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Open jaws and Stopovers
Cantabria, Spain
  • When you travel on a SkyMiles® award ticket in some travel regions, your travel may include one legal open-jaw or one en route stopover per roundtrip journey.
  • An open jaw is when you travel to one city and return from another. For example, flying from Hong Kong to New York and returning from Los Angeles to Hong Kong. In this example, the open jaw segment is New York to Los Angeles. Both flight segments must be of a greater distance than the non-flight (open jaw) segment. If the open jaw portion exceeds the maximum permitted mileage, two roundtrip award levels are required.
  • A stopover is a planned break of more than 24 hours between your origin and destination for international flights, or 4 hours for flights within the U.S. One free en route stopover is permitted on a Northwest, KLM or Continental flight from Asia to Europe or North America, including Alaska and Hawaii. Stopovers are permitted only in a Northwest, KLM, Continental hub, or at an international gateway city that is indicated on your flight itinerary. However, free stopovers are not permitted for travel within Asia Pacific/Micronesia, or within/between the 48 contiguous United States, Alaska, Canada, Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico. Travel must be via a published route and must not exceed the maximum mileage permitted.

  • Circle Trip Award
    Northwest offers the option of booking circle trip award tickets for travel within the continental United States, and between the continental United States and Alaska and Canada. This option allows for a total of two stopovers within a round trip award ticket itinerary and will be priced based on the equivalent of three one-way journeys. To qualify for circle trip pricing, all segments must be booked within a single itinerary. For example, a member may now fly from Minneapolis to Boston, with a stop in Boston, from Boston to Memphis, with a stop in Memphis, and return from Memphis to Minneapolis on a standard coach award in a single itinerary for 37,500 miles.