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How to Use British Airways Miles: Post 8, The Art of the Stopover

by on April 23, 2011 · 76 comments

in British Airways, Points Guy Pointers

Update: The current sign-up bonus offer for the British Airways Visa is 50,000 Avios. 25,000 upon first use, and another 25,000 when you spend $2,500 within 90 days.

This is the eighth installment of my series on maximizing British Airways miles. Since so many of you got in on the super-lucrative 100,000 mile BA Visa sign-up bonus (see details of the current 100K offer), it would be beneficial to check out: General tips, Post 1 – Booking BA Awards, Post 2 – Booking Partner Awards, Post 3 – Oneworld Alliance, Post 4 – Taxes and Fees, Post 5 – Household Accounts, Post 6 – Companion Ticket, Post 7 – Using ExpertFlyer for Partner Award Availability, Post 8 – The Art of the Stopover, Post 9 – Leveraging Miles and Cash Redemptions, and Post 10 - Using Qantas.com to Find Oneworld Award Availability. Also, be sure to look at my post on the credit card deal itself and the lengthy Q&A in the comments section.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails asking me to explain the super-flexible stopover rule. Basically, British Airways will allow unlimited stopovers on award tickets, within reason. The good and bad thing is that there is very little in the rulebook about this. Whereas most airlines have defined rules (no stopovers, 1 stopover, 1 stopover and open jaw or 2 stopovers), British Airways simply states in their Executive Club Rules:

“13.8. There are no charges for stopovers included in an Award itinerary. Where stopovers are at connecting points on the most direct route between origin and destination.”

Simple rules from here:
1) You need to call to book stopover awards (1 800 452 1201)

2) You should do all of your research before you call. I recommend using Britishairways.com to search for partner award availability. However – if you don’t live in a major gateway, you should search leg by leg using the one way search function. For example, don’t plug in Minneapolis to Singapore and expect britishairways.com to figure all of the routing options out for you. You need to know the routing (an easy way would be to go to travelocity.com and see what Oneworld partner routing options come up). For example Minneapolis-Chicago-Hong Kong-Singapore. In this case, you’d have to mix American and Cathay Pacific, which would make this a multi Oneworld partner award. Multi = lots of miles = bad. So instead, I’d recommend booking an award Minneapolis to Chicago and then another Chicago-Hong Kong – Singapore on Cathay. You could stopover in Chicago AND Hong Kong (no minimum/maximum), but you’d have to call and know which legs are available. I recommend just searching each individual leg and writing down the ones that are available. Once you have everything written down, call and nicely tell the agent you have your itinerary all planned out and let them know you’ll be giving them dates and flight numbers. As long as you don’t go haywire with stopovers, you shouldn’t have any issues.

Key thing to note – be creative. What this allows is a free domestic trip at the beginning and/or end of any award. So even if you want to fly New York- London- New York, you could actually split up the trip into two one ways. At some earlier point in time, say you want to go to Miami. You could build in half the trip as part of your US-Europe award. Miami-New York (Stop) and then at a later point in time New York- London, which would then be the end of oneway award number 1. And then return London- New York (“stopover” for as long as you want), then New York to, lets say, Los Angeles (final “destination”). Get it? Substitute Los Angeles for whatever city AA flies to. The stopover rule works really well in the US because American has an extensive route map.

3) “Most Direct Route” is the key thing to note. Direct usually means you should be traveling in the same direction (east/west). If you aren’t a geography whiz, I recommend using Google Maps to make sure that your itinerary makes sense.

4) While stopovers are unlimited, you still need to adhere to the One Oneworld award chart if you want the cheapest priced awards. Award charts: BA Only. BA + 1 Partner. Single Oneworld Partner. Multiple Oneworld Partners. That limits how many stops you can build in because most carriers only have 1 hub in each continent. Main exceptions: American has several hubs in the US and Lan has several in South America. I recommend re-reading my post on understanding the Oneworld alliance to familiarize yourself with the route network.

If you are serious about stopovers, check out this Flyertalk thread. If you have any questions, feel free to write below, but honestly you will most likely learn the limits of this rule by trial and error. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments to help others.

Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer. Opinions expressed here are author.s alone, not those of the credit card issuer, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer. This site may be compensated through the credit card issuer Affiliate Program.

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  • David

    Another great “geography” website is Great Circle Mapper at http://www.gcmap.com

  • Jeremy

    Sorry if this was asked already elsewhere, but can codeshare flights be used in the one partner rule? For example I’m looking at San Francisco -> Honolulu -> Nadi -> Auckland -> Sydney on Quantas (Aukland may be a stretch for direct route) but almost all of those flights are code share.

  • The Points Guy

    David- good call- I love gcmap.com

    Jeremy- no- codeshares don’t count. It’s all about the operating carrier unfortunately

  • Joe

    I know that award dates can be changed without a fee if it’s >24 hours before departure time.
    But can I change the date on a second leg of the journey without a fee after the first flight is already used?

  • JR

    Is there any time limit to the stop-over trick? IE – If I want to book a one way MIA->JFK->CDG (all of which are available on AA) as one leg of a NY to Miami trip in the Winter and then a NY to Paris trip 4 months later, is there any issue with that?

  • lots-o-miles

    Will the multiple stopover deal work if we use the companion pass (of course this would all have to be done on BA metal)…. Thanks!

  • James

    I’m confused about what the definition of a stopover is. Does this mean a connection? Normally my connecting flights only give me an hour or so… can you make it so that you have a day or two in between? What happens to your luggage?… Thanks!

  • Eric

    I still don’t understand the stopover trick. Maybe I am over thinking it. Has does one leverage it for a free R/T later? Do you have to buy flights on another airline as returns?

  • Jeffrey Rosenblum

    Eric – You leverage a stopover for free one-way ticket thats part of another trip. So if you’re traveling from NY to MIA and then later traveling from NY to Paris, you can book a one-way rewards flight of MIA->JFK->CDG and a one way reward as a return for CDG->JFK. Then you pay for a one way flight to MIA separately. The end result is 2 trips planned: NY to MIA (with one leg paid for as a one way and the other leg covered by rewards as the first part of the Paris trip) and you also have NY to Paris. The “stopover” isn’t a stopover at all, but a gap between trips. The question(s) is(are), is there a time limit of stopovers and what happens to your luggage, as astutely asked by James.

  • The Points Guy

    @jr no time limit- 4 months would be fine. Your bags only get checked for the flight you take on that day so you pick them up whenever you land

    @lots- yes you can build in stopovers on the companion ticket

    @jeff I think I answered your question but if it’s not clear, let me know

  • brandon S

    We are really excited to use our BA points that we got from the BA card. It seems like we have been planning a trip to Europe for years. I want to make the most of my points and I need some help. We would like to fly from SFO to JFk, Stay in NYC for a few days and continue on to Barcelona. On the return we just need to make it back to SFO, where we stop doesn’t matter because we plan on going straight home. Can I realistically plan this trip using the 100K points from my BA card or will it require more? How should I approach this?

  • SimonC

    @ Brandon – I believe you can. I actually want to do something very similar to your itenary. You just have to do it through the oneWorld Partners and not British Airways since your not flying through London. If your going alone, 100k should be fine in economy or maybe even busines. But if your going with someone else, you should go economy + more miles definitly.

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  • Andy

    Am I correct in assuming that the stopovers generally only work in hub cities. The basis for my reasoning is that according to BA, “…stopovers are at connecting points on the most direct route between origin and destination.” My two nearest airports are STL and BNA, neither of which would be a connecting point between where I’ve been and where I would like to go 6 months from now. I guess my question is how flexible is the “most direct route” trying to route through a non-hub?

  • The Points Guy

    @Brandon- You will need 50k in economy or 100k in business. If you want to do this on one partner, you’ll have to fly American, so go to aa.com and search for milesaaver awards using AA’s search calendar for each leg of your trip and when you find them, ring up BA and they will book it. SFO-JFK (stop)-BCN, SFO-JFK-BCN should be fine.

    @Andy- Stopovers can be in any city. for example, you could do BNA-ORD-Las Vegas (stop)- LAX. As for foreign carriers, if you fly BA to Europe, London will be your only stopover option because London is their only hub in Europe so you can’t keep going in one direction on all BA flights without backtracking through London, though since the rules are so broad, you may be able to convince a phone rep to build in a stopover in Europe that requires you to backtrack.

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  • georgia

    So I could book SFO-NYC-MAD-ATH on American and return home ATH-LON-SFO on British Airways, with stop overs in all cities for the 65,000 miles ? Assume American allows a one way ticket ?

    Thanks, and sorry if this is a redundant version of other questions

  • The Points Guy

    @Georgia American airlines doesn’t fly from Madrid-Athens. If you wanted to book a multi-Onworld partner award, that would be fine, but it will cost you a ton more miles

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  • Anthony

    Can I have an open jaw en route to my final destination? In my case I’m looking to get the family from Newark (EWR) to Honolulu (HNL) but we’d like to stop along the way in Phoenix (PHX), get in a car, tool around out west and continue on to HNL from Los Angeles (LAX). So the journey would be EWR->PHX (drive around for a week and end up in Los Angeles) LAX->HNL (week in Hawaii) HNL->EWR. Can this be booked as a single round-trip using BA miles on AA?

    I would expect the answer to be yes as this is almost the same as just stopping in PHX for a week and then continuing on from there. In this case I’m just driving the PHX->LAX part of the trip and, in effect, saving BA/AA money but I’m not sure if BA will see it that way and allow me to book this.

  • The Points Guy

    @Anthony- you can not do that, even though it makes sense. The trip must be continuous or else you will get charged for two separate awards EWR-PHX and LAX-HNL

  • Tri

    @The Points Guy – Thank you. Some of this stuff is amazing… i presume a lot of people were aware of such reward tricks not to mention fuel dumping (a whole other conversation); but i am a total newbie and this stuff blows my mind. After applying for the card, i began to feriously look for potential vacation plans, here is one potential trip:

    on AA, IAH-ORD-PEK, traveling eventually to Bali
    on Cathay, DPS-HK-SFO, paying for a one way back to houston

    My questions are
    (1) on the second leg, in HK, I can ask for a week ‘stopover’? (I assume yes)
    (2) if so on the second leg, is there a saver/discount pass; or asking for a stopover, automatically makes it a regular reward fare?

    In general, when is looking for a saver pass a good idea? perhaps for leg one of the trip? Thanks!

  • Tri

    @The Points Guy – Thank you. Some of this stuff is amazing… i presume a lot of people were aware of such reward tricks not to mention fuel dumping (a whole other conversation); but i am a total newbie and this stuff blows my mind. After applying for the card, i began to feriously look for potential vacation plans, here is one potential trip:

    on AA, IAH-ORD-PEK, traveling eventually to Bali
    on Cathay, DPS-HK-SFO, paying for a one way back to houston

    My questions are
    (1) on the second leg, in HK, I can ask for a week ‘stopover’? (I assume yes)
    (2) if so on the second leg, is there a saver/discount pass; or asking for a stopover, automatically makes it a regular reward fare?

    In general, when is looking for a saver pass a good idea? perhaps for leg one of the trip since i am not asking for any layovers? Thanks!

  • Brant

    Question regarding stop overs on oneworld using quantas.

    Quantas has a flight from JFK to LAX, but only sold to passengers continuing onto Australia, so you can’t buy just the leg from JFK to LAX. I want to fly out of JFK to LAX which is on a A330, but would like ton continue onto Sydney in Business on the A380. Is it possible to Take the JFK – LAX flight, stopover spend a night in LAX and then continue on Quantas on the A380 flight? I really would rather take business on the long flight on the A380 vs their other aircraft.

  • Mihir

    Hi TPG,

    Firstly, Thank you very much for all the updates, tips and tricks on BA-Chase 100,000 miles. All posts were really great, very informative and helpful.

    I am planning to build a trip with stop-overs (too many) on Cathy Pacific. I shall be flying coach. Can you please suggest if this is feasible with 100,000 miles?

    Here is my plan JFK-HKG-BOM-HKG-SYD-HKG-JFK. Is it possible and if so how many miles I will have to use for this trip?

    Thanks,

    ~Mihir

  • The Points Guy

    @Mihir- the free stopovers are only available for direct routing. Unfortuntely JFK-Sydney does not allow for a west bound stop in BOM (that would be backtracking). You could do this itinerary, but you’d need to do it as: 40k miles one way JFK-HKG-BOM (you could stopover in HKG if you wanted), then you’d need to do a one way BOM-HKG-SYD for 40,000, then another 40,000 for SYD-HKG-JFK.

    If someone else has had a different experience, let me know, but I don’t think you can do all three of those legs on one roundtrip.

  • Liz

    Thanks for much for this info TPG! Do you think MAD-SCL-AKL-SYD with stopovers on LAN is doable? It is clearly not the most direct route in existence, but it is the only way to get from Madrid to Sydney flying LAN. Thanks!

  • The Points Guy

    @liz, sounds good to me! In all reality, it will depend on the phone rep, but I think they’d go for it if you do your research and present them with what is available. Keep us updated!

  • Jane

    Hi TPG, thanks for all the great info. Very excited to use all my miles! I’m trying to understand what you mean by: “That limits how many stops you can build in because most carriers only have 1 hub in each continent.” So for example, I am trying to book a Southeast asian flight from JFK -> Ho Chi Min -> MNL (one way) on cathay pacific, I won’t be able to do so since the trip would technically be: JFK -> HKG -> Ho Chi Minh -> HKG -> MNL, and would be technically backtracking? Thanks again ;) Still trying to get all the technical terms down!

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  • Mihir

    @TPG: Thanks for your response.

    So can I do JFK – HKG – SYD round-trip with stop overs at HKG and SYD ? I shall skip BOM in my itinerary. How much miles I shall need for this roundtrip ?

  • Anna

    Hi TPG,

    Thanks for all the great posts! I’m based in Tel Aviv and I’ve been looking at the best points values from here. It seems most places going west (North America, Europe) you get routed through Heathrow (unless there is no availability on BA flights, but I haven’t figured out how to best determine this). But going east on Royal Jordanian isn’t a bad deal… TLV-Amman-Delhi (50,000 + $330 in taxes) and TLV-Amman-BKK (60,000 +$330 taxes) are both pretty reasonable, as those flights would normally cost upwards of $1,000. I’m still trying to figure out how to best make use of stopovers from here, but just thought I’d share what I found for readers based in the Middle East.

  • Alex

    Hi TPG, I understand that BA and AA have different rules for stop over. If I am getting an AA fight using BA miles what stop over rules apply? Can I get JFK-LAX-Hawaii (stopover in LAX) on one award? It seems imposible on AA but posible according to BA rules.

  • Bob

    TPG, just got approved for the Chase BA card after a few weeks of pending decision. Very excited to try and maximize the miles on a trip from US to China, ideally on Cathay Pacific in coach (for 2). My first quick example search showed it could be done from NYC to Vancouver, Vancouver to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Beijing (end of flight 1). I can spend as much time as I like in each city as a stopover, correct? When the time comes to book, I need to look up Cathay award availability on their own web site, confirm there are seats on each individual one-way flight, then present all that info to BA on the phone.
    The possibilities for using these miles is endless, and I can only think of so many examples. It would be great if in the coming months you could call for readers to share stories of how they successfully maximized their BA miles, ideally showing how they routed through cities for stopovers. Someone out there may give me a routing idea that totally changes up my vacation plans!

  • http://wanderlust.patrickniddrie.com Patrick

    Hey Brian, I wanted to take the time say thank you so much for all of the terrific advice you have here. The information you’ve provided has made the process of redeeming my miles understandable – finally! I will definitely be signing up for my next card through one of your links.

    I agree with Bob re: hearing stories about successful stop-over bookings, along with information regarding the amount they spent in taxes/fees and miles. That would be very useful and help me decide how to spend all these miles!

  • Kiki

    Hello! Thanks for all of the helpful information. I have the same exact question as Alex. Is this allowed using BA points on AA: JFK – LAX (stop for several days) – HNL? I think that I read that you cannot do a longer stopover in North America using AA, but does that apply if the miles are from BA using AA planes?

    Thanks!

  • The Points Guy

    @Alex and Kiki- when using BA miles, AA rules mean nothing. So, yes- you can absolutely book JFK-LAX (stop for however long you desire), LAX-HNL on a BA award. You just have to call to get it booked. Let me know if you need anything else. I’ll try to put together some more examples of stops, but you have all the information- basically there are no rules- only that you go in the same direction and choose direct routing.

  • Kiki

    Thank you so much!!!! I am not sure how availability will impede our ideal trip, but we would like to do the JFK-LAX-HNL trip in summer of 2012. There are 4 of us & we have 200+K BA miles. Also considering an Alaska/Pacific NW trip….or Ireland…or ??? The dreaming of destinations is much of the fun! Thanks again.

  • Ant

    Hi TPG, your posts have been really inspiring and have helped me plan out my honeymoon later this year.

    I was actually thinking of doing a similar routing as Kiki’s and using LAX as a reeeally long stopover (6 months) on the way to HNL. But since the the last leg to HNL is so far down the road, are there any repercussions if I change my mind and just not go?

  • The Points Guy

    @Ant- no repercussions besides not getting to go to HNL :-)

  • Matt

    Thanks for the post and thanks even more for the fast detailed responses.

    My question is along the same lines as Liz. Are there no limitations on using a single partner when there are much more direct routes on other airlines? The itinerary I have in mind is East Coast to HNL (say JFK->LAX->HNL) on AA and then HNL->Tokyo->JFK on JAL. The idea is a layover in Japan for vacation with a short stop in Honolulu to see a friend (and because it’s Hawaii of course). Would they allow the JAL route when there are clearly much more direct ways on other partners – AA for example?

    The other question that comes up is how this JAL flight would be considered in terms of Zones. The first flight would be a domestic North American flight, but it must be too good to be true that the second flight would also be domestic North American…right? On the other hand, what else would it be?

    From your response to Liz, it seems it’s agent dependent. I’m also considering using your trick to add a segment at the end of the JAL itinerary to San Juan with an extended stop over at JFK. This would make it HNL->Tokyo->JFK->San Juan, which would make it North America to Carribean by zone (I think). Do you think this would make it more or less likely to be booked?

  • Brian Lockhart

    This is the absolutely maximization of stop-overs I can figure out for an Asia trip:

    Cathay: UShub->HKG->Bangkok->Singapore (breaking up the HKG->Singapore does have available awards for each segment and it’s “relatively” a straight line so I don’t think you’d have issues booking)
    JAL: Singapore -> Narita -> UShub.

    Or what I recently did was…

    Cathay: Toronto->HKG->Narita.
    American: Narita->Dallas->YYZ

    You could probably get away with an extra stopover in the US but I didn’t bother.

    The trick is to use a combination of Cathay and AA or JAL to snag those different stopovers (Hong kong and Tokyo)

  • tri

    @brian lockhart – you recently did the cathay/american trip to japan with layovers??? Was it difficult speaking to a BA rep and asking for the reward? what did you do in terms of research… mainly how did you find that the airline offered awards for those specific dates? Much Thanks for posting!

  • Anthony

    I’m the one who posted back on May 3rd asking about combining a stopover with an open jaw, which TPG pointed out wasn’t allowed. I just want to follow up with what we wound up booking.

    Our trip is New York -> Las Vegas (stop), Las Vegas -> Kailua-Kona (stop), (separately purchased one way from Kona -> Honolulu), Honolulu -> Los Angeles (stop), Los Angeles -> New York. I originally had dreams of this being bookable as one reward since there was no backtracking involved. The agent, however, said that Las Vegas was not a valid stop on the way to Kona as AA wouldn’t normally route someone that way. I guess this is where the “direct route” rule came into play. So we wound up having to book this itinerary as two rewards at an extra cost of 12,500 miles per person. Here are the details:

    Reward 1: 12,500 miles, $2.50 AA Security Fee
    JFK -> LAS, (4 nights in Vegas)

    Reward 2: 35,000 miles, $10 AA Security Fees, $20 Agent Fee
    LAS -> LAX -> KOA, (7 nights in HI), HNL -> LAX (3 nights in L.A.), LAX -> JFK

    I was able to book Reward 1 on my own using BA’s website with no booking fee. Obviously, I needed an agent to book Reward 2 but she claimed she wasn’t able to waive the $20/ticket agent fee. I told her that the website didn’t allow me to do stopover bookings and also that the site would give me “our systems are busy” errors every other time I tried to check for flights but she said her hands are tied and that I should write to customer service to ask for a refund.

    Total for family of four: 190,000 miles (courtesy of Chase!) and $130 in fees. If I were to book those same flights today on AA’s site it would cost me about $5,800. I’ll remember to think warmly of everyone here, on FlyerTalk, and FatWallet while I’m on my vacation. Thanks!

  • Jay

    hi, TPG,

    Thanks a lot for your inspiring posts, which kept me things after finally getting my BA card.

    I am considering something like this using the concepts you elaborated.
    HNL-LAX- HKG-PVG-HKG-LAX-BOS
    Can these all be booked in one trip or am I being too creative here?
    I somehow feel that the HNL-LAX leg is backtracking.

    Thanks!

  • Jeff

    Thanks so much TPG! This information is great. I’m interested in booking a trip from LAX to Bangkok. When looking on the BA site (other than the Error message I get every other time), the fuel surcharges vary widely. Do you know of a reference somewhere that I can check this out?

    Planned Itinerary
    LAX->HKG->BKK (Cathay)
    BKK->Narita (Tokyo) ->LAX (JAL)

    Has anyone experienced any “redflags” with any of the telephone attendants? This just seems too good to be true for 80k-90k miles.

    Thanks again!

  • GKB

    I plan on a trip to India from DFW.. And wondering if I can somehow squeeze in a stopover on continental Europe to explore a country or two? My understanding is that BA flies from India only to London in Europe and the way you put it, I might not necessarily be traveling in the same direction all the time if I stop at London. Any help appreciated!

    Thanks for the awesome posts!

  • GKB

    I actually meant a stopover during my return.. ie flying India->DFW

  • awr

    Thanks TPG!! I am trying to work on a anniversary trip for my wife and I. From the US to South America using our BA miles (thanks Chase)! I know we gotta get on LAN and for us that means getting to either SFO or LAX.

    Here is my question about stop overs…we could (based on availability) go from LAX->LIM (Lima)->SLC (Santiago)->IPC (Easter Island).

    But….is there a way to add Cuz (Cuzco about an hour flight from Lima) and Buenos Aires on the way back- or no since they have flights from IPC->SLC->LIM->LAX. Could we do essentially two one ways? The outbound being LAX->LIM->SLC->IPC and then a second one way to get home…IPC->SLC->Buenos Aires->LAX.

    Then I guess we have to pay out of pocket to get from Lima to Cuzco on the outbound- is that correct?

    Thanks as always!!!

  • Moosman

    Thanks for the great ideas … planning an aniversary trip from US (Florida) to Asia using BA miles. Ideal trip includes stop in Singapore, then on to either Bali or Bangkok with the other on the way back. For example, MIA – SIN; SIN – DNS; DNS – BKK; BKK – MIA … or MIA – SIN; SIN – BKK; BKK – MIA. I’m thinking Quantas as it has both SIN and BKK (not sure about Bali) but CATH would be fine as well. Perfect solution gets me to SIN by 11 or 12 Nov. Any ideas.? Both wife and I have the 100K, actually around 107K each and I have 52K or so in AM EX so these could be used to plus up our accounts with the 50% bonus … but may not be necessary. I know I probably will need to do some legs on my own with Air Asia and if necessary I can drop SIN from the itinerary altogether without too much pain. I need to book this soon, so please please give me your recommendation.

    Thanks in advance

  • Anonymous

    For 100k you can only fly ONE carrier. Cathay doesnt service Miami so you’ll have to buy separate tickets to a cathay gateway and then go from there. You can probbaly do JFK-HKG-SIn and then BKK-HKG-JFK (switch out whatever asian cities). You can’t go too crazy sincey ou can’t mix carriers. Have fun!

  • Moosman

    Thanks. I’ll give that a try. Any thoughts about Quantas from the West Coast (SFO or LAX?) Quality of the service Quantas vs. Cathay?

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  • Dan

    TPG you really are a genious, and have really made me look at all of my options for my upcoming European trip. I know you said Europe isn’t the best use of miles, but it’s where we were heading so I’m looking to make the most of these miles. Here’s what I have in mind…LAX-MAD-CDG (with possibly another Spanish city prior to CDG) on Iberia. Using Iberia’s new direct flight from LAX-MAD has really opened up my stopover options. Here is my question…since my end destination is CDG, is my entire flight looked at as Euro Zone 1, therefore 50K miles RT? Or will this be Euro Zone 2 since I’m making a stopover in MAD? Your help is greatly appreciated!!

  • JMSL

    Sorry to dig up an old thread, but if anyone sees this I’ve got a quick question. If I book a route online with no stopovers (e.g. JFK to LAX, connecting in ORD) can I later go back and change the date of my second leg, effectively creating a stopover in the connecting city? Assuming yes, can this be done online, or would I need to call?

  • K992061

    Hi there, so I live in the UK and have collected BA miles for a while, in trying to use them it is a continual frustration in not finding flights and not being able to upgrade paid for flights because they are in the wrong class, seriously what is the point? I don’t mind paying to fly with BA but they rewards honestly is nothing compared to Airmiles and the like.

  • Chris

    I’ve read some discussion on FlyerTalk about the absurd fees you have to pay the Chilean government if you fly into SCL internationally. LAN is re-introducing a LIM-IPC flight that you may consider on the inbound. Then, flying into SCL on the outbound is a domestic flight, and you don’t have to pay the fee ($140 per person)?

    I’ve considered this same itinerary, but also had issues finding a way to work Cuzco into the mix. I believe, and I hope I’m wrong, that you can only fly to Cuzco through Lima on LAN. If you’re considering the round trip flight from LIM-CUZ, avoid LAN as they charge the “gringo fare,” markedly higher than the Peruvian citizen fare. Flying LIM-CUZ may be better on one of the discount domestic airlines like Star Peru, or even TACA.

  • Dzt

    Would this type of routing work with Cathay: LAX -> HKG ->TPE (stopover) -> ICN for 25k miles?

    I looked and there are many flights from HKG to ICN thru TPE but would that still be considered natural routing? TPE is on the way to ICN.

  • anon

    I’m trying to use my BA miles for a trip to South America

    flying out of WAS/IAD/DCA .. for 3-4 week trip in Oct 2012

    would like to get hit the following destinations

    guayaquil (stop for 1 week trip to galapagos)
    lima (spend 1 week, including road trio to cusco/machu picchu and back to lima)
    santiago (maybe stop, 1-2 days)
    easter island (2-3 days)
    buenos aires (2-3 days)

    back to WAS/IAD/DCA

    any tips on how to maximize the award miles using the stop over rule? I’m only interested in econ class .. thanks

  • Gzhang97

    Would like to know this one as well.

  • iskatel

    Sorry if it’s been answered already, I’m trying to book a trip SFO-DME-SFO in first class with a companion ticket for April 2012 and it seems that there are no return flights available unless I do a stopover in London. Is there any other way around the stopover? Any suggestions are appreciated!

  • lausun

    FYI I tried booking JFK-HKG(STOP)-BKK(STOP)-SIN all on CX, but was turned down by the agent, she said only bkk or sin, not both. Even though it looks look like a direct route on the map, not sure if it is doable and I just got a bad agent…

  • http://twitter.com/ianchow Ian Chow

    Great article! I hope I’m able to take advantage of this.

    I don’t really understand the award chart for multiple OneWorld Partners. Is it worth it to use more points for multiple partners and take advantage of the ‘free domestic trip’ at the end, vs just going with one partner?

    My situation is I want to go Toronto – Buenos Aires – Toronto on American. I’m hoping to tack on a little something, but everything out of Toronto on American goes south, and so it won’t be ‘most direct’. If I add Cathay (making it multiple partners), I think I may be able to get out to Vancouver? Any ideas? I’d love to tack on a vancouver or calgary ski trip!

  • Anonymous

    BA charges INSANE amounts of miles for awards that have multiple Oneworld partners. Your best value is to use only one. so your only option from YYZ would be to fly American.

  • http://twitter.com/ianchow Ian Chow

    Thanks so much, really appreciate it! You’re referring specifically to this Buenos Aires trip for flying American right? From YYZ there are other flights which use only one partner…

  • Corey A

    Is it possible to fly from either Chicago or NYC to Hong Kong with stopovers in Japan via Cathay Pacific? I am not finding any award availability for Chicago or NYC to Tokyo via Cathay. Actually, would love to just do a multistop trip through Japan if possible, perhaps through Japan Airlines? Would someone please help me? Also, if I book by segments, do I pay surcharges for each flight?

    Thank you

  • Anonymous

    You could do Japan Airlines Chicago-Tokyo-Hong Kong, but finding JAL award availability is difficult

  • Danny M

    As this opportunity to book with BA Executive Club before rules change is going to expire shortly, just wanted to give an update of my experience booking a flight to South America with multiple stopovers today.

    I want to go to South America in January 2012, and am very flex with places to go to and approximate dates.

    Conducting a search as suggested on BA’s partner rewards flights, I found that Lima is the best location to make a stopover in one direction from the US. However dates where mileage flights are available from SF, LA, NYC to Lima are scant in the first several months of 2011. There are many options available for flights like NYC-Buenos Aires direct, for example, but I wanted to stopover in several countries, so opted against that.

    I was fortunately, however, able to find a SF-Lima on Jan 18 with several days layover before continuing to Santiago, Chile with several more days layover before arriving in Montevideo on February 1. for $141 dollars (fees) and 20,000 miles, I am giddy.

    Note: I asked for, but was declined a stop in La Paz between Lima and Santiago, but did not protest too much about this as the lack of t+cs is not so transparent for me to understand where I am right or wrong. The BA rep was extremely patient and helpful, and did not question any of my dates/motives/etc.

  • Spklley

    it seems like the online ba.com allows you to enter multiple one-way tickets … is this not the case and thus must you call the 800 number?

  • Angelicade Guzman

    How to get and know my mileage points.First time to travel using British airways and I think because my airline ticket is always expensive (heading back and forth to grand cayman to philippines)Someone told me that I can redeem some points.can you tell me something about on it.Thanks

  • tm

    no more free stopovers on BA?

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