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Note: This post may have a shorter shelf life due to the impending US Airways merger.
Our Award Booking Service receives numerous requests from clients trying to maximize the value of their miles. These savvy travelers want to fly in the best premium cabins and take advantage of any and all liberal routing rules available.
Luckily, many of our clients have large Dividend Miles balances. Dividend Miles are tops on the Mile Value Leaderboard for a few reasons including: other than being limited to one stopover or one open jaw on a roundtrip itinerary, there are nearly limitless ways to squeeze extra value out of an award itinerary.
Because US Airways manually prices each award, you can get away with quite a bit. For instance, you can connect in Europe en route to Asia or even visit four (!) continents on one roundtrip award. Simply put, they don’t have a computer program in place to say “no.”
There is a downside to this policy, however. An agent might reject your itinerary and cite a seemingly official US Airways routing rule.
I can assure you that most of these “rules” are made up by the agent. Sometimes if an award looks complicated to an agent, they will create a rule of out thin air to make you and your complicated itinerary go away.
What are some commonly quoted US Airways award rules you can bend? How do you do that?
One of my favorite faux award rules concerns stopovers. US Airways permits one stopover per roundtrip award. I’ve been told numerous times that the stopover city must also be a Star Alliance hub. I’m here to tell you that simply isn’t true.
The Star Alliance certainly has a lot of desirable hub cities for stopover purposes: Istanbul (Turkish), Vienna (Austrian), Seoul (Asiana), Tokyo (All Nippon Airways), Lisbon (TAP Portugal) to name a few. However, many of our clients want to take their stopover in other cities. Below are two examples that disprove the Star Alliance Hub City Stopover rule.
One of our clients in Philadelphia wanted to visit family in Sofia, Bulgaria after their trip to Bangkok. Sofia certainly isn’t a Star Alliance hubs, though it is served by many Star Alliance carriers. I expected to face a bit of resistance in booking this itinerary.
- Philadelphia -> Frankfurt (Lufthansa)
- Frankfurt -> Bangkok (Thai)
- Bangkok -> Frankfurt (Thai)
- Frankfurt -> Sofia (Lufthansa)
(One-week stopover)
- Sofia -> Vienna (Austrian)
- Vienna -> Venice (Austrian)
- Venice -> Philadelphia (US Airways)
For the more visual learners out there, below is the routing from Bangkok, courtesy of the Great Circle Mapper:
In economy, the roundtrip price between North America (Philadelphia) and South/Central Asia (Bangkok) is 80,00o Dividend Miles. I cleared the first hurdle when the phone agent priced the award at 80k along plus approximately $150 in taxes plus the mandatory $50 Dividend Miles processing fee on all international awards.
I was ready to ticket on behalf of the client, but unfortunately when the agent verified the routing with the rate desk, she came back with the dreaded “Star Alliance Hub City Stopover” rule. I politely asked her to keep the itinerary on hold and I would make the necessary changes later in the day.
Sometimes, hanging up and calling back is the best remedy for getting an award booked. I immediately phoned US Airways again and found a much more proactive agent. Within fifteen minutes, I had the award booked for our client. They would not only be able to enjoy Bangkok on their vacation, they would also see their family in Sofia on the return. That’s a winning itinerary!
This successful booking isn’t an anomaly. We had another Los Angeles-based client with a boat load of Dividend Miles. He wanted to have a stop in Paris en route to their guided tour through China.
I was able to piece together the following award for a couple.
- Los Angeles -> Houston (United First)
- Houston -> Frankfurt (Lufthansa Business)
- Frankfurt -> Paris (Lufthansa Business)
(One-week stopover)
- Paris -> Beijing (Air China Business)
(Three-week tour)
- Beijing -> Los Angeles (Air China Business)
This award was a bit trickier to pull off. The first few agents I spoke with balked at the around-the-world routing. However, no one mentioned that Paris isn’t a Star Alliance hub city. After a few tries, I was able to secure this award for my client at an absurdly great 90,000 Dividend miles/person plus minimal taxes and fees. Remember that US Airways charges 90k miles for a roundtrip business class award between the US and North Asia, one of the best values on any award chart.
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Recap
It’s very easy to construct advantageous routings on a US Airways award. US Airways agents manually price awards, unlike some other airlines that have computers to reject certain routings.
You might meet resistance and be given excuses why you won’t be able to ticket your award. One of those excuses is that your stopover city must also be a Star Alliance hub. In my experience, this is not a US Airways award routing rule in practice, and I’ve provided two examples (Paris and Sofia) of two itineraries that contradict it. When you are told “no”, sometimes the best remedy is keep the award on hold. Hang up and call back until you find a more understanding agent.
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Should I be able to book the following in business for 90,000 Dividend miles: LAX-TPE-HKG (2 days at my “destination”) then “return” HKG-BKK (two week stopover) BKK-NRT-LAX? In other words, can I use Hong Kong as my “destination” and then use my stopover on the return in Bangkok or would this only work if I get a geographically challenged agent?
Keep calling and it will probably work. I would lead the call with “I want to book an award from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.”
I just spent a super gorgeous, sunny, summer weekend cooped up inside looking for Lufthansa Business award space for next summer. (Ha ha Sometimes, I wonder about myself and this addictive hobby.)
When does the Lufthansa business award space generally open up? FRA-IAH did exist, but not to much of anywhere else in the United States.
I am writing a post about this right now on a sunny day in Buenos Aires. There is putrid award space on United and Lufthansa for next summer. I don’t know when it will open up, but I assume it will happen in the next few months. I would set a flight alert for the flight(s) you most want on ExpertFlyer.
In that article you are writing… Would it be a viable strategy to reserve award travel in economy and then try to upgrade into business if it becomes available later?
And before I ask any more questions, it’s time to give a shout out to you and your team. A big THANK YOU for sharing so generously of all your hard won knowledge. I know it’s hard won, because I had to forgo picnics and beach time looking for award space this weekend. 🙂
You’ll pay $150 to change a US Airways ticket later and $100 to change a United ticket later. (per person). If you are willing to fly economy but hoping for biz, booking economy now can be an OK strategy. If you want business only, wait.
Further complicating this is US Airways moving to oneworld and eventually being part of AA. If you book a Star Alliance partner now, you may not be able to easily make changes post-merger.
Joanne – with United miles you can change an award from economy to business if space opens up for a change fee (from $0 for Plats up to $100 for non-elites). But, with US, I believe this would require cancelling/redepositing the existing award and booking a new award.
[…] to accept my complicated routing. Though US Airways phone agents often say “no” due to arbitrary rules, there were many issues they could take with this. The itinerary was more than eight segments. I […]
Is this possible: EWR – ZRH (stopover) – FRA – ICN (destination) – JFK? Does US Airways consider returning to a different airport within the same metropolitan area an open-jaw?
That’s fine. They’re co-terminal, so it is not an open jaw.
Thank you!
Just booked one the other day that adds fuel to the debunking… First agent told me that one of the segments needed to be a nonstop. Called back and the second agent ticketed this itinerary for me! ANA 777-300, thai a380, turkish 330 in business!
DCA-ORD-NRT (7 DAYS IN JAPAN)
NRT-BKK-CDG (2 DAYS STOPOVER IN PARIS)
CDG-IST-IAD (WITH A ONE NIGHT <24 HOUR STOP IN ISTANBUL)
Is this route possible as a round trip award and how many Dividend Miles is needed for business, around second week of May 2014 ORD to Austria, stay a few days then to Copenhagen for 9 day cruise, back to ORD , June 6, then a one way to Maui sometime Feb 2015. If I go I plan to use your service again. Will you be able to help and it will be for 3 or 4 awards. Thanks
That’s two stopovers (Austria and ORD on the return), you only get the first one. When you’re ready to book, fill out the form, and we’ll get to work!
How many Dividend Miles do I need for the above itinerary in business. ( No more Maui )
The one to China is 90k. The one to BKK is 120k.
Would this work for booking a trip from IAD/ PHL to Denpassar for 10 days and routing back to IAD/ PHL via Nadi, Fiji. When I called USAIR they of course gave me the hub city rule.
You may have to call a lot to find an agent who forgets that rule.
[…] Bill debunked another award booking “rule,” so that you can maximize your miles in Debunked Award Rule: US Airways Star Alliance Hub Stopover. […]
For a North Asia via Europe 90k award with US Airways miles, does it matter how many days the stopover is in Europe? Does it have to be less than the North Asia trip? Thanks
No and no. Only rule is all award travel must be completed within one year of booking ticket. Stay in Europe 9 months if you’d like.
A little late to the game with my comment, but then I just booked my ticket.
DEN->YYZ-IST-AYT with a 4 week layover
AYT->IST->KIX->OKA final destination for 1 week
OKA->NRT->SJC->DEN
90000 points & $107 and not even a hint that there might be a problem with AYT not being a *A hub.
Now – there are some minor issues with the USAirway’s computer system. For reasons unclear they can’t enter my United FF number so that the BPs will show *G status, and so I had to call the United Premier line to do my seat selections. And I’ll have to carry my *G card to make sure ANA doesn’t try to charge me for my second bag on the way home, but those are minor. ANA let me pick my seat on the 787 and the domestic flights, as did Air Canada to Istanbul. Turkish won’t do seats until 100 days before the flight, according to their website.
Life is good… 😉
Enjoy the trip! Looks awesome. 🙂
Thanks!
Four-ish weeks hiking the Lycian Way, then a week exploring Okinawa.
A great way to wrap up the year!
Awesome!
[…] cities. Although people rather than computers enforce rules at US Airways so stopovers anywhere have been achieved. The award price is actually lower at US Airways as well – 120k points instead of 150k for […]