3 Free Stopovers On American Airlines And Alaska Award Tickets—Here’s How

You can fly American Airlines or Alaska Airlines, spend days in three different cities, and pay as few as 12,000 miles for the entire trip. The trick is booking with Japan Airlines miles, whose award rules allow three free stopovers. And you can transfer a variety of points currencies into JAL’s program. Japan Airlines even promotes an example American Airlines award itinerary that visits Boston, Washington, and Philadelphia before returning to New York for 12,000 miles in coach. Alaska Airlines qualifies for the same starting price and three stopovers. And if you combine American and Alaska, a separate award lets you build a trip with up to eight flights and seven stopovers for 25,000 miles, provided the total flying doesn’t exceed 4,000 miles. I wrote about the domestic opportunities with Japan Airlines miles back in 2016, focusing on Alaska Airlines. What’s easier today is getting the miles, with transfers from Bilt, Citi, Rove and Capital One. American Or Alaska: Three Stopovers Starting At 12,000 Miles Japan Airlines prices these awards by adding up the distance of every flight on the ticket. Here are the first four bands of the single-partner award chart: Total Distance Flown Coach Business Up to 1,000 miles 12,000 miles 24,000 miles 1,001–2,000 miles 15,000 miles 30,000 miles 2,001–4,000 miles 23,000 miles 42,000 miles 4,001–6,000 miles 37,000 miles 60,000 miles American’s domestic first class on aircraft with just coach and first, and Alaska’s first class, price at the business class level. The rules allow six flight segments and three stopovers. A stopover means spending more than 24 hours somewhere. You can also include one surface transfer, arriving in one city and continuing from another, but that uses one of your stopovers. The 12,000-mile price requires keeping all the flying within 1,000 miles, which is a tight limit once you start adding cities. You can a href=”https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/1nzc38p/a_guide_to_jal_mileage_bank/” target=_blank>do longer trips for more miles like Los Angeles–Chicago (stop)- Miami (stop) –San Juan. Every flight needs partner award space that Japan Airlines can book. Combine American And Alaska For Up To Eight Flights And Seven Stopovers Mixing American and Alaska moves the trip to JAL’s oneworld award. You can’t combine the two airlines on the 12,000-mile single-partner award. For a trip totaling up to 4,000 flown miles, the oneworld chart charges: 25,000 miles in coach. 48,000 miles in business class, including American’s first class on two-cabin aircraft and Alaska’s first class. The oneworld rules allow eight flights and seven stopovers. You can make a roundtrip entirely within the United States, combining the two airlines, without adding an international flight. Connections count toward those eight flights. For a roundtrip with seven stopovers and no surface transfer, you’d need nonstop flights between the cities. For a trip between 2,001 and 4,000 flown miles, it’s 23,000 miles using one airline versus 25,000 mixing American and Alaska. Another 2,000 miles buys access to both networks and permission for up to four additional stopovers. (In first class, the corresponding prices are 42,000 and 48,000 miles.) Both award types permit one-way trips, and both restrict you to one stopover in a given city. Build The Trip Before Moving Your Points Check award availabiliy for the flights you want before transferring points. You may need to call. But generally if the space is available to, say, British Airways it’ll be available to Japan Airlines. Bilt, Rove and eligible Citi ThankYou cards with an annual fee transfer to Japan Airlines at 1:1. Eligible Citi no annual fee cards transfer at 1,000 to 700. Capital One transfers at 1,000 to 750. That makes the 12,000-mile award 12,000 Bilt points, Rove miles or annual fee Citi points, versus 16,000 Capital One miles. (You may, of course, have already transferred some during a bonus.) Open your Japan Airlines account early. Their general rule can block redemptions for up to 60 days after joining though with their new transfer partnership that’s been relaxed. Awards are also restricted to yourself and eligible family members. Japan Airlines allows flight and date changes on single-partner awards and oneworld awards, but you can’t change the routing or substitute a different airline. Once you’ve started traveling, you can’t get a mileage refund for unused segments. Topics on this page