Book American Airlines Award Flights Like a Pro: Part 4 – One-way, Openjaws, Stopovers, & North American Gateway Cities

 Book American Airlines Awards Like a Pro:

• Part 1 – Introduction
• Part 2 – Types of Awards & Charts
• Part 3 – How Much Will My Award Cost?
• Part 4 – One-way, Openjaws, Stopovers, & North American Gateway Cities
• Part 5 – American Airlines, Alaska Airlines & Hawaiian Airlines for North American awards
• Part 6 – International Award Routes
• Part 7 – Finding British Airways Award Availability
• Part 8 – Finding Cathay Pacific Award Availability using the British Airways website
• Part 8b – Finding Cathay Pacific Award Availability using Japan Airlines’ Website
• Part 9 – Finding Iberia (& European) Award Availability using the Qantas Website
• Part 10 – Finding LAN & South American Award Availability
• Part 11 – Finding Air Tahiti Nui Awards to France & French Polynesia with FlightStats
• Part 11b – Finding Air Tahiti Nui Awards to France & French Polynesia with ExpertFlyer

One-way Awards

American Airlines lets you book one-way award tickets.

This is great because it gives you a lot of options.  For example, you can book a one-way ticket to Rome using American Airlines miles, but book a return one-way ticket using United or Continental miles.

Openjaws

This is a silly geeky way of saying that you fly from your origin (City A) to your destination (City B) , but then fly back from another city (City C) to your origin (City A).

For example, I fly from Chicago (City A) to London (City B), but I fly back from Paris (City C) back to my origin in Chicago (City A).

Here’s a more detailed explanation of an Openjaw.

Since American Airlines lets you book one-way awards, you can have open-jaw itineraries very easily.

For example, I’d book Chicago to London on 1 award.  And I’d book Paris back to Chicago as my 2nd award.

Stopovers

A stopover is when you intentionally take a break in your journey while traveling from your origin to your destination.

For example, say I am traveling from Chicago (origin) to Barcelona (destination) and decide to break my journey in London (stopover) for 3 days.  In this case, I have made a “stopover” in London and my flights would be like this: Chicago (origin) – London (stop) – Barcelona (destination).

Or I am traveling from Kansas City (origin) to London (destination), but decide to break my journey in New York (stop over) for 5 days.  In this case, I have made a “stopover” in New York and flights would be like this: Kansas City (origin) – New York (stop) – London (destination).

Here’s where it gets confusing:  Airlines often have different rules for stopovers when you are flying on a paid (revenue) ticket and when you are flying on an award ticket.

American Airlines also has different rules for stopovers when using their Oneworld awards.  But this post focuses only on the stopover rules for the more common American Airlines & All Airline Award chart.

American Airlines Stopover Rules

North America refers to the US (including Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

1.   Awards within North America.

American Airlines doesn’t allow stopovers on award tickets in North America.

This means that if you are flying from Detroit to Tampa, you can’t stop for a few days in Chicago (stopover) on 1 award ticket.  You’d have to book Detroit to Chicago as 1 award and another award from Chicago to Tampa if you wanted to stopover in Chicago.

Moreover, you only have 4 hours or less to make your connection for awards within North America.  A layover longer than 4 hours is automatically priced as 2 separate awards.

There is an exception if the only flight to your destination (Tampa) is more than 4 hours away (say you arrived in Chicago late at night and the next flight to Tampa is the next day), you can take that flight, the next day, and still be charged for only 1 award.

However, if that next flight is more than 24 hours away, your award will be priced as 2 separate one-way awards.

2.  Awards between North America & Europe, Asia, India, or Central/South America.

You can have a stopover, but it has to be in the North American gateway city.  Note that most other airlines don’t require your stopover to be in the North American gateway city.

The North American gateway city is the city from which you either arrive or depart from North America on a non-stop international flight to an international destination outside North America.

For example, I’m traveling from San Fransisco (origin) to Barcelona (destination) & my flight route is: San Fransisco – New York – London – Barcelona.

I CAN have a stopover in New York because New York is the North American Gateway city.

I CAN’T have a stopover in London, because London is NOT a North American Gateway city. Technically, you can have a layover in London of not more than 24 hours. Anything longer than 24 hours will be priced as 2 separate awards.

But I Want a Stopover Outside North America!

1.  Book 3 one-way awards.  Say you want to go from San Fransisco to London, stop for a few days in London and then fly back to San Fransisco from Berlin.  You’ll have to book 3 separate one-way awards:

•  1 award from your origin to your stopover city (San Fransisco to London)
• Another from your stopover city to your destination (London to Berlin)
• And the the 3rd from your destination city back to your origin, assuming you want to return to your origin (Berlin to San Fransisco)

2.   Buy a one-way ticket.  You can always book an award ticket from your origin to your stopover city and then buy a cheap plane or train ticket from your stopover city to your destination.

Say you want to go from Dallas to London, stop for a few days in London and then fly back to Dallas  from Barcelona.

You would book a 1-way award ticket from the Dallas to London.  Next you would buy a cheap plane or train ticket from London to Barcelona.  And finally you would book a one-way award ticket from Barcelona back to the Dallas.

3.  Consider a Oneworld award.  Oneworld awards are distance based, but allow you to have up to 16 segments and have many stopovers.  But check to make sure that you’re not paying more miles (especially if you only have 1 or 2 stopovers planned).

How To Book Stopovers

There is no maximum length for a stopover at the North American gateway, but all travel on an award ticket must be completed within one year from the date when the award ticket was issued.

American Airlines flights: If ALL your flights are on an American Airlines operated flight,  you can book the stopover award at AA.com by using the multi-city option.  We’ll cover this in a future post.

But, if you want to use a oneworld partner or other airline partner (which open up lots more options) for one or more segments on your award, you will have to call American Airlines and tell them that you want to book an award from your origin to destination with a North American gateway stopover.

Ideally you would have done your research and will feed the specific flight segments to the agent (which we’ll cover in a later post).

North American Gateway Cities for American Airlines Awards

I compiled a list of North American gateway cities at the end of the post for American Airlines & their Oneworld and other partners.  I also included the partner airlines flights so that you see just how many more options you have when you consider partner airlines when trying to book award tickets.

I expect there to be errors in the list below so please comment and let me know of changes.  And please let me know if this information existed elsewhere so that I can bang my head on the desk for all the hours I spent squinting at route maps!

Just because a city is a North American gateway city doesn’t mean that you can have a stopover. Your route has to make sense.

For example, you can’t fly from Seattle to Mexico City, have a stopover in Mexico City and then fly to London.  But you could fly from Seattle to almost any other continental US or Canadian city, say Washington, DC, have a stopover there, and then fly to London.

We’ll cover how to check the maximum permitted mileage (MPM) which American lets you exceed by 25%, routing rules, and how to add a free stopover to your flight if you’re lucky to live in a gateway city in a future post.

How to use the North American Gateway Cities List Below:

1) Plan Stopovers.  If you want to stopover in Denver en route to say Europe, you can use the list to see that you would have to fly on British Airways from Denver to London.  British Airways charges fuel surcharges (~$350 per segment) so this doesn’t make sense in coach.

2) Plan Awards.  Use the list below to see how many options you have for award travel besides traveling on American Airlines flights.

For example, if you want to go to Europe, you’ll see that, besides American Airlines flights,  you can fly on partner airlines from many different US airports to:

• Spain (on Iberia)
• Germany (on Air Berlin)
• The UK (on British Airways)
• Belgium (on Jet Airways)
• France (on Air Tahiti Nui)
• Finland (on Finnair).

And once you find award seats to Spain, Germany, the UK, Belgium, France, or Finland you can then look for connections to your final destination.

Booking award tickets is like a puzzle, but the most important pieces are the international flight segments (sometimes referred to as over water segments).  The list below gives you a good idea of your options when departing from the US.

Atlanta (ATL)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Baltimore (BWI)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Boston (BOS)

• American Airlines to London (LHR) & Paris (CDG)
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Iberia to Madrid (MAD) & Barcelona (BCN)
• Japan Airlines to Tokyo (NRT)

Chicago (ORD)

• American Airlines to various destinations
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (HKG)
• Iberia to Madrid & Barcelona (BCN)
• Etihad to Abu Dhabi (AUH)
• Japan Airlines to Tokyo (NRT)
• Royal Jordanian to Amman (AMM)

Denver (DEN)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Detroit (DTW)

• Royal Jordanian to Amman (AMM)

Dallas Fort Worth (DFW)

• American Airlines to various destinations
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Qantas to Sydney (SYD)

Fort Myers (RSW)

• Air Berlin to Dusseldorf (DUS)

Houston (IAH)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Honolulu (HNL)

• Air Pacific to Apia (APW), Kiritimati (CXI), Nadi (NAN)
• Hawaiian Airlines to Manila (MNL), Pago Pago (PPG), Papeete (PPT), Sydney (SYD), Tokyo (HND), & Seoul (ICN)
• Japan Airlines to Nagoya (NGO), Osaka (KIX), Tokyo, Narita (NRT) & Tokyo, Haneda (HND)
• Qantas to Sydney (SYD)

Las Vegas (LAS)

• British Airways to London (LHR & LGW)
• Air Berlin to Berlin (BER)

Los Angeles (LAX)

• Air Berlin to Berlin (BER) Dusseldorf (seasonal)
• Air Pacific to Nadi (NAN)
• Air Tahiti Nui to Papeete, French Polynesia (PPT) & Paris (CDG)
• American Airlines to various destinations
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (HKG)
• El Al to Tel Aviv (TLV)
• Iberia to Madrid (MAD)
• Japan Airlines to Tokyo (NRT)
• LAN to Lima (LIM) & Santiag0 (SCL)
• Qantas to Auckland (AKL) cancelled after May, Brisbane (BNE), Melbourne (MEL), & Sydney (SYD)

Mexico City (MEX)

• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Iberia to Madrid (MAD)
• LAN to Lima (LIM)

Miami (MIA)

• Air Berlin to Berlin (BER) & Dusseldorf (DUS)
• American Airlines to various destinations
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Iberia to Madrid (MAD) & Barcelona (BCN)
• LAN to Lima (LIM) & Santiag0 (SCL)

Montreal (YUL)

• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Qatar Airlines to Doha (DOH)
• Royal Jordanian to Amman (AMM)

New York (JFK)

• American Airlines to various destinations
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (HKG)
• El Al to Tel Aviv (TLV)
• Etihad to Abu Dhabi (AUH)
• Finnair to Helsinki (HEL)
• Iberia to Madrid (MAD) & Barcelona (BCN)
• Japan Airlines to Tokyo (NRT)
• LAN to Lima (LIM) & Santiag0 (SCL)
• Royal Jordanian to Amman (AMM)
• Qantas to Sydney (SYD)

Newark (EWR)

• British Airways to London (LHR)
• El Al to Tel Aviv (TLV)
• Jet Airways to Brussels (BRU)

Orland0 (MCO)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Philadelphia (PHL)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Phoenix (PHX)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

San Diego (SAN)

• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Japan Airlines to Tokyo (NRT) [begins in December 2012]

San Fransisco (SFO)

• Air Berlin to Dusseldorf (Seasonal)
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (HKG)
• Japan Airlines to Tokyo, Haneda (HND)
• LAN to Lima (LIM)

San Juan (SJU)

• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Iberia to Madrid (MAD)

Seattle (SEA)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Raleigh (RDU)

• American Airlines to London (LHR)

Tampa (TPA)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Toronto (YYZ)

• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (HKG)
• El Al to Tel Aviv (TLV)
• Etihad to Abu Dhabi (AUH)
• Finnair to Helsinki (HEL)
• Jet Airways to Brussels (BRU)

Vancouver (YVR)

• Air Berlin to Dusseldorf (DUS)
• British Airways to London (LHR)
• Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong (HKG)

Washington, Dulles (IAD)

• British Airways to London (LHR)

Here’s another list of gateway cities from Mile Value.

I’m relying on readers to let me know of changes to this post, because the list and routes are going to change.

And please leave a comment if anything doesn’t make sense!

Next in the series will be: booking domestic and international awards.