What Is an Open Jaw Itinerary? When and How to Use Open Jaws
July 30, 2025
If you don’t know what an open-jaw itinerary is and haven’t booked flights this way, you’re not alone.
The simplest way to think about an open jaw is that it represents a gap without flights at some point in an itinerary. A common use is for two-way travel on an itinerary where the destination and/or the origin cities aren’t the same in both directions.
An example of an open-jaw itinerary with flights from Chicago (ORD) to Paris (CDG) and Madrid (MAD) to Chicago is depicted below.
Reader Question,AAdvantage,Routing Rules
Why Is My American Airlines Award Pricing 25k Miles Higher Than It Should?
March 16, 2014
We just got an interesting comment on Bill's great recent post about Booking Etihad Business Class Using American Miles.
MojoMama is trying to go from Los Angeles (LAX) to the Maldives (MLE) in First Class.
The United States to the Maldives should be 90k miles each way in First Class according to American Airlines' chart. But she's getting charged 115k miles:
Trying to book LAX-JFK(stopover)-AUH-MLE in first for August, but it’s pricing at 115,000 miles. Being told AUH-MLE is separate award because it’s not in the same region, which I know is false.
United,US Airways,Award Booking,Routing Rules
US Airways Award Chart Sweet Spot: Australia via Asia
October 14, 2012
US Airways and American Airlines have merged since the publication of this post so it is no longer valid.
US Airways has some incredible deals on its award chart. I've talked about off peak awards, South America deals, and intra-South Asia before.
Avios,Routing Rules,AAdvantage,How to,Free Oneway,US Airways
How Americans Can Exploit US Airways’ Cheap Awards from South America
August 22, 2012
Yesterday I talked about some great sweet spots on the US Airways chart for awards originating in South America. Maybe you thought that post was irrelevant for Americans.
But Americans can still get half the value of these sweet-spot awards by using open jaw itineraries.
US Airways sweet-spot awards can have tremendous value for Americans if they're employed as part of something I'll call a triangle award.
A triangle award is using three or more oneway itineraries to create a journey that includes two or more destinations.