If not, head on back to our previous Travel Hacking 101 Series<\/a> posts to learn how to leverage credit card points to travel for free… and have at ‘er!\u00a0 Now it\u2019s time to maximize those points.\u00a0 Some airlines offer stopovers and open jaws to award tickets.\u00a0 One of my favorite airlines, United, happens to be one of the most liberal for stopovers and open jaws. They have great award availability and allow 1 stopover and 2 open jaws for each round trip ticket.\u00a0 Of course they are not the only airline company to allow these, this is just an example.\u00a0 What\u2019s this stopover and open jaw gibberish you ask?<\/p>\n Stopovers are longer layovers. Basically, a layover is when you waste time in an airport (under 24 hours), but a stopover is an intentional break in the ticket that\u2019s more than 24 hours. Think of a stopover as adding an extra destination to your travel plans.<\/p>\n Stopovers are:<\/p>\n This is a way to book a ticket to two places instead of one, and sometimes even more.<\/p>\n Example: Let’s say you want to use United miles to go from NYC to Rome (FCO), but you want to add a stopover in Paris (CDG) on the way. You’d simply book the itinerary online using a Multi-Segment\/Mutli-City flight where you’d stay in Paris for a week and Rome for 10 days (or whatever you want). \u00a0You would not be spending any more points for this route than you would a flight just to Rome and back.<\/p>\n Poof there you go. Magically you get to add an extra city to your itinerary for no extra charge. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Note, most airlines require the stopover to be in the same region as your destination airport.\u00a0 So a stop in one European city on the way to another European city.<\/p>\n This is a\u00a0gap in your ticket where the airline is\u00a0not<\/em> responsible for transit. Say you fly from NYC into London (LHR) and out of Paris (CDG). The airline allows this gap but is in no way responsible for you getting to Paris, so you have to book your own car\/flight\/train\/whatever.<\/p>\n You turn any stopover or destination into an open-jaw, effectively by adding an extra destination but adding the cost of transit. \u00a0Again, you would not be spending any more points for this route than you would a flight just to London and back.<\/p>\n Another example would be Chicago to Bangkok, then leaving a gap and then flying Hong Kong back to Chicago.<\/p>\n Now here\u2019s the fun part.\u00a0 Let’s combo things up and add an open-jaw to a stopover. Understand that the open-jaw doesn\u2019t actually create another stop in the ticket, it\u2019s just breaking up the trip in between a stopover. And again,\u00a0<\/strong>you would not be spending any more points for this route than you would a round trip flight to one city in Europe and back!!<\/p>\n Let’s break this down into an example to see this beauty in action.<\/p>\n Going back to our first example, you have a ticket with a stopover in Paris (CDG) on the way to Rome (FCO). Well you can take that stop in Rome and make it an open-jaw and say that you\u2019ll continue your trip back to North America from Vienna (VIE) instead of Rome on the way back.<\/p>\n If you had the time you could slowly make your way up to Vienna over land. Or you could use British Avios and book a ticket from Rome to Vienna. Or you could find a cheap Ryanair or EasyJet flight for a few euros.\u00a0 Either way, you created a gap (an open jaw) in the section of the ticket that stopped in Rome.<\/p>\n Now the ticket would look like this. North America \u2013 Paris \u2013 Rome \/ Vienna \u2013 North America. \u00a0That gap between Rome and Vienna would be filled with other transit.<\/p>\n For the cost of a scenic train ride, a few thousand Avios points, or a discount airline ticket you were able to add a third destination to your trip.<\/p>\n The true maximization would then be to add in a second open-jaw.\u00a0 For example, instead of flying back to Chicago, you could fly to Miami to visit friends.\u00a0 You’d then be on the hook for that flight\u00a0 back from Miami to Chicago but it essentially gets half of your ticket accounted for to add in another trip to visit your friends in Miami before heading home.<\/p>\n Remember, the beauty here is that the points required would remain the same as well. If it were a United roundtrip flight using MileagePlus from North America to Europe and back you would be paying 60,000 miles, period. If it were a ticket from North America to Paris, then Paris to Rome, with an open-jaw to allow you to get to Vienna, and then Vienna back to North America; the ticket would also be 60,000 miles.<\/strong><\/p>\n (Note if you are using a United partner it’s likely 66,000 roundtrip in economy instead of 60,000 if booking on a United operated flight.)<\/p>\n With Asia you could do a stopover in Hong Kong and then for the destination spilt Bangkok and Bali by using an open jaw there.<\/p>\n North America \u2013 Hong Kong \u2013 Bangkok \/ Bali \u2013 North America.<\/p>\n For our honeymoon years ago we decided to go to Iceland. \u00a0Using United, this would be 60,000 points for a round trip flight from North America. \u00a0But with this trick, we decided to add Norway to the mix for no additional points. \u00a0Our trip looked like this:<\/p>\n Calgary, Canada \u2013 Bergen, Norway \u2013 Reykavik, Iceland \u2013 Albany, New York<\/p>\n We also could have added Oslo to the mix if we wanted to add a second open jaw (the first open jaw was flying out of Calgary but ending up in Albany for a wedding). \u00a0In this case we would have flown to Oslo on United, the taken a train to Bergen and then flown out of Bergen to Reykavik. \u00a0So it could have been:<\/p>\n Calgary, Canada \u2013 Oslo, Norway \/ Bergen, Norway \u2013 Reykavik, Iceland \u2013 Albany, NY<\/p>\n We opted not to include Oslo as we wanted to spend more time in the fjords and I had already been but you get the point.<\/p>\n I highly recommend checking\u00a0this post from Travel Is Free<\/a> to see how you can really maximize United\u2019s stopover and open jaw rules. \u00a0Drew is a travel hacking genius and I\u2019ve found his site to be incredibly helpful. (This linked post of his is outdated and he’s recently sold his site and now works at The Points Guy but I’ve always found his writing to be easy to understand.)<\/p>\n There you have it.\u00a0 Open-jaws and stop overs are super easy ways to see more of the world for the same amount of points.\u00a0 Loyal readers know we are all about the hacks and trying to optimize life without spending extra for it and here is a prime example.\u00a0 Every airline will have their own rules (and they are constantly changing) so do some digging to see what your preferred airline has to offer when it comes to stopovers and open-jaws to try to maximize your experience.<\/p>\n Have you heard of stopovers and open-jaws before?\u00a0 If so, have you ever used them for a flight itinerary to get more bang for your buck?\u00a0 Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!<\/p>\n If you liked this article and want more content like this, please support this blog by sharing it.\u00a0 Not only does it help spread the FIRE, but it lets me know what content you find beneficial.\u00a0 Writing is NOT my strong suit and it honestly takes me hours to write each post so the more encouragement the better!\u00a0 Engaging in the comments below keeps me motivated.\u00a0 You can also support this blog by subscribing to receive emails anytime a new post is published.\u00a0 Thank you FImily!<\/p>\n We believe in stacking up life hacks to keep your enjoyment levels to the max without depleting your bank account.\u00a0 Here are some ways to further educate yourself and save thousands of dollars over your lifetime by making some simple adjustments:<\/p>\n Hopefully by now you’re feeling a bit more confident in this miles and points game and have applied for a card or two, have begun …<\/p>\nStopovers:<\/h2>\n
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![\"stopover](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/travelisfree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/stopover-in-rome.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOpen-Jaws<\/h2>\n
![\"Openjaw](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/travelisfree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Openjaw-from-London-to-Paris.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOpen-Jaws + Stopovers<\/h2>\n
![\"openjaw](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/travelisfree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/openjaw-on-the-stopover.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSupport This Blog<\/h2>\n
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