Two months ago, thexfactor emailed me to tell me that he’d booked something online at aa.com that was against one of the rules I laid out in The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards.
His discovery greatly increases where you can take a free oneway when booking American Airlines awards online. I’ll break down what my research has uncovered about the new possibilities and give a little background on free oneways on AA flights.
Posted in AAdvantage, Award Booking, Free Oneway
Tagged American Airlines, Free oneway
There are a lot of reasons to use an Award Booking Service, like the MileValue Award Booking Service. One great reason is because you have miles in several accounts and want to use the most efficient type for the trip you have in mind. Different miles have different best uses.
Recently I was contacted by a friend who had mid-six-figure account balances in his American, United, and Delta accounts. He wanted a simple open jaw trip to Europe in economy class. From Washington-Dulles to Nice and returning from London to Dulles.
Below is the email I sent to him. The only edits are that I have inserted images that I attached to the email, and I have added some hyperlinks to other posts that expand on a point I am making in the email.
In the email you’ll see the options I presented, and how I was able to book him a free oneway and an award that got him 2.3 cents of value for each United mile!
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Hey [buddy],
I wanted to let you in on what I’ve found.
First, I don’t know if you have any flexibility, but when possible on open jaw trips I recommend flying into London and out of France. The UK has the highest departure taxes in the world of about $155.
The UK departure taxes is if he went ahead with his trip plans.
This is more of an issue when flying business class where it’s more like $250. But you could save money by reversing the directions of this trip. If that’s possible, let me know.
United miles
I started with United miles as you directed. The return is super easy. There are four direct flights on your preferred date, all with space in economy. These are all the saver price of 30k miles.
Four perfect, direct options on the return.
The outbound is a lot trickier. The best option, and the only one that gets you in on your desired day leaves the day before and has an overnight in London. It’s one of those weird daytime flights to Europe, then a night at an airport hotel and London-Frankfurt-Nice then next day, arriving at 2:05 PM on your desired day. This is the earliest arrival possible. It’s not ideal, but it is the best 30k saver option.
Daytime flight to London connecting to…
…after an overnight in London, it’s two more flights to Nice to arrive in the afternoon.
The other option for the outbound is to book a “standard” award for 55,000 miles. The itinerary is a lot better, since it is one stop, a redeye across the Atlantic, and doesn’t require an overnight en route.
Ideal itinerary, but an extra 25k miles.
I hate to book “standard” price awards, but this might not be horrible for a few reasons. One, the roundtrip award would only be 85k miles + taxes, which is a steal compared to the $2,200 itinerary you found, and the award itinerary would actually be more convenient than the paid one you mentioned. [The paid itinerary he was considering had a one-stop return.] Second, within a week of departure United and Lufthansa tend to open up a lot of award space if seats are unsold–especially in business and first, but also in economy. When that happens, we can rebook that space.
If we rebook to saver economy, the award would be 60k miles like we want. If there is no saver economy space, but there is saver business, that would be an 80k mile award. It would save 5k miles and get you in business one way as a surprise treat. The one drawback of a last minute rebooking is the $75 fee for making a change within 21 days of departure, but that is swamped by saving 25k miles or saving 5k and upgrading to business class.
There are no guarantees with award space, but I would estimate the chances of a good saver economy itinerary opening up at 50%; a good saver business has an 80% chance of opening up.
American Airlines miles
For good measure, I looked at award space with AA miles next. The big problem is that if you book British Airways flights with AA miles, you incur fuel surcharges of about $300 per transatlantic segment. This is a big enough drawback on business awards, but on economy awards like this one, it’s a near deal killer.
I didn’t find any transatlantic award space that we could use on the no- or low-surcharge AA partners. I did find space on a BA flight, leaving and arriving one day later than you want. It cost 30,000 AA miles and $315.
A nasty surcharge on an AA award on BA flights is deal-killer in economy.
This compares to taxes of about $40 to $60 on the outbounds with United miles.
There were no good return options with AA miles.
Delta miles
Finally I checked space with your Delta miles. This was a bust. I didn’t find any good space on Delta or any of its partners. (I even looked at routing you through Russia on Aeroflot, which surely would have been an adventure!)
Putting it All Together
Both United and American can be used to book oneway awards. The return should pretty clearly be on your preferred flight of the four direct LHR-IAD flights on United.
For the outbound, you can choose the overnight in London, the “standard” award with the great schedule, or the fuel-surcharged and day-late BA itinerary.
If you choose to overnight in London, the total cost will be 60k United miles plus taxes and fees of about $210. The cool this is that you can add a FREE ONEWAY to this trip. By that I mean that sometime between your return from London and April 2, 2014, you can fly a oneway trip on United from Dulles to somewhere else–pretty much anywhere else. If that somewhere is in the continental US or Canada, it will cost $2.50 and zero miles to add to the award. If that somewhere else is in Hawaii, it will cost 2,500 miles and a few dollars. If it’s in Peru, it will cost 10,000 miles. Let me know when and where, and we’ll book the award to include the free or cheap oneway.
If you choose the perfect outbound via Frankfurt, the total cost will be 85k United miles plus taxes and fees of about $220. This trip would be eligible for the same additional free or cheap oneway (although some of the cheap oneways’ mile costs will be slightly different than those quoted in the last paragraph.)
If you choose the day-late outbound on BA, the total cost will be 30k United miles, 30k AA miles, and taxes/fees of about $500. This trip would be eligible for a free oneway but only between now and your departure date from anywhere in Canada, the US, or Mexico to Washington on AA or an AA partner.
Please let me know your thoughts on how you want to proceed. If you select something, I should be able to put it on hold for you to call in and ticket.
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I wanted to give an example of how I think, how I search, and how I communicate about award bookings. As you can see, I left a ton out of this email. For instance, I obviously searched for business class options instead of the “standard” option via Frankfurt, and I searched other dates near his date. But I left those searches out of the email for brevity.
I didn’t write a treatise on free oneways into the email, perhaps confusing someone who had never heard of them before. He did decide to book one to San Francisco once he understood the concept.
Once he made his selection, I held the award online. This did not go smoothly as United had its most common problem on multi-city searches: not showing all the options. I held something online using Bill’s trick, and I called in to edit the reservation to the correct flights.
Although it is not part of the ordinary service, I will be checking for award space to make a last second change to his award.
In general, I think the award booking went well. He was certainly thrilled with the results. I was a bit bummed to be booking an award that was dinged by UK departure taxes and included a “standard” (high-miles-price) component, but a lack of flexibility necessitated those choices.
I think something approaching good value was still achieved with the addition of a cross-country free oneway with a sticker price of $214 and not having to buy a ticket with a sticker price of $2,200.
The Mile Value Calculator says he got 2.3 cents of value per mile!
Posted in AAdvantage, Award Booking, Free Oneway, United
Tagged American, Award Booking, Free oneway, United
Reader question:
I’ve got to book a one way flight from Los Angeles to Newark with American miles next month. Is there any way to get extra value from the award?
Answer:
Sure. How about adding a one way flight to anywhere in Europe for 7,500 miles!
It’s all about perspective, and this question gave me a new perspective on free oneways. Hopefully everyone reading this has already read about adding Free Oneways to American Airlines awards. It’s a great way to add value to American Airlines international awards, and I’m using the trick to visit my mom for free next month for her birthday.
Normally I look at free oneways on American awards like this:
I’ve got an international trip coming up. Can I add a free oneway domestically?
But this reader has the opposite trip:
I’ve got a domestic trip coming up. Can I add anything to it?
And the rules–The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards–are the same either way you think about your trip. If the reader adds an international flight from New York, he can take a free stopover in Newark and Los Angeles to Newark becomes free. Or if the reader thinks about Los Angeles to Newark costing 12,500 miles, then New York to Europe costs 7,500 miles more.
Let’s give some specific cities to make it clear. Imagine if the reader wanted to join me at Oktoberfest in Munich.
To do a multicity award search on aa.com, select Flights under Plan Travel on the front page.
To search for Los Angeles to Newark next month on a Sunday, then New York to Munich in September, first go to the AAdvantage Award tab, then select Milti-City.
It’s important to note that flying into Newark and out of JFK is not an open jaw. Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK are considered co-terminal airports by American and the its competitors. That means flying into one and out of another is allowed on award tickets and paid tickets if you don’t mind the ground transport. Of course, on this itinerary, the reader would fly into Newark seven months before flying out of JFK, so there is no ground transport issue.
(In fact, a oneway award can never have an open jaw. If you think it can, you are confused about what an open jaw is. Don’t worry; it’s the most common confusion I get by email. See What is an Open Jaw? How Can an Itinerary Have Two Open Jaws?)
The search results look like this:
I’ve selected “Non-stop only” for LAX-EWR because American has a direct flight on that route. American and its partners don’t fly directly from New York to Munich, so I left that dropdown as is. Note that the top half doesn’t have prices because American’s computer knows to price LAX-EWR on this itinerary as a free oneway.
Note also that JFK to Munich is displaying as 20k miles. You would probably expect it to cost 30k miles, since that is the oneway price to Europe with American miles during peak times. But I uncovered last month that you can fly to Europe all year round for 20k American miles by using one simple trick that this itinerary naturally uses.
There is plenty of space on the LAX-EWR direct flight next month in economy. And there is plenty of space from JFK to Munich flying airberlin and connecting in Dusseldorf or Berlin. (This shouldn’t surprise you at all if you read Book Now to Europe for Next Summer: Economy.)
My hand drawn notes are there to draw attention to the fact that LAX-EWR would be 12,500 miles and $2.50 if booked separately. Adding on the flights to have a separate trip to Oktoberfest only adds 7,500 miles and $15.40 to the price!
Book alone for 12,500 miles, or add Europe during the summer for 7,500 miles more.
This itinerary:
Los Angeles to Newark
New York to Munich
will always cost 20,000 American miles as long as Los Angeles to Newark is flown between October 15 and May 15. If you’re going to book New York to Munich either way, LAX to Newark is a free oneway. If you’re going to book LAX to Newark either way–like my reader way–New York to Munich is only 7,500 miles more.
Other Applications
Any time you want to fly an award from somewhere in the US (including Alaska and Hawaii) or Canada to your home airport, and your home airport is a North American International Gateway City, you can add on a steeply discounted international trip for after your domestic trip. Equivalently if you want to fly an award from your home airport to somewhere in the US and Canada, and your home airport is a North American International Gateway City, you can add on a steeply discounted international award to your home airport before the domestic trip.
Examples:
Los Angeles to Newark in first for 25k. You can add on New York to Istanbul in business for 25k more.
San Francisco to Washington in first for 25k. You can add Hong Kong to San Francisco in Cathay business for 30k more.
Miami to Chicago in economy for 12.5k. You can add Chicago to Shanghai for 12.5k more.
And my personal favorite:
Honolulu to New York is 37.5k one way in business class. You can add New York to Lima for -7.5k. Yes, that’s negative 7,500 miles to add on a flight from New York to Lima, which brings the total award down to 30,000 miles.
This also works to other cities with direct service to Lima on American or LAN: New York, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco.
This also works in economy, but the discount is from 22,500 miles to 17,500 miles. That means it’s “only” negative 5,000 miles to Lima in economy.
(This leads to the odd scenario that if you live in one of the cities that serves Central America or Northern South America, and you want a first class return from Hawaii, you’re better off adding on a leg to Central America to decrease the price even if you’ll never fly it. It’s kind of like how I saved 200k US Airways miles by adding dummy legs I won’t be flying to this award.)
Getting American Miles
The best current offer for American Airlines credit cards is to get two at the same time for 100k total miles. You can apply for the Citi American Airlines Visa and Citi American Airlines American Express within minutes with different browsers. In my experience, my brother’s experience, my girlfriend’s experience, and the experience of hundreds of FlyerTalkers, you can get approved for both.
Application Link: Citi American Airlines Visa
Application Link: Citi American Airlines American Express
The offer on both the cards linked is the same. Spend $2,500 within 4 months and receive 50k miles and two Admirals Club passes. So that’s $5,000 total spending in 4 months for 100k total bonus AA miles and four Admirals Club passes–an incredible haul.
There’s one hiccup. The offer page doesn’t mention that deal, and the offer page may be expired. But if you can pull up the page, the deal is probably still on–certainly the deal has worked for hundreds before you. But your mileage may vary.
Here’s the FlyerTalk thread bible on Citi AA offers, including information on the two-browser trick, new offers as they appear, and recent data points about whether offers are still working.
For even more AA miles, check out the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card that comes with 25k Starpoints after $5,000 in spending in the first 6 months. Starpoints can be transferred 1:1 to AA miles with a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20k points transferred. Or you might get even more value (2.5+ cents) from Starwood Cash & Points stays.
Application Link: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express
Recap
We’re all familiar with free oneways on American Airlines awards. Looking at the exact same type of award from the perspective of booking a domestic award, leads to some incredibly cheap international add ons like 7,500 miles to Europe or negative 7,500 miles to Peru!
For more great posts like this, follow me on Twitter or Facebook. If you’re in Los Angeles, Tampa, or Baltimore, let’s grab dinner.
I spoke at the Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University (Nov 30 – Dec 2) about adding free oneways to award tickets. To help myself prepare and to edify those who couldn’t attend, I’m writing a series of posts on the topic.
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on US Airways Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Comparison of Free Oneway Possibilities on Legacy Carriers
Three Vacations on Two Awards
Free Circle Trips on Awards
Almost Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
This article presumes a knowledge of how to book free stopovers on Delta.com, which I covered in How to Book Free Stopovers Online: Delta.
We need two things to book a free oneway: a stopover and an open jaw. Luckily on all of its awards, Delta offers both a stopover and an open jaw. That means free oneways are possible on Delta awards though they are more restrictive than with United or American.
Delta even allows one open jaw and one stopover on awards within the continental US, which no other legacy carrier allows. That means free oneways can even be added to awards wholly within the continental US.
Domestic Free Oneway Rules
So far Delta’s free oneways are looking great, but there’s one major problem. Delta’s terms and conditions related to award travel say: “Routing restrictions apply for Award Travel. Valid routings vary based on the operating carriers of the Award Ticket. Any exceptions or variations to these routings may require additional mileage for the award.”
What this means in practice is that to take advantage of a free oneway on Delta, you must live at a city with connecting Delta traffic. Why? Say you live in San Francisco, a city without Delta connecting traffic, and you want to fly to Atlanta roundtrip then have a free oneway to Los Angeles. The award would be:
San Francisco to Atlanta
Atlanta to San Francisco
San Francisco to Los Angeles
Technichally the return is ATL-SFO-LAX, which is not a valid routing on Delta, the operating carrier of this award. Valid routings include the direct ATL-LAX and one- and two-stop itineraries through its hubs.
How can you find fare rules that show the valid routings? I don’t know a free way; I use expertflyer, a paid subscription service. If anyone knows a free way, please put it in the comments.
For those of us who can take advantage of free oneways on Delta awards, I’ll give some examples.
This award is a roundtrip from Los Angeles to Atlanta. After that roundtrip I’ve added on a free oneway to Las Vegas for a later date. ATL-LAX-LAS is a valid routing from Atlanta to Las Vegas. It has to be for this award to price at 25,000 miles.
Here’s an example of a failed attempt to add a free oneway to a domestic award:
This award is pricing at 50,000 miles or the price of two roundtrip domestic awards. The reason is that the return of Los Angeles to New Orleans to Atlanta is an invalid routing from LAX to ATL. I won’t list all the valid routings between LAX and ATL, but they only include travel through Delta hubs, and New Orleans is not a Delta hub.
Why did it price as 50,000 miles? Delta charges the roundtrip price for one way awards. Since the routing is invalid for a single award, Delta considers this two awards–roundtrip MSY-LAX (25,000 miles) and oneway MSY-ATL (25,000 miles)–which cost 50,000 total miles.
International Free Oneway Rules
The rules for adding a free oneway to an international Delta award are different. You don’t have to worry about “legal routings” except that your routing must not exceed the maximum permitted mileage for a routing.
The maximum permitted mileage (MPM) is a number of miles that your actual routing between your origin and destination can be. You can find it on expertflyer.com. See How to Use Expert Flyer.
Here’s an example of a free oneway added to the award of an-Inca loving Atlanta dweller:
After the main Atlanta to Lima roundtrip award, the free oneway is added four months later from Atlanta to Los Angeles. The award prices at 45,000, which is the normal cost for an award from the US to Peru on Delta.
Here’s an example of the same award except that the free oneway is to the Caribbean:
The same roundtrip from ATL-LIM with a oneway to San Juan, Puerto Rico at the end is still 45,000 miles. Why? Open jaws price at 1/2 of each way’s roundtrip price, and both the Caribbean to Peru and the US to Peru are 45,000 miles roundtrip.
There’s nothing special about putting the free oneway at the end. It can go at the beginning instead. Here’s an example on a trip to Japan:
The roundtrip award here is New York to Tokyo. But before that trip, a free oneway from Nantucket to New York is added, a normally expensive route. This example illustrates that free oneways can be added before the trip to your home airport or after the trip from your home airport.
Let me give one more examples of a failed attempt at a free oneway before I summarize the rules:
Los Angeles to London roundtrip should only be 60,000 miles, but this award with a later oneway from LAX to Minneapolis priced at 85,000 miles. What gives?
From Delta’s perspective, the return is London to Minneapolis. LHR-ATL-LAX-MSP is 7,692 miles of flying.
The MPM of London to Minneapolis is far less at 4,813 miles.
Therefore this is not a valid routing between London and Minneapolis according to Delta’s fare rules. That means Delta sees this as two awards, 60,000 roundtrip to Europe and 25,000 for the domestic oneway, that cost 85,000 miles total. This example shows that living in a city with Delta connecting traffic, Los Angeles, is not enough. Your free oneway must also follow a valid routing.
Recap
Free oneways are available on roundtrip Delta awards in any class to any region either before or after the main award trip. But the free oneways have to be part of a valid routing, which in practice means that you need to live at a Delta hub and fly a route without backtracking to be able to tack a free oneway onto your next Delta award.
Footnote
This post says Delta allows one free stopover and one free open jaw, which it does in practice. However the official award tickets T&C on Delta.com (linked above), which contradicts everyone’s experience booking Delta awards online and over the phone. The T&C read in part: “Open-jaw travel is permitted and counts as a stopover…One stopover is allowed per Award.” Combined that clearly means you get an open jaw OR a stopover. You need both to construct free oneways. Luckily the official policy of Delta’s computer and representatives is that you get both.
Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Twitter.
I created a slide show for my LAX Frequent Traveler University presentation that I promised I would share with those who attended.
My presentation was called “Three Vacations on Two Awards: Free Oneways.”
The only difference between the presentation and the show below is that I deleted the videos in the original presentation, which had no audio, and replaced them with videos with audio.
I’ve uploaded the presentation online RIGHT HERE. I am going to delete it from the site on Friday the 14th, so grab it now if you want it.
Perhaps oddly, I don’t necessarily recommend checking out the slides. All the information either has been released on the site or will be released in the next few weeks. When I put it into posts, I can explain everything fully. In the slides, I’ve only put a complement to what I was saying in the room, so it’s not necessarily the complete picture.
But you know your learning style better than I do, soif you want to check out the slide show, here it is:
I’m on vacation in Hawaii until Wednesday, so I may not answer email. If you are emailing about the Award Booking Service, email milevaluebooking (at) gmail (dot) com
I will be speaking at the Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University (this weekend, sold out) about adding free oneways to award tickets. To help myself prepare and to edify those who can’t attend, I’ll be writing a series of posts on the topic.
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on US Airways Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Comparison of Free Oneway Possibilities on Legacy Carriers
Three Vacations on Two Awards
Free Circle Trips on Awards
Almost Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Just in time for my talk about Free Oneways on Sunday at the LAX Frequent Traveler University, I’ve figured out how to add free oneways to US Airways awards.
Until this week, I hadn’t thought free oneways on US Airways awards were possible (without phone agent error), but necessity is the mother of invention, and I had to book myself an award that relied on free oneway principles this week–more on that award on Sunday in an Anatomy of an Award post.
The reason I thought free oneways were impossible on US Airways awards was that free oneways require combining a free stopover at your home airport with an open jaw (or a free stopover on oneway awards.) US Airways offers a free stopover OR an open jaw. Without both, no free oneway is possible. Consider:
Philadelphia to London (destination)
London to Philadelphia (stopover)
Philadelphia to Chicago <– attempted free oneway
This award has a stopover in Philadelphia on the return. And this award starts in Philadelphia but ends in Chicago–an open jaw. You get one or the other with US Airways awards, so free oneways are seemingly not permitted by the rules. The only way to get free oneways was to get a phone agent to erroneously allow you to ticket an award with a stopover and an open jaw–not impossible, but not something you could count on.
But I’ve figured out a way to get a free oneway on US Airways awards. It’s not for everyone, but using this technique can reap huge value, more so than a free oneway on any other award. How does a free business class ticket home from anywhere in South America sound?
US Airways free oneway rules:
1) Your free oneway must be BEFORE your main award TO your home airport. Normally you can choose a free oneway before or after the main award, but not in this case.
2) You must not check any bags–at least not on the return of your main award.
3) You cannot have any open jaws because you need to use a stopover.
4) You must find availability that meets the following constraints:
5) You must get off at your home airport on the return and go home without flying the last part of the itinerary.
Here’s an example. Say your home airport is Chicago-O’Hare. You want a free oneway from Hawaii five months before your main award to Frankfurt. You would search for Honolulu to Chicago. You would search for the Chicago to Frankfurt roundtrip, and then you would make sure to find some way–any way–to add award flights from Chicago to Honolulu.
You aren’t taking those flights from Chicago to Honolulu, so their timing, the cabin, and the number of layovers don’t matter. All that matters is that you find award space, and that the flight from Chicago leaves within 24 hours of your flight that landed in Chicago. You have to leave in that 24 hour window because layovers greater than 24 hours are a stopover, and you can’t have a second stopover.
Here’s an example of just such an itinerary:
Let me take you through this award piece by piece. The first segment is January 16 from Honolulu to Chicago. That is the free oneway. The cabin listed as “Unknown (I)” is domestic first class.
The next two segments are the main award, Chicago to Frankfurt roundtrip–a two week vacation in June. Both ways are in Global First Class (three-cabin first, flat beds). Then comes the part I crossed out that we aren’t going to fly–Chicago to San Francisco to Honolulu.
The key thing to note is that the take off from Chicago to San Francisco is within 24 hours of the landing in Chicago from Frankfurt. A US Airways award can only have a break of more than 24 hours between flights twice–at the stopover and at the destination. So you must find a way for the award to continue from your home airport on the return within 24 hours.
The other thing to note is that Chicago to San Francisco to Honolulu are in economy (X) class. Remember that you can always fly economy class on business or first class awards. As it turns out, this was the only space I could find back to Hawaii within 24 hours of the return from Frankfurt, so I added it into the award. Good thing we aren’t flying it!
The above award priced out to 125k US Airways miles plus $180.98 ($131 taxes, $50 award processing fee). The roundtrip price from the US to Europe in first class is 125k miles, so Honolulu to Chicago is a free oneway!
Now in the five rules above I said that on the return you had to have only carry ons. The reason is that you are leaving the airport midway through your itinerary, so if you had a checked bag, it would be sent on without you (or whatever the security procedure is these days.)
With the above itinerary, you could check a bag because that wouldn’t actually happen. If you land your international flight at your home airport, you have to collect your bags to go through customs, then you can walk out with them.
The two main worries with booking the above would be delays and annoying the airlines. If there were a delay, the airline has a responsibility to get you to Honolulu, not to Chicago, so conceivably it could route you some way that didn’t include Hawaii.
The other worry is that an airline might get angry if you continually booked awards and only flew some of the segments. Or at least people say this is a worry when you book revenue flights using the hidden city trick. I can’t see US Airways catching on to you for booking like this. And in any case, this trickery is being forced on us by their routing rules, which somehow make it cheaper to add on two more award segments to Hawaii. (Not adding those segments would cause the award to price as Honolulu to Chicago plus Chicago to Frankfurt.)
How to Plan and Book
Usairways.com is pretty useless since it only displays space on US Airways’ flights. United.com is fantastic, though, displaying most of the Star Alliance. Search on united.com for space as outlined in Free First Class Next Month: Star Alliance Searches on United.com.
The trickiest part will probably be to find the return plus the dummy legs since the dummy legs have to begin within 24 hours of landing at home from the main award. When you’ve found Saver award space on united.com for all segments, you can call US Airways at 800-622-1015.
Tell the agent you want to book an award from the free oneway origin to the main award destination. Give the dates and flight numbers for each flight, and you should be able to construct the award quickly. When you’re done, you can ticket it or put it on a three day courtesy hold.
What Can You Book? US Airways Routing Rules
US Airways nominally has some routing rules. But computers don’t price US Airways awards; humans do. And humans do it by looking at the origin and destination cities and where they fall on the award chart.
That means if you keep your total number of segments low, you make their job easy by feeding them flights with space, and you’re friendly, you can get away with a lot.
I’ve definitely never encountered a US Airways agent who mentioned MPM or routing from one continent to another via a third. I have heard some agents enforce an eight segment cap, but I’ve also personally surpassed that.
Where Can Your Free Oneway Go?
Like all free oneways, you can add a free oneway as long as the city where your free oneway starts is in the same region of the US Airways award chart as your home airport. So your free oneway can be from anywhere in the continental US, Canada, or Alaska.
Your oneway will also be free if the origin city lies outside your home airport’s region, but the origin’s region has the same award price to your destination region. (I wish I could make that sentence simpler. Hopefully an example will clarify.)
For instance, our free oneway above was from Hawaii. Hawaii is not in the same region as the continental US. When your main award is to Europe, you can add a free oneway to Hawaii because Hawaii <-> Europe and mainland <-> Europe cost the same price on the award chart.
Below I’ve reproduced the award chart from the mainland and from Hawaii. Where they are equal, you can get a free oneway from Hawaii on that type of award.
On awards to South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East you can add a free oneway from Hawaii to your home airport before the main award. The same is true for economy class awards to the South Pacific.
But a oneway to Hawaii before a business class award to Australia would cost 10k miles because you’d have to pay for a 120k award instead of a 110k award. Before a first class award to Africa, a oneway from Hawaii to your home airport would cost 30k miles.
To me the most intriguing free oneway, and the best free oneway possible on any airline is a free oneway from anywhere in South America to your home airport in business class before an award to Europe!
Everyone knows the USA to Europe is 100k miles roundtrip with all the legacy carriers. It’s the most common award I book with my Award Booking Service. And regular readers of MileValue are hopefully aware of occasional posts on the sweet spots of the US Airways chart. My personal favorite is South America to Europe for 100k roundtrip in business. And US Airways, unlike other carriers, doesn’t split South America into more than one region.
I know from booking an award this week that you can route from South America to Europe via North America. That means you could do:
Rio/Buenos Aires/Cuzco/your dream spot –> home (business)
home –> Europe (business)
Europe –> home (business)
home –> South America (unflown dummy legs)
All that for 100k total miles. That’s a 50k mile discount over what United or American would charge for the same. And you can fly to South America on United’s world class flat bed business class product with excellent availability.
A sampling
of flat
bed routes
If you see any other incredible routes for free oneway on US Airways awards, let us know in the comments.
Recap
I originally didn’t think free oneways were possible on US Airways because free oneways on roundtrips require a stopover AND an open jaw, and US Airways gives you one or the other. But through a little trickery, free oneways are very possible on US Airways. You just have to take your free oneway first and add dummy legs to your award.
I hope the seeming complexity doesn’t put anyone off because this free oneway can be the most lucrative of all free oneways since you can use it to fly home from anywhere in South America in business class for free before an award to Europe.
I will be speaking at the Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University (Nov 30 – Dec 2, sold out) about adding free oneways to award tickets. To help myself prepare and to edify those who can’t attend, I’ll be writing a series of posts on the topic.
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Why Free Oneways Aren’t Possible on US Airways Awards
Comparison of Free Oneway Possibilities on Legacy Carriers
Three Vacations on Two Awards
Free Circle Trips on Awards
Almost Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Six months ago, I was the first person to write about Free Oneways on United Awards. It is my most viewed post of all time, but it needs to be spruced up and to have the information from subsequent clarifying posts all put in one place, namely here.
To get a free oneway on a United award, you need to comply with the following rules:
And as your reward, you will get one free oneway per roundtrip to anywhere in the same United zone as your home airport. If your home airport is in the continental US, that means you can get a free oneway anywhere in the continental US, Canada, or Alaska.
You can take a cheap oneway to other destinations like Hawaii or South America. If you want to take your cheap oneway to a different zone than your home airport, you simply pay the difference in miles between flying home from your destination and flying to your free oneway’s destination from your destination.
The free or cheap oneway will be in the same cabin as the rest of its direction, meaning if you have the free oneway before your outbound, it will be in the outbound’s cabin.
Getting these free oneways requires taking advantage of United’s booking rules that allow one stopover and two open jaws for international awards from the US. And being able to book these free oneways online requires understanding how to book free stopovers online, so if you haven’t read my post on that subject, see How to Book Free Stopovers Online: United.
Here’s the idea: you can use one stopover and one open jaw to construct a free oneway on an international United award or a United award to Hawaii.
Example:
Andy lives in Newark, NJ.
On April 3, 2013, Andy flies from Newark to Buenos Aires (connecting in Houston, but connections are irrelevant to the story.)
On April 10, 2013, Andy returns from Buenos Aires to Newark.
This award costs 60,000 United miles and $79.82 in economy class because the continental US to Southern South America is 30k miles each way.
Flying this award, Andy would be leaving his open jaws and stopover on the table. With an extra open jaw and stopover, he can tack on a free oneway to anywhere in the continental US, Canada, or Alaska! The same example with a free oneway:
On April 3, 2013, Andy flies from Newark to Buenos Aires (connecting in Houston, but connections are irrelevant to the story.)
On April 10, 2013, Andy returns from Buenos Aires to Newark.
On May 22, 2013, six weeks later, Andy flies from Newark to Chicago. <— Free oneway!
By free oneway, I mean that the miles price hasn’t increased at all–it’s still 60k total miles.
Taxes have increased exactly $2.50, the security fee for a domestic segment. This is a free oneway on a United award in its most basic form. Let me give you a ton more examples to illustrate the possibilities and answer your questions.
Those of you who are familiar with adding free oneways to American awards know that to do so you must live in an international gateway city. One advantage of United’s free oneways is that you do not need to live in an international gateway city.
Even if your home airport is tiny like Palm Springs, California, you can take advantage of free oneways. Economy awards between the continental US and South Asia–Honk Kong’s region–go for 32,500 miles each way. That means a roundtrip would be 65k United miles. Onto that, you can add a free oneway for zero extra miles.
Palm Springs to Hong Kong roundtrip with a later free oneway from Palm Springs to Chicago
What if you live at a tiny airport that only has one United route like Charlottesville, Virginia, where United only flies to Washington-Dulles? You might think you can’t get a free oneway from here since you would have to transit Dulles twice in the same direction.
To illustrate what I mean by transiting Dulles twice in the same direction, consider the example of Charlottesville to Paris roundtrip with a free oneway to Chicago afterwards.
(Note that the free oneway is two segments. There is no maximum number of segments you can use to get from your home airport to your free oneway destination.)
United considers the outbound Charlottesville to Paris and the return Paris to Chicago with a stopover in Charlottesville. That return transits Dulles twice, once on February 12 and once on March 6. Transiting the same airport twice in the same direction is completely legal according to United’s computer.
The award prices at 60k roundtrip, which is the standard economy price to Europe roundtrip.
Of course, Charlottesville is also served by US Airways, which could have been used to avoid transiting Dulles twice in one direction.
But the point remains that you absolutely can transit the same airport twice in the same direction in service of a free oneway! In fact, I’ve even constructed awards that send the free oneway back to a previous layover airport meaning that you fly a route and its exact return back-to-back in the same direction.
Here are some other awesome free oneways you can do with United miles.
Double Open Jaw
Taking a free oneway uses one of the two open jaws you get on United awards, but you still have one open jaw left. Feel free to use it by flying into one city and returning home from another on your main award.
This award is business class from Newark to London, returning from Frankfurt to Newark. Then the free oneway goes from Newark to Phoenix. This is all perfectly legal and prices at the roundtrip business class price of 100k miles.
This award also illustrates that international business class gives you the right to domestic first class within the US. That flight from Newark to Phoenix is in US Airways first class.
Before the free oneway trick, you might have been tempted to fly Newark to London, London to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Newark on one award, using your stopover en route. That still might be the best deal–it depends on many factors, mainly whether you prefer London to Frankfurt or Newark to Phoenix in a premium class as a free flight because you can only get one of those on the award. For more info on this dilemma, see Choosing Between a Stopover and a Free Oneway on United Awards.
Free Oneways on Hawaii Awards
Unlike American, United allows free oneways on awards to Hawaii!
The main award above is from Los Angeles to Honolulu roundtrip. The outbound is in domestic first class, which costs 40k oneway to Hawaii. The return is in economy for 20k miles. The total price of the award would be 60k United miles for just Los Angeles to Honolulu roundtrip. As you can see, adding Chicago to Los Angeles in domestic first class doesn’t change that price.
This award illustrates another important point about all free oneways. The airlines doesn’t see a free oneway at all. It just sees those legs as part of either the outbound or return. In this case, Chicago to Los Angeles is part of the outbound. Since the outbound is in domestic first, so is Chicago to Los Angeles.
If we had made the free oneway in reverse, Los Angeles to Chicago after the Hawaii award, the free oneway would have been part of the return. The return is in economy, so the free oneway would have been also. When you are mixing-and-matching cabins, add the free oneway to the direction that is in a better cabin.
This award also illustrates that United free oneways can be before your main award to your home airport instead of after your main award from your home airport.
Cheap Oneways to Hawaii, South America, and beyond
Free oneways are only possible when you take the extra legs within the same region as your home airport. Hawaii is not in the same United award region as the continental US. Neither is Argentina, but you can combine oneways to those places onto a normal award and reap big savings.
When you add a oneway to somewhere outside the region of your home airport, you can figure out the price of the trip by checking out United’s interactive award chart.
Adding a oneway to Maui onto a roundtrip economy award to Europe costs 2,500 miles. The award chart tells us why. If you’re contemplating adding a oneway, look up the oneway price for your outbound and return including your tacked on oneway.
The outbound here is the mainland to Europe, which costs 30k in economy.
The return is Europe to Hawaii, which is 32.5k miles in economy.
That adds up (30k + 32.5k) to a total price of 62.5k miles, which is exactly what united.com charged for Newark to Frankfurt to Newark to Maui.
To save you a trip to the chart, I can tell you that on a business class award to Europe, a cheap oneway to Hawaii adds 7,500 miles (57.5k vs 50k). On a first class award to Europe, a oneway to Hawaii is free because mainland to Europe and Hawaii to Europe are both 67.5k miles in first class.
You don’t just have to keep your cheap oneway within the US though. You can easily fly down to another continent.
Here is a cheap oneway to Sao Paulo after a Newark to Europe itinerary. Normally Newark to Europe roundtrip in coach is 60k miles, and Newark to Sao Paulo oneway is 30k in coach, so booking this as two separate awards would be 90k miles. But if you book this as one award with a “stopover” in Newark, the price drops by 12,500 miles!
That’s a oneway to Sao Paulo for 17.5k miles. Using the same trick, you could add a cheap oneway to Central America for 2,500 miles or to Peru for 10k miles.
Negative Price Oneways
What about to the Caribbean? The Caribbean is also a separate zone from the continental US for determining miles needed. But amazingly on the United chart, it actually costs fewer miles to get from the Caribbean to Europe than from the continental US to Europe.
This is shocking considering the way to get from the Caribbean to Europe on the Star Alliance is by connecting through the US. Here’s a sample free oneway from the Caribbean to the US tacked on before the main European award. “Free” is a bit of a misnomer though, since adding the oneway actually decreased the price of the award by 2,500 miles!
Take off the oneway from St. Thomas to Philly, and you pay 2,500 more miles.
Free Oneways Outside the US
Nothing limits the free oneways to awards originating in the US or awards that touch the US. Here is an award with a free oneway that is wholly within Europe.
Vienna to Madrid roundtrip then months later Vienna to Rome oneway for 25,000 miles in economy class, the normal roundtrip price in economy class.
European aviation taxes: ouch!
This could have value if you live outside the US or if you want a base to explore from on your next vacation.
How to Book a Free Oneway on United Awards
I made a YouTube video with that very title.
You book the award exactly how you would book any multicity award with United miles, which I laid out how to do in How to Book Free Stopovers Online: United.
The number one question I get by far
The most common question I get by far is some variation of: “I read your post about free oneways on United and followed your steps, but I got an error message. What gives?”
The error may occur after clicking search, it may occur after picking the first leg, or it may occur after picking the first two legs.
The error is caused because United’s search engine doesn’t show all the results that it should when you search multicity. From my experience, it will only show the first few results that I found by searching each leg oneway when I repeat the exact same search as part of a multicity search.
For example, doing a oneway search of Hong Kong to Palm Springs on February 6, 2013 returns dozens of results, some near the bottom of the list with Saver (low-miles-price) availability.
Doing the multicity search necessary to book a free oneway award that includes HKG to PSP on February 6 returns only three results, none with Saver award space.
The cause of this glitch is unclear.
The only way I’ve ever remedied this glitch online is to search each leg oneway and find dates that have availability for my desired cities, preferably availability on the shortest itineraries (the ones on top). But in most cases, if the glitch strikes, booking online is impossible.
That means you have to book by phone, but United charges $25 per passenger if you book by phone. They will not waive this phone fee just because a booking could not be completed online. Here’s how you avoid the phone fee with United:
First, search for and reserve any United flight. if you reserve as much of your real trip as possible, you’ll save time, but you can literally put any one segment on hold, and this will work.
Continue as if you are booking online all the way until the payment page.
Then on the payment page, don’t pay. Instead, where you see the credit-card logos, you should click the link that says “phone order page.”
By clicking the link, you have reserved the award. You will get a confirmation number.
If you look on united.com under your itineraries, you’ll see that your award is held until 11:59 PM two days later.
Now you can call 800-UNITED-1 and change or add to the held reservation. Once the changes are made, you can ticket the reservation or hang up, in which case it would still be held until its expiration time.
Make sure when you decide to ticket it that you say you are calling in to ticket a reservation you started online, so they don’t accidentally charge you a phone ticketing fee. Don’t let them charge you that fee because if they do–and they shouldn’t–it will be very difficult to get the refund you deserve.
Phone ticketing fees are never charged to Premier Platinum members and higher.
Other troubleshooting
When the computer gives you an error message, you are in trouble. United does not post all of its award rules anywhere. Here are the posted rules. (Click the “Star Alliance air travel award rules” link.
These rules don’t give very many restrictions at all. No maximum length is mentioned; no maximum segments are given. No rule states which continents can be transited on awards. (For instance AA awards from the US to India can route through Europe, but not through Asia.)
This means the computer rules all. If the agent gets an error message when trying to price all your award segments, he will be loath to overrule the computer. Instead he will backfill reasons why your award is not permitted. Most of these reasons, in my experience, will not be written on the linked list of rules. Some “problems” will be expressly permitted by the rules. For instance, many United phone agents have told me that you can only get one open jaw per award when the rules online clearly say you get two–and I’ve booked tons of United awards with two open jaws.
What can you do? Don’t bother talking to the agent–he can’t change anything. Ask politely for a supervisor. Say you believe your award is legal, and ask him which rule it violates. Politely ask him to manually override the computer, and let you ticket the award for the correct price.
If he won’t, then you should ask him to cancel the award. You can try to call back and get a friendlier supervisor, but the first one will have noted that your held award is not valid, so you need to create a whole new reservation.
Persistence, politeness, and the fact that these awards are legal will help you, but there is no guarantee you will ever find someone to overrule a computer that won’t price an award.
The flip side of this annoyance is that sometimes the computer lets through some outrageous routings. For instance:
Yes, you are reading that right. The return is Lima to Houston to Los Angeles to Santa Barbara (stopover), Santa Barbara to Phoenix to Newark. The return goes west then east within the US. And yet the itinerary prices at 40,000 miles, which is the normal coach roundtrip from the US to Peru. Santa Barbara to Newark is a free oneway.
Can you rebook now that you’ve read this article to add a free oneway?
Yes, but it will cost you $75 or more. United’s award fees’ list says that changing the origin/destination costs $75–less if you have status.
I believe that agents must decide without a computer the correct fee to assess, so I would lobby for the destination-change fee instead of letting an agent talk you into cancelling and re-crediting then rebooking for $150.
A similar question is whether you can combine two oneway awards booked separately into a roundtrip to unlock the free stopover and thus the free oneway. That would cost $150 to cancel one and add it to the other.
Other Rules I Haven’t Mentioned
I haven’t talked about MPM, overwater carriers, or anything like that with respect to United free oneways because those concepts don’t apply. Each loyalty program has its own rules. United’s doesn’t worry about MPM for awards, and it has no crazy published-fare-from-overwater-carrier rule like American does.
Recap
Free oneways have changed how I book United awards. United is awesome for allowing us to book oneway awards for half the price of roundtrip, so I used to use United miles for oneways because I often like to travel in circles instead of roundtrips.
But since discovering free oneway, I try to book mostly roundtrips with United to unlock the stopover and two open jaws. And I try to avoid using the stopover on the main portion of the award, subbing in an open jaw and an Avios award if necessary, so I can save one open jaw and the stopover to get a free oneway.
I will be speaking at the Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University (Nov 30 – Dec 2, sold out) about adding free oneways to award tickets. To help myself prepare and to edify those who can’t attend, I’ll be writing a series of posts on the topic.
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Why Free Oneways Aren’t Possible on US Airways Awards
Comparison of Free Oneway Possibilities on Legacy Carriers
Three Vacations on Two Awards
Free Circle Trips on Awards
Almost Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
American Airlines has several unique rules relating to award routing that affect free oneways.
To get a free oneway on an American award, you need to comply with the following rules:
And as your reward, you will get a free oneway in each direction–two per roundtrip!–to anywhere in Hawaii, Alaska, the continental US, Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean, all the places defined by AA as North America.
Let’s take a look at these rules, and how they specifically relate to your ability to add free oneways to American Airlines awards.
The Five Cardinal Rules of American Airlines Awards
1. Stopovers must occur at the North American International Gateway City. The North American International Gateway City is the last North American city you transit on awards leaving North America.
On awards from other regions to North America, the North American International Gateway City is the North American city in which you first arrive.
North America is defined as the 50 US states, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, and the Caribbean.
Examples: On the itinerary Melbourne to Sydney to Honolulu to Los Angeles to Baltimore, the North American International Gateway City is Honolulu because it is where you enter North America. It is the only place on the itinerary where you can have a free stopover.
HNL is the North American International Gateway City on this routing as the first North American airport you arrive in or last one you depart depending on direction.
Imagine if you lived in Honolulu and took this routing. Onto your main Melbourne award home, you could be adding a free oneway to Baltimore.
Let’s look at another example. On an award from Los Angeles to New York to Boston to London, the North American International Gateway City is Boston because it is the city from which you leave North America. With this routing, Boston is the only place on the itinerary you can have a free stopover.
BOS is the North American International Gateway City on this routing. It is the only airport at which you can have a stopover, meaning it must be your home airport to add a free oneway.
If you lived in Boston, LAX to Boston would be a free oneway before your main award to London. It is a free oneway because it won’t increase the miles price of the award.
Of course, you have some control over the routing and thus the airport where you can have a stopover. If you find space on JFK-LHR, the above itinerary could be Los Angeles to New York to London, meaning the free stopover would be at New York. That means a free oneway is easily added to a New Yorker’s award to London.
To construct a free oneway, you need to take a stopover at your home airport. That means AA free oneways are only open to those who live at an international gateway city for American or one of its partners. For a complete list of North American International Gateway Cities of all AA partners, see the list I compiled.
2. Each of the two directions-outbound and return–must not exceed AA’s Maximum Permitted Mileage for your origin and destination by more than 25% as flown.
This is not as complicated as that sentence makes it seem. Maximum Permitted Mileage (MPM) is a term of art. It is a number of miles that the airline puts on all city pairs for which it publishes a fare. MPM is not the direct distance between two cities; it is usually a larger number.
You can find the MPM for a city pair on Expert Flyer, the KVS tool, or by asking an AA agent. Here’s how to do it on Expert Flyer.
Crucial: You need to look up the MPM for the origin and destination as AA sees them–including any free oneways.
Looking back the Los Angeles to New York to Boston to London example, Los Angeles to Boston was a free oneway, and our flyer’s main award was Boston to London. That’s how our flyer sees it, but American Airlines sees it as an award from Los Angeles to London with a stopover in Boston. That means you need to look up the MPM for Los Angeles to London and not exceed that MPM by 25%.
Let’s look at another example. The double slash separates the free oneway from the main award.
Example: Say you want to try this routing, LAX-BOS//BOS-NRT-TPE. In words, a free oneway from Los Angeles to Boston preceding Boston to Taipei. First I would head to Expert Flyer, and I would look up the MPM for LAX to TPE, since that is the origin and destination.
LAX-TPE has an MPM of 8,137 miles. (Note that this is much farther than the direct distance between the two, which Great Circle Mapper lists as 6,799 miles.)
Next I would multiply the MPM by 1.25, since we can exceed the MPM by 25% on awards. 10,171 miles is 25% greater than the MPM of LAX-TPE. Now, I can go to gcmap.com and check the distance of our putative routing. LAX-BOS-NRT-TPE is 10,669, which exceeds the allowable 10,171, so this is not a valid routing.
That means that AA would break this into two awards–LAX-BOS and BOS-TPE–and you’d have to pay more. That means you can’t get a free oneway from Los Angeles to Boston before an award to Taipei.
3. The airline that operates the flight that connects the two regions must have a published fare for your origin and destination city pair.
This is a rule that trips up a lot of otherwise awesome awards. It’s frustrating, and it’s not clear why the rule exists, but you have to know it.
When interpreting this rule, the same caveat from the previous rule applies: make sure you are including your free oneways when figuring out what AA sees as your origin and destination.
Example: You live in Los Angeles. You want to fly Melbourne to Los Angeles on Qantas, then two months later you want a free oneway to Baltimore (via JFK). That means Qantas–the region connecting carrier–has to have a published fare from MEL-BWI for the free oneway to be valid and to avoid this being priced as two awards.
How do you figure out if there is a published fare between a city pair? I check on Expert Flyer. Here’s how. Another free, roughly accurate, way is to see if you can book a ticket between the city pair on the operating airline’s website or kayak.
Expert Flyer finds several published fares from MEL-BWI on Qantas, so this free oneway from LAX-BWI is legal.
Or you can just see if you can have a routing price as one award over the phone. If you can, you have a legal routing and stopover.
4. All award travel must be completed within one year of its booking.
As I mentioned in the Introduction to Free Oneways post, this is a rule of all the legacy carriers.
You can have as long of a stopover as you want, you can stay at your destination as long as you want, and you can change your award to a later flight as many times as you want, subject to the fact that all travel must be completed within one year of the ticket’s issue.
Example 1: On January 1, 2013, you book MEL-LAX-JFK with a stopover in Los Angeles. MEL-LAX is January 2, 2013. Your maximum stopover in Los Angeles can be for nearly a year, you just need to complete LAX-JFK by December 31, 2013.
Example 2: On January 1, 2013, you book MEL-LAX-JFK with a stopover in Los Angeles. MEL-LAX is November 15, 2013. Your maximum stopover in Los Angeles is about a month and a half. You need to complete LAX-JFK by December 31, 2013.
Example 3: On January 1, 2013, you book MEL-LAX-JFK to be flown on November 15. In April, you decide to move the trip back. The latest you can move it back is to December 31, 2013 because all award travel must be completed within one year of the ticket being issued.
Bonus: Sometimes you may want to book a free oneway that occurs near the end of the one-year window. This can be impossible since AA only lets you book awards up to 330 days out.
This happened to me when I booked a Qantas flight from MEL-LAX 330 days out, and I wanted to add a free oneway to Tampa for a few weeks later. Here’s how to get your free oneway without having to pay a change fee to add it later.
When you call to ticket the award, tell the agent: “I want to stopover in LAX and add two more segments to Dallas then Tampa. The dates for those will be February 6. I know I can only book awards through January 15 today. Can you please add a note to the record about this, so that I can call back in to add those legs when they open up without incurring a change fee.”
Two-thirds of the AA agents I’ve asked to do this have done so. The other one-third, I hung up on, so I could call back to get a competent agent.
For a fuller treatment of this trick, see American Airlines Domestic Availability Trick.
5. Awards between Region A and Region B cannot transit Region C unless specifically allowed.
Many airlines let you route however you’d like as long as you don’t exceed MPM. But not American Airlines. If you want to go from the USA to Australia, you can’t transit another region, say Asia, no matter what.
Another annoying one is not being able to transit the Middle East en route from USA to Africa. That makes it impossible to use Etihad.
Here is a list of regions you can transit from flyerguide.com, which I believe is complete and accurate.
This rule doesn’t pertain specifically to free oneways, but it can ruin some otherwise beautiful routings like the US to India via Asia.
With those rules in mind, let me run through some itineraries to check their validity.
Puerto Rico-Boston//Boston-JFK-Tokyo-Taipei–invalid
(I created this example when there was a direct SJU-BOS flight on AA.)
If you live in Boston, Puerto Rico to Boston is an invalid free oneway before a trip to Taipei. This itinerary is going from North America to Asia, so the international gateway city is the last North American city, JFK. The only valid stopover point is at JFK.
Don’t be confused that Boston is the arrival point from Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is part of North America according to AA’s inclusive definition: the 50 US states, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Bahamas, and the Caribbean.
This means that we don’t need to worry whether we can transit the USA en route between the Caribbean and Asia. The USA isn’t a “third region.” It’s part of the same region as the origin–North America.
LAX-BOS//BOS-NRT-TPE–invalid
From above: LAX-TPE has an MPM of 8,137 miles. This is the MPM to check because we need to find the MPM for the entire trip including free oneways. Multiply the MPM by 1.25, since we can exceed the MPM by 25% on awards. The MPM of LAX-TPE times 1.25 is 10,171. LAX-BOS-NRT-TPE is 10,669 miles, which exceeds the allowable 10,171, so this is not a valid routing.
NRT-BOS//BOS-JFK-SJU–valid
This itinerary has the stopover at the international gateway city, and it’s about as direct as possible, so no exceeding-MPM worries. But does Japan Airlines, the overwater carrier from Tokyo to Boston. have a published fare from Tokyo to San Juan? YES, according to Expert Flyer!
Booking a Free Oneway
American, Alaska, Qantas, British, Hawaiian, and Finnair are all bookable on aa.com, so if your planned itinerary includes only those airlines, you can avoid talking to a phone agent and save the $25 per ticket fee.
On the aa.com homepage where you can search flights, check the box that says Redeem AAdvantage Miles, then click the link that says Multi-city.
This will bring you to a screen like the one shown below. Note what I’ve highlighted in red boxes.
The first two things I’ve highlighted show that you should automatically be brought to the AAdvantage Award tab with Multi-city selected. If you weren’t brought there, get there. Next search for the itinerary until the stopover and for the itinerary after the stopover.
Here I’ll be searching for an award from Los Angeles to London (LAX-LHR) with a free oneway from Honolulu to Los Angeles beforehand.
So I’ve typed in HNL-LAX for Flight 1 and LAX-LHR for Flight 2. Important: Type in your origin to your stopover for Flight 1, and your stopover to your destination for Flight 2. Do not type in each individual segment. For instance if I wanted everything the same but a destination of Paris not London, I would type in HNL-LAX and LAX-PAR. I would not type in HNL-LAX, LAX-LHR, LHR-PAR.
Next I’ve highlighted the dates just to point out that free oneway and main award can be as far apart as you’d like, only limited by the fact that all award travel must be competed within one year of booking.
After filling out the form, click the red GO button.
You should now be brought to a screen like this:
Look at what I’ve highlighted in the middle: the computer knows you’re getting a free stopover!
Now it’s up to you to choose what class you want. If you want Economy, select the Economy MileSAAver Off Peak for both legs. If you want business, select Business/First MileSAAver for both legs. First class is not available these weeks, but if it were, you’d select that in both places.
At the top, choose the date of the HNL-LAX leg. Why are there dashes instead of prices at the top? Because this is a free stopover, so the leg adds nothing to the miles prices, which are listed below for the main award leg.
After selecting dates, you can select flights. After selecting flights, we come to the checkout screen. Look at that price: 20,000 miles and $5 for 16 hours of flying!
What an incredible deal. And by knowing how to book this stopover online, we saved $25 and the hassle of calling American.
Don’t forget that you can get one free oneway per direction on international AA awards. And that the free oneway can be to Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Alaska, the Caribbean, or the continental US. Here’s a roundtrip award with two free oneways–one from Hawaii and one to Canada.
This award shows some of the many possibilities. The first free oneway–from Honolulu to New York–is before the main award. The second is after the main award from New York to Vancouver. (As a side note, were I to actually book this, I would look to get on the Cathay Pacific flight JFK-YVR for an incredible flat bed experience that has plenty of award space bookable by phone.)
The award mixes-and-matches cabins. The outbound is in economy class. It’s off peak to Europe, so it costs only 20k miles. The return is in business class for 50k miles, hence the 70k total. The award is a double open jaw, out of Honolulu and into Vancouver plus into London out of Paris. (Always fly into London, out of Paris not vice versa to avoid the punitive taxes for flying out of London in premium classes.)
Here’s a free oneway I have coming up:
This award cost 62,500 miles, exactly what you would expect for a oneway in business class (on an A380!) from Australia to the US. The extra legs in first class to Tampa are the free oneway that cost me zero extra miles and only $5 in taxes. Don’t forget that international business class equates to two-cabin domestic first class, so you can ride up front on the domestic segments.
If you want to book a free oneway on an American Airlines partner that is not bookable online, call AA at 800-882-8880 to book. You will incur a $25 phone fee.
For search tips for other AA partners, see Using BA.com for Oneworld Award Searches.
Recap
Airline: American Airlines
How Many Free Oneways: One per oneway, two per roundtrip
What Types of Awards Allow Free Oneways: International Only
Free Oneways To/From Where: North America (50 US states, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean) subject to overwater-carrier-published-fare rule
Routing Restrictions: Cannot exceed MPM by more than 25% in either direction including free oneway, home airport must be North American International Gateway city, cannot transit third region unless explicitly allowed
Overall, I really love free oneways on American awards. The ability to add a free oneway to a domestic flight is unmatched. The ease of adding a free oneway to Hawaii is unmatched.
I happen to live in Los Angeles, which has direct service to five continents on AA partners, so I am spoiled by not having to worry much about the International-Gateway-city rule. If you live at an airport without international flights, stay tuned for Almost Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards.
The other drawback I haven’t mentioned yet is that American collects surcharges of about $300 per British Airways longhaul segment, so BA is generally not the airline you want to fly transatlantically on AA awards.
Posted in AAdvantage, Best Of, Free Oneway, Seminar
Tagged American Airlines, Free oneway
I will be speaking at the Los Angeles Frequent Traveler University (Nov 30 – Dec 2, sold out) about adding free oneways to award tickets. To help myself prepare and to edify those who can’t attend, I’ll be writing a series of posts on the topic.
Introduction to Free Oneways
Master Thread: Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on United Awards
Master Thread: Free Oneways on Delta Awards
Why Free Oneways Aren’t Possible on US Airways Awards
Comparison of Free Oneway Possibilities on Legacy Carriers
Three Vacations on Two Awards
Free Circle Trips on Awards
Almost Free Oneways on American Airlines Awards
A free oneway is a oneway itinerary to or from your home airport added on to another award for no additional miles. For example, adding New York to Honolulu onto an American Airlines award from London to New York costs zero additional miles, so New York to Honolulu would be a free oneway.
While the rules differ by airline–some form of a free oneway is possible on United, American, and Delta awards–the “trick” that unlocks a free oneway is constant: a stopover at your home airport.
Most airlines allow one or more free stopovers on award tickets. If we take that free stopover at out home airport instead of en route, we can unlock a free oneway.
For instance, in the example I already gave of London to New York with a free oneway to Honolulu, we are taking the one free stopover per direction on American Airlines awards at our home airport of New York. This stopover can last for months. Then months later, we can take a free oneway to Hawaii–effectively cutting our airfare in half for a second vacation.
Stopping over at your home airport is the key. No airline agent will know what a free oneway is. You’ll never read about free oneways on lists of airline award rules. An airline agent–and an airline award-pricing computer program–will see your free oneway as a stopover and an open jaw because that’s all it technically is. But we’ll combine that stopover and open jaw into half of our next vacation!
This diagram shows a typical free oneway from Newark to Los Angeles after a main award from Newark to Frankfurt roundtrip. This award has one stopover, at Newark on the return. This award has one open jaw. Its origin–Newark–doesn’t match its destination–LAX.
Despite each airline having its own free oneway rules, there are certain rules that are universal:
1. All award travel must be completed within one year of booking the ticket. This limits the gap between your main award and the free oneway. For instance, if you book an award on January 1, 2013, all segments of that award–including any segment that’s part of a free oneway–must take off by December 31, 2013.
2. Your free oneway can be before the main award to your home airport or after your main award from your home airport. To use the Newark-to-Frankfurt main award as an example, you can either add a free oneway to Newark before the main award or a free oneway from Newark after the main award.
Hopefully, this is intuitive. You can’t have an award like:
Newark to Los Angeles
Newark to Frankfurt
Frankfurt to Newark
That Newark to Los Angeles is not attached to the main award at all. To correct this, you would need to change the direction, so that the award was LAX-EWR//EWR-FRA//FRA-EWR or change the timing, so the award was EWR-FRA//FRA-EWR//EWR-LAX.
3. The cabin for your free oneway will be the same as the cabin for the rest of its direction. If your free oneway is prior to your main award’s outbound, your free oneway will be in the cabin of your main award’s outbound. If your free oneway is after your main award’s return, your free oneway will be in the cabin of your main award’s return.
And for the purposes of this rule, international business class and two-cabin domestic first class are the “same cabin.” For instance, I am flying Qantas business class from Melbourne to Los Angeles, using American miles. I tacked a free oneway from Los Angeles to Tampa onto the award for a month later in American Airlines domestic first class because domestic first is allowed on international business awards.
These are the three major constant rules. Other rules like how many free oneways you can get, where the free oneway can go, and whether the free oneway is free or costs a small amount of miles vary by airline.
Finally I want to answer the number one question I get about free oneways. How do you get back after a free oneway?
Any way you want. You can book a return from a free oneway as a oneway award. I am returning from my free oneway to Tampa on a oneway Southwest award. Avios awards are very cheap if your route has a direct American Airline flight. Or United and American allow domestic oneway awards for 12,500 miles.
Alternatively you can buy a oneway cash ticket to return. Most US airlines charge half price for oneway cash tickets compared to roundtrips, so this is a fine option.
Recap
This was a bare bones introduction to free oneways on award tickets. Future installments will look at the specifics for free oneways on each legacy carrier.
I’ll also look at some more advanced, cool routings that free oneways open up.
Alex writes:
I’m a huge fan of your free one-way series although it left me bitter at the very beginning when I realized how many great opportunities I missed by redeeming my miles incorrectly. But I’m trying to fix it now. [Scott: I get a variation of this frequently. Better late than never.]
I’m looking to fly to China from Seattle in November and found availability I needed on Delta flights SEA-PEK and PVG-SEA for 70K miles but when I try adding the third leg SEA-ANC, Delta prices it at 95K, the full 25K extra miles for the third leg. I made sure all flights are available at low price. Is it because SEA is not a Delta hub and the routing is invalid?
Alex has a great idea. He want to fly an open jaw economy award to China:
Seattle to Beijing
Shanghai to Seattle
And on to that he wants to add a free oneway months later from Seattle to Alaska as I described in the seminal Free Oneways on Delta Awards.
He even found all low-level award availability–no easy task with Delta–so he is hoping to pay 70k miles for the award, which is the roundtrip economy price between the US and China with Delta SkyMiles.
Unfortunately his award is pricing at 95k SkyMiles. The 95k price tag reflects the addition of the 70k award from Seattle to China and back to the 25k Delta would charge for a oneway award between Seattle and Anchorage. (Remember that Delta charges the roundtrip price for oneway awards, so Seattle to Anchorage oneway is 25k miles.)
Why is Delta pricing the award like this instead of granting Alex his free oneway? It took me a second to catch, but the problem is that Alex has two open jaws.
Delta award rules allow one stopover AND one open jaw. This award only has one stopover–in Seattle on the return–but it has two open jaws.
An open jaw on an award is when the destination of one direction doesn’t match up with the origin of the other direction. Here the destination of the outbound is Beijing, and the return’s origin is Shanghai. That’s one mismatch, so it’s one open jaw.
The destination of the return is Anchorage, which is a mismatch with the outbound’s origin, Seattle. That’s a second open jaw. For more information on open jaws, see What is an Open Jaw? How Can An Itinerary Have Two Open Jaws?
Alex’s putative award is a classic double open jaw, which Delta doesn’t allow. United and American do allow double open jaws on awards. US Airways allows one open jaw OR one stopover.
What this failed attempt at a free oneway on a Delta award illustrates is that if you want to add a free oneway to a Delta award–among other rules–your “main award” must be a straight roundtrip. Why? You need to conserve both the stopover and open jaw for the free oneway.
For example, if Alex flew Seattle to Beijing, and Beijing to Seattle, he could add a free oneway from Seattle to Anchorage at the end. This award would have one stopover–Seattle on the return–and one open jaw–out of Seattle, returning to Anchorage.
Alex has to decide between his open jaw in China and his free oneway to Alaska. This problem is unique to Delta awards. No such problem confronts someone using United or American miles, although with United miles you have to choose between an en route stopover and a free oneway. See Choosing Between a Free Stopover and a Free Oneway on United Awards.
To decide whether to use the open jaw in China or the free oneway to Alaska, Alex should compare paid ticket prices on the flights he would have to buy if he doesn’t include them in his award.
Recap
Delta awards allow only one open jaw. Free oneways require one open jaw. That means that you can’t have an open jaw as part of your main Delta award if you want to add a free oneway.
I have earned millions of points, primarily though credit cards, to travel the world in first class for pennies. This blog will show you how to earn and redeem points to do the same!