading your blog. Thanks!
Scott **and “bengali miles guru”
@Mike,
Thanks for those comments.
But, Scott is going from LA to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Shanghai.
How does BKK to Singapore comes into the play? In this trip, There is no connection between Shanghai and BKK. Also, its not a round trip. I am confused.
of all the bloggs you written. this one is the most difficult to understand. since you cant make a stopover on a oneway, then how many stopover on a roundstip with UA pts ?
is this legal for UA ?
June/13
Lax-Icn
Icn-sin(stopover)
sin-sgn(stopover)
sgn-nrt-lax(home)
Dec-13
Lax-orlando
now is this legal, please help
thanks
As stated in the post, you get one stopover on a roundtrip. This is in addition to the destination. That means on a roundtrip award, you can only be in TWO cities more than 24 hours (stopover and destination.)
And maybe a 3rd and 4th. If you’re allowed a stopover and two openjaw, you do an openjaw as mick suggested.
E.g., transit yourself to BKK, and then fly the “return” to SIN
i.e.,
LAX-LHR-FRA ;
FRA-ZRH-PVG ;
transit self / surface sector to BKK ;
BKK-SIN .
@pas
fare rules allow one stopover and one open-leg (you dont have to leave from the same airport you came from). its just an example I looked up as it has tons of *alliance space so LA-FRA FRA-Shanghai with a dummy from bkk-singapore at the end is going to cost 72,500 miles if booked biz biz econ (92,500 on the article, which makes sense if your going to fly that leg back to the US, but for a dummy leg its cheaper to throw bkk-sin or whatever in there). im sure shanghai to bkk would work too, but sometimes the united website glitches for things and it was one that came to mind and worked right away.
@choi lui
You need to have three total segments for this articles point to work for you, the intention is flying 2 of three (one ways) in a multi segment flight for much less than booking independently. your june 13th itinerary would work(without the orlando segment), you have a roundtrip plus a free stopover in the middle SIN-SGN. But if you want to add that flight to orlando on it you would need to book a separate flight from sin-sgn. so LAX-SIN(via ICN) SGN-LAX (via NRT) then later LAX-orlando would basically be a free one way on the end. your situation is not quite what this article is about, but that works if you want to pay for a separate ticket sin-sgn. united allows one stopover and one open leg. in this case the open leg is going into SIN and out of SGN, the stopover is in LAX on your way to orlando, even though you live in LA and its for several months.
Im just a reader on this blog so Scott and BMG should correct me if I’m wrong.
Aah..I get it. Thanks for clarifying.
I am wondering how one can practically use this, because most often we have to make a real return trip somehow 🙂 .
Is it if one has few free one ways laying around and want to make a trip by cobbling them together? Or Is it in case where return is made using another alliance paid/reward ticket?
Well, Mike, In your explanation to my question:
– Free stopover is in FRA
– Open Jaw is between Shanghai and BKK
But, where is the return? Doesn’t the flight need to come back to LA to call it round trip ticket?
@pas
Its not a round trip ticket, round trip would be there and back. this is a multi-destination ticket (the little icon that doesn’t have a bullet that is next to roundtrip and one way on united’s website) and requires you to click add destination to add a third one way on the same itinerary. The trip would be considered either to frankfurt ending up in bangkok or to shanghai ending up in bangkok. So its not a round trip ticket, but it does work, and its a beautiful thing that it does not have to end where it starts. I’m sure there are more possibilities here, I looked at making the last bit inter-hawaii but that availability did not appear at all while trying to book this, perhaps its too far out of the “fare rules.”
This basically says, don’t use one ways on united if you somewhat know your plans next. You can bundle 3 one ways in one multi-destination ticket for the cost of less than 2 one ways. If you book parts 2 and 3 of your trip you can switch the dates after booking 21 days ahead the scheduled flights for free (assuming availability). You can also switch your from or to airports after the fact, for a fee, which could be very worth it given this “quasi around the world” ticket possibility for 65,000 in economy or 120,000 in business, or 92,500 for 2/3 in business.
This is a confusing post but I’ll try to read it again tomorrow, it’s 2am right now and I can’t keep up with all the comments trying to explain everything.
I booked a flight from the US to China making my stop over in Manchester. The entire trip came out to 92,500 miles. It was all business saver except the return from China back to the US, that was economy. But a few problems came up and this is how I tried to fix them.
Huntsville to Dulles to Manchester (Business). Then staying in Manchester for four months. Then Manchester to Istanbul and from there to Hong Kong (Business). Then staying for a month. Then catching a flight from Beijing back to Huntsville via IAD (Economy Plus).
I was randomly checking my United reservation last month when I saw my entire itinerary cancelled. I called United and they told me Turkish Airlines cancelled the MAN to IST to HK flight. I bitched and moaned for a while. The girl rebooked my flight but one of the flights from Manchester to Singapore was economy. I said this wasn’t right and they should make my return ticket from Beijing business to make up for it. She changed it and did the reservation. As soon as I got off the phone, I found flights from Manchester to Hong Kong via Thailand and all of it was business. I called back and got a senior account rep on the phone and he changed those flights from Manchester to Hong Kong and made them all business. I was very happy from the outcome of the entire mess. A few days later I was checking my CC and I saw a $1241 bill on my card. I freaked out and called United. Apparently the girl when she rebooked my ticket, when she added the new routes, she recalculated and realized I needed more miles so she charged my CC for 33,000 miles. I called back and spoke with a couple of reps and they told me that she should have asked number one and number two it was suppose to be done for the same amount of miles I already had the 92,500. So it should have been an even transfer and especially since it wasn’t my fault TA cancelled their flight. I got the refund back after a couple of those reps put their notes in the system and I got someone from refund department to see it.
I’m still worried something is going to go wrong. I hope they don’t screw me and take away the business class flight from Beijing coming back to the US. Should I have asked for something else? They did mess up my schedule with the cancellation of that Turkish Airlines flight.
What an ordeal. Stay on top of it, and keep us posted.
Hi guys!
United still has 1 stop over and 2 open jaws right?
This is my itinerary so far (successfully reserved)
LAX – CGK 1/23 (2 short layovers, no airport change)
HKG – JNB 1/31 (direct)
JNB – LAX 2/4 (1 short layover in LHR)
So far one open jaw and one stop over.
I wanted to add Europe (instead of going straight from JNB – LAX ).
LAX – CGK 1/23 (2 short layovers, no airport change)
HKG – JNB 1/31 (direct)
JNB – LHR 2/4 (direct, I checked availability on united.com)
MAD – LAX 2/9 (1 short layover)
But it’s not allowing me to, I tried calling a few times, none succeeded. Some weren’t able to explain why, another explains because United only allows 1 stop over and 1 open jaw. OR 2 open jaws?
Any thoughts? Should I try different reps? Or different destinations?
Thank you in advanced!
Just read thru this post, question is if I’m a united 1k then i should have no issue canceling the dummy leg on the way back correct?
No issue cancelling it, but I’m not 100% sure you’d get the miles back for it.
Anyone have any experiance with the redeposit if the miles???