{"id":4953,"date":"2014-03-11T22:40:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T05:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?p=4953"},"modified":"2014-05-11T07:47:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-11T14:47:06","slug":"umpteenth-reminder-take-advantage-award-routing-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2014\/03\/umpteenth-reminder-take-advantage-award-routing-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Umpteenth Reminder To Take Advantage of Award Routing Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

this applies to United MileagePlus award tickets, which are relatively flexible (and generous)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

my parents wanted me to go with them to Japan this fall, and well, if my nearly-million-miler-mom is going to pay for my award ticket, d\u014dmo arigat\u014d misut\u0101 robotto<\/em><\/a>! regardless of where those miles are coming from, though, use them to your advantage by visiting more places for the same price. some people advocate tacking on a free one-way at the end of a round-trip or a stopover (Million Mile Secrets has a\u00a0nice summary<\/a>\u00a0of your hacking options), but my favorite tactic is what i call the\u00a0two-destination-plus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled\"<\/a>

Thanks mom for the award ticket! I used my own miles to upgrade the outbound to business class. According to the 1K agent who helped me change my ticket, the upgrade only applies through to Seoul, not through to Tokyo.<\/p><\/div>\n

the two destinations<\/h3>\n

because United allows you a stopover<\/strong> on your way to or from your destination, you can effectively see two cities for the price of one.\u00a0in this case i’m stopping over in Seoul (destination 1<\/em>) for a week on the way to Japan (destination 2<\/em>), where I’m taking advantage of the open-jaw<\/strong> rule whereby i don’t have to fly back from the same city i flew into — in this case, i’m flying into Tokyo but returning from Osaka.<\/p>\n

the plus<\/h3>\n

you’ll notice, though, that i have a\u00a0layover<\/strong> in Shanghai (the plus<\/em>)\u00a0on the way there. it occurred to me today that i can hopefully finally knock the Shanghai maglev off of my bucket list<\/a>\u00a0(which i’ve been threatening to do for a long time now) so why not change my outbound flight to Seoul from a bleh couple hours at LAX to an overnight in Shanghai so i can ride the maglev? the beauty of this is that a layover — i.e., a break in your travel plans of less than 24 hours — doesn’t count as a stopover. if you can time it right so your inbound and outbound flight are just under 24 hours, score! you can do this multiple times if you can find workable flights. tack a couple cities on!<\/p>\n

sidebar<\/strong> this is one of the benefits of being a Platinum or higher elite level member with the program: free award ticket changes. i probably would have paid the change fee for this otherwise, but even better than that? better planning — that’s free! [lesson learned!]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

how?<\/h3>\n

just choose the “Multiple Destinations” option when searching for your award ticket. the system will complain with a generic error if your routing isn’t valid, and sometimes it won’t show you all the flights that are available. for better results, do your searches as multiple one-ways, which i’ve found may show more flights, and call it in and tell them the website wouldn’t book it properly in hopes they waive the ticketing fee if you don’t qualify for an elite-freebie. in my experience, though, the Multiple Destinations search works decently well.<\/p>\n

i have been able to book award tickets to Asia via Europe, though this may or may not be available any more, but how great is that, to get a trip to Europe with your Asia trip (or a trip to Asia with your Europe trip)?<\/p>\n

more examples<\/h3>\n

all of these real examples are the same price as a plain ol’ round trip. these are award reservations i have for later this year:<\/p>\n

A One-Destination-Double-Plus with Getaway (more about Getaways later)<\/strong><\/p>\n