Stopovers and Open-Jaws on Award Tickets, and the Programmes That Still Allow Them

Two Cities for One Award

You want Tokyo and Singapore on one trip without burning two awards or buying a separate ticket between them. The answer is a stopover or an open jaw built into a single award, and the programmes that still permit this are fewer than they were five years ago. Air Canada Aeroplan and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan are the two most useful survivors for anyone starting from a transferable bank currency.

A stopover is a deliberate multi-day stay at an intermediate city on the way from origin to destination. A layover is a connection under 24 hours on international itineraries or under 4 hours on domestic US ones. Cross that boundary and your connection becomes a stopover, which triggers the programme's rules on whether you can do it at all, how many you get and at what cost. An open jaw is the other tool: you fly into one city and out of another, skipping the return leg that would close the circle. Combine a stopover with an open jaw and you visit two or three destinations on a single award that costs the same as a simple round trip or one-way.

Why Most US Programmes Killed the Stopover

Delta, United and American all used to allow stopovers on international awards. They removed the feature as they moved to dynamic pricing, where the miles cost is loosely tied to the cash fare. A stopover on a dynamically priced award is effectively a second destination the programme has to pay the operating carrier for. So it went. United still offers the Excursionist Perk, a free one-way within a region on a round trip, but that is a different mechanism. For a deliberate multi-day pause at an intermediate point on a single award, look outside the US Big Three.

Air Canada Aeroplan: a 5,000-Mile Add-on Stopover

How the Stopover Works

Aeroplan is a Star Alliance programme that prices awards by bands on a fixed chart. It permits one stopover on a one-way award for an additional 5,000 miles. On a round trip you get two stopovers, one on each direction, and the second also costs 5,000 miles extra. The stopover can be any city on the route as long as the whole journey stays within the maximum permitted for the award's band. Book through the multi-city search tool on the Aeroplan site. Enter each segment in sequence: origin to stopover city, stopover city to destination. The tool prices the whole thing as a single award and adds the 5,000-mile surcharge automatically.

A Worked Example

Fly from New York to Bangkok with a week in Tokyo. The combined flown length pushes the itinerary into the second-highest distance band on Aeroplan's chart. Add 5,000 miles for the stopover and you pay the band price plus the surcharge. The cash alternative, two separate business-class awards on partner carriers, would cost substantially more miles. You save a significant number of miles by booking one ticket instead of two.

When It Fails

The Aeroplan search tool shows an itinerary but the 5,000-mile add-on does not appear at checkout. This happens when the stopover city creates a routing that exceeds the programme's maximum permitted for that band. Drop the stopover or rebook as two separate one-way awards. That costs more miles.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: One Stopover on a One-Way

How It Works

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan uses a chart for its partner carriers, including Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines. Alaska allows one stopover on a one-way award at no extra mile cost. The stopover must be at a city served by the partner you are flying, and the total flown length cannot exceed the maximum for the award's band. Book by calling the Mileage Plan phone line. Do not use the website. The agent enters your origin, stopover and destination as a single itinerary and the system prices it at the band of the entire flown route.

A Worked Example

Fly from Los Angeles to Bali with a stop in Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. The total flown distance lands in the upper middle band of Alaska's partner chart. One stopover included. No extra cost. The same trip booked as two separate one-way awards would cost more miles in total than the single award with the stopover, which keeps everything on one ticket.

When the Phone Agent Says No

Alaska's phone agents do not always know the stopover rule exists. Ask for a one-way award with a stopover and name the partner airline you intend to use. If the agent says it is not possible, hang up and call again. The rule is real, published in Alaska's partner award terms, but agent training is uneven. Cite the 24-hour international layover boundary and the fact that Alaska allows one stopover per one-way on partner awards.

Open Jaws on Award Tickets

An open jaw lets you fly into one city and out of another. A single open jaw means one city pair is open: you fly New York to London, then Paris back to New York, with the surface segment from London to Paris at your own expense. A double open jaw means both city pairs are open: New York to London, then Paris back to Rome, with surface segments between London and Paris and between Rome and New York at your own expense. Aeroplan permits one open jaw per round trip at no extra cost, as long as the surface segment does not exceed the flown length in that pair. Alaska Mileage Plan does not formally define an open jaw in its partner award rules, but you achieve the same effect by booking two one-way awards each with a stopover. That gives you three destinations.

The open jaw is most useful when the surface segment is a short train ride or a cheap low-cost carrier flight. London to Paris by Eurostar takes 2 hours 15 minutes and costs a modest sum booked in advance. That surface segment replaces a ticketed flight and saves you miles that would otherwise go to a short-haul award. The cost is your own cash, but the net savings in miles are substantial on a premium cabin award where short-haul flights cost a significant number of miles each.

When a Stopover is Not Worth it

A stopover costs extra miles on Aeroplan and requires a phone call on Alaska. If you only want to see a connecting city for a single afternoon, a long layover of under 24 hours achieves the same thing without the extra mile cost or the phone call. Many airports offer luggage storage and city-centre shuttles that make a 6-hour or 10-hour layover practical. Singapore Changi, Seoul Incheon and Tokyo Narita all have transit tours, free sleeping lounges and efficient rail connections that turn a layover into a mini visit. Reserve the stopover for cases where you genuinely want a multi-day stay and the surface alternative would cost more than the miles you pay for the stopover.