penelopebeach

Hi, I want to book an open-jaw ticket using United Airlines Mileage Plus program. Reading through the terms, it says legal open jaws are allowed -- as long as the distance of the jaw is shorter than the other parts of the flight.

I want to book JFK (New York)-DAR (Dar Es Salaam) then maybe travel to Johannesburg (farthest, but still shorter distance than JFK-DAR) or Nairobi or maybe even keep the DAR. So it'd be some other African airport to JFK.

I had read somewhere that open jaws can't be done in different countries other than the European Union (EU). Is that true?

If I can do different countries with the open jaw, how would I go about booking this? Is it through United Mileage's customer service phone? I can't get any options to price or look for availability online. I guess because only United and specific partners are offered for award travel online.

Has anyone booked something similar? Will an open jaw be the same 90,000 miles quoted on the Saver Award chart?



Thanks!

Gardyloo

It ought to be fine. Phone United.

mrwunrfl

What you read about open-jaw awards not being allowed to use two countries is not true, at least not with MP. Your open-jaw award is allowed because it meets that distance rule.

You are correct about not being able to book this online.

I took a look at star-alliance.com and saw that South African Airways (SA) and EgyptAir (MS) are the partners that fly to DAR. Those airlines plus Turkish and Swiss fly to NBO.

Tanzania and Kenya are in the Northern Africa region. An award from N.America to/from that region costs 75,000 miles.

South Africa is in the Central/Southern Africa region. An award to that region is 90,000 miles.

Your open-jaw to DAR, returning from JNB would cost either 82,500 or 90,000 miles. That is, you either pay half the 75,000 miles for the DAR leg plus half the 90,000 for the JNB leg OR you pay the miles for the highest region. I don't know that rule.

As I mentioned before, SA can be used to fly from JFK to DAR or NBO and, of course, to JNB. That means that you could make an enroute stopover in JNB. You wouldn't have to buy the ticket between DAR and JNB to close the open-jaw, you would get it all on one award. The last sentence of the routing rule means that this would cost the 90,000 miles.

An open jaw to DAR and from NBO would cost 75,000 miles as long as you don't route thru South Africa (or any other country in that region).

mrwunrfl

Your options with "other airline partners" are not good. They would require two awards. Would be 170,000 miles total on Emirates. Would 125,000 miles using a Star Alliance to Europe plus an award on Qatar Airways between Europe and Africa.

The closest you could get to your destinations on United would be to Accra or, soon, Lagos.

Good luck!

DonTopaz

mrwunrfl typed: <i>I took a look at star-alliance.com and saw that South African Airways (SA) and EgyptAir (MS) are the partners that fly to DAR.</i>

You should have looked more closely. SWISS also flies to DAR from Zurich -- flies four days/week and stops in NBO.

mrwunrfl

Yes, that shows when you use the next 7 days option. I did do a search for NBO-DAR it didn't show.

This might provide another option: a roundtrip ticket for 75,000 miles from JFK to DAR with an enroute stopover in NBO.

This might not be allowed, though. I once wanted an award ticket between Tokyo and ICN with a stopover on the return in Toyama, Japan. The travel was between regions (Japan and North Asia) but was not allowed, maybe because TOY and TYO are in the same region. I took the open jaw instead.