Full Details of United’s New More Generous Award Routing Rules

by Gary Leff

This morning I described United’s increasingly generous rules for routing frequent flyer award travel.

The rest of this post doesn’t need to make sense to you, everything you need to know is in this morning’s post.

But a friend sends along the actual profile for the new United routing rules which confirms my earlier description of the changes. For the routing rules junkies it’s worth looking at, but not something the majority need to even read further on.

UPDATED: 10FEB11

S*R.A PERMITTED ITINERARY TYPES (RT/OW/LEGAL SOJ/RTW)
S*R.B STEPS TO VALIDATE ROUTING FOR ONE AWARD
S*R.C STOPOVERS

—PERMITTED ITINERARY TYPES—————————
THE FOLLOWING ITINERARY TYPES ARE PERMITTED FOR ONE
AWARD:
– ROUND TRIP (RT)
– ONE WAY (OW)
– SINGLE OPEN JAW (SOJ)
– DOUBLE OPEN JAW (DOJ)

– AWARD TRAVEL DOES NOT NEED TO FOLLOW LEGAL OPEN JAW LOGIC.
– GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS MAY REQUIRE TRAVEL TO START / END
IN THE SAME COUNTRY (CHECK TIMATIC).
– ROUND-THE-WORLD (RTW):
– RTW ROUTING IS DEFINED AS ONE PACIFIC AND ONE ATLANTIC
CROSSING.
– SEE S*MPI/STAR RTW

THE FOLLOWING ITINERARY TYPES REQUIRE MULTIPLE AWARDS:
– CIRCLE PACIFIC (ONE NORTH PACIFIC AND ONE SOUTH
PACIFIC CROSSING)
– SIDE ROUND TRIP (CONNECTING THROUGH SAME CITY TWICE
IN ONE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL)

—STEPS TO VALIDATE ROUTING FOR ONE AWARD————-
– OUTBOUND AND RETURN ROUTINGS MUST BE VALIDATED.
– MPM PLUS 15 PERCENT IS ALLOWED ON ALL AWARDS.

STEPS TO VALIDATE ROUTING:
– ACCESS -MILEAGE INFORMATION- MENU
– ENTER ALL CITIES IN ONE DIRECTION OF TRAVEL FROM
ORIGIN TO DESTINATION. INCLUDE ALL CONNECTION/
STOPOVER POINTS. DO *NOT* ACTIVATE -SHORT DISPLAY-.

– REVIEW MILEAGE INFORMATION TABLE COMPARING
CUM (CUMULATIVE TICKETED POINT MILES) TO MPM (MAXIMUM
PERMITTED MILES). CHECK BOTTOM OF -LVL- (LEVEL)
COLUMN TO DETERMINE IF CUM IS GREATER THAN MPM:
M CUM DOES NOT EXCEED MPM
5M CUM EXCEEDS MPM BY 5 PERCENT
10M CUM EXCEEDS MPM BY 10 PERCENT
15M CUM EXCEEDS MPM BY 15 PERCENT
20M CUM EXCEEDS MPM BY 20 PERCENT
25M CUM EXCEEDS MPM BY 25 PERCENT
EXC CUM EXCEEDS MPM BY OVER 25 PERCENT

*AWARD TRAVEL IS VALID UP TO 15M.

—STOPOVERS——————————————
– ONE ENROUTE STOPOVER PERMITTED ON ROUNDTRIP OR OPEN JAW
ITINERARY BETWEEN TWO AWARD REGIONS
– STOPOVER NOT PERMITTED ON ONE-WAY AWARD OR WHEN TRAVEL
IS WHOLLY WITHIN THE SAME GEOGRAPHIC REGION.
– STOPOVER CAN BE IN THIRD REGION IF IT*S NOT OVER THE
MPM PLUS 15 PERCENT. *MUST USE HIGHEST MILEAGE* AWARD
IF OVER THE ALLOWED MPM.

– TRAVEL WITHIN U.S. 50 STATES / CANADA / PUERTO RICO / U.S.
VIRGIN ISLANDS: TRANSFER BETWEEN TWO FLIGHTS MUST BE
WIHTIN 4 HOURS. TRANSFER EXCEEDING 4 HOURS IS A STOPOVER.
– ALL OTHER INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: TRANSFER BETWEEN TWO
FLIGHTS MUST BE WITHIN 24 HOURS. TRANSFER EXCEEDING
24 HOURS IS A STOPOVER.
– STOPOVER NOT PERMITTED FOR THE FOLLOWING:
– ONE-WAY
– TRAVEL WITHIN ONE AWARD REGION

———————————————————-
DELETE: N/A OWNER: WHQRZ UPDATE: S*H

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. @GA that’s fair, programs like British Airways and bmi allow it. But I really wasn’t expecting THAT! Would be just TOO good. This I will take 🙂

  3. What’s interesting is that ostensible a routing like JFK-ICN-SYD-ICN-JFK will now be allowed, while JFK-ICN-SYD-SFO-JFK will not!!

  5. SJS, I noticed that too! Does this mean that we can route from USA to Australia via Asia IF we route via Asia on our way back too? If so, can we do a stop-over in Asia on our way to Australia? This would be GREAT!!!

  6. “route from USA to Australia via Asia IF we route via Asia on our way back too”…….

    That would be great; how many UA miles would that be?

  7. Is the Micronesia area (Guam/Yap/Palau) considered Northern or Southern Pacific? It’s above the equator.

    Does, “stopover not permitted…within one award region,” mean no stopover at FRA on the way to FCO, even if originating in U.S.?

  8. Interesting that the profile doesn’t say anything about stopovers having to be on a “direct route.”

    Suppose I’m booking award travel from the USA to Delhi, and I want to stopover in Europe on the way back. Can I book Austrian Airlines from Delhi to Vienna, connect to a flight to Stockholm where I make a stopover, then fly back to the USA via a connection in Zurich? (Assuming that I stay within the MPM.)

  9. Stopover only when going from one region to another. I think they tool away stopover within the US for domestic awards.

    Yes, you can do a stopover like that in Stockholm

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