Stopover on a Partner Reward Flight

Hi

I’m looking into ways to use my Virgin Miles for some reward flights and noticed that using Continental you can get a return flight between Europe and the South Pacific for 80,000 miles (economy). Looking at the Continental route map I’m assuming that by ‘South Pacific’ they actually mean Micronesia (as they don’t seem to fly anywhere in the pacific South of the equator!)

Considering that a London-Truk return costs around £1500 (econ), 80,000 points would seem a bit of a steal. The only downside is it’s a bit of a marathon routing via LAX, Honolulu (and possibly Guam), however, I noticed that on the Virgin T&Cs for Continental it states that “One stop over allowed on the most direct route.”

Does anyone know whether this is one stopover in both directions? (eg could stopover in Honolulu outward and Guam on the return)

My only experience with booking a reward Partner ticket through virgin was a fairly frustrating experience failing to get a stopover in the Cook Islands on an Auckland-Tahiti flight, so I’m hoping someone with more knowledge on these matters might have an answer.

(BTW the diving in Micronesia is world class - I'm not just trying to fly to the middle of nowhere just to maximise my miles! )

Thanks a lot

Andrew

I'd love to know the answer to this one myself.

i have asked similar questions on this forum before and never had any takers so not too sure whether you'll be any lucker.

From my experience of trying to book a SQ flight through VS I was told that each leg of the journey was a reward flight in itself regardless of whether I stopped over or not. Hence a flight to Saigon was 70k to Singapore plus another 25k from Singapore to Saigon (rather than simply 70k to a SE Asia destination) - this was exactly as described to me. The more I thought about this the more I was sure I was sold a dummy but noone has been able to advise me otherwise.

Phil

Been waaiting to see if any one else offered an opinion but am fast giving up [|)]

If no-one here is able to offer an opinion on this I might give FC a call.

Typical questions:

1. Is Partner redemption point to point or per leg?
2. Are stopovers allowed?
3. Any partner variations?

Any other questions - while I'm at it. Or if anyone knows the answers please speak up [:?]

Phil

[preiffer]

Phil - it's all in the Full T's & C's. (Section 16).

An example: Air Jamaica -

Spending miles:
No stopovers or open jaws are permitted. If you wish to stop over, you will need to redeem extra intra Caribbean mileage.

Originally posted by preiffer
Phil - it's all in the Full T's & C's. (Section 16).

An example: Air Jamaica -

Spending miles:
No stopovers or open jaws are permitted. If you wish to stop over, you will need to redeem extra intra Caribbean mileage.

Thanks for that Paul and there I am assuming the OP had done his homework [:#]

Looks like FC gave me a bum steer on redeeming miles on a per leg basis on SQ.

Thanks again.

Phil

Erm, i had actually done my homework - honest!

As stated in the first post the virgin T&Cs for Continental say:

Spending miles:
One stop over allowed on the most direct route. Stopovers are not allowed on travel within or between the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada. A Saturday night stay is required for rewards within or between the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada. One open jaw is permitted.

My question was whether this was one stopover in each direction - ie one outbound and one inbound. or by 'One stop over allowed' does it mean one per entire journey. As i said i've had some confused responses from FC before so i was just hoping for some comments from experienced FF'rs. My guess is that this means one stopover per entire journey but i was hopeful it might be otherwise.

Thanks again

Andrew

[RichardMannion]

If I recall it is one stop over per reward complete journey, and remember it is on the most direct route (using mileage based calculations).

Sorry for the difficulties you have had with FC, it is quite a detailed area when it comes to non-standard partner redemptions,a nd there are few people there that know the rules inside out. The T&C's are not explicitly clear either, I know, and are being worked on.

Thanks,
Richard

Thanks for the info.

Frustrations with booking weren't all FCs fault to be honest - though the system didn't seem the best. I'd phone up to request a flight, they'd then have to send through a request to Air NZ to see if they'd release a seat, next day i'd call back to find out they had space going out but not coming back (which was particularly annoying as i only wanted a one-way but was obliged to get a return) they'd then put in a new request with a different return date and we'd start all over again. It took about a week and to make matters worse i was have to use an internet phone connection from bangkok! - so i've probably only got myself to blame!

In their defence FC have always been great on other occasions, particularly sorting out my JNB flights for our honeymoon last year.

Out of interest - if i redeem my flyer points on a partner (say continental) is this to the financial benefit of Virgin (cos i'm not taking up one of their seats) or not (do they pay Continental a lot for the seat)?

Andrew