The Do Both Ways Open Jaws 2011

If you're reading this post, chances are you're interested in making the most of your hard-earned points and miles. For many, this involves splurging on fantastic first-class flights or luxurious hotel rooms. However, others may be interested in traveling to and visiting more than one city on a single trip, and one of the best ways to do this is by including stopovers and/or open jaws on your award flights.

The Do Both Ways Open Jaws 2011

In this instance, both rules are violated: The distance of the unflown segment (Buenos Aires to New York-JFK) is greater than one of the flown segments (JFK to London) and the open jaw spans two regions (North America and South America).

Now that you have an understanding of these two terms, let's take a closer look at the major carriers' policies surrounding stopovers and open jaws. I'll start with an overview table that'll provide a snapshot of your options. I'll then follow up with additional details on each one along with some suggestions for how you can accrue miles or points in that program (aside from flying), since each airline partners with at least one of the five transferable point programs:

Air Canada's award program is one of the most generous when it comes to stopovers and open jaws, though you'll need to take this generosity with a healthy dose of confusion. This is because Aeroplan has different rules depending on the region(s) of travel and airlines involved. For starters, you can only utilize these options on round-trip award tickets. Then, if you're booking a round-trip award, the following rules apply:

Despite not belonging to one of the three major airline alliances, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan offers some of the best value premium cabin redemptions, especially for travel to Asia. It also offers some generous routing rules with stopovers and open jaws. For international award tickets, you're allowed to have one stopover on each one-way flight and you can also utilize an open jaw.

However, the big restriction when it comes to utilizing stopovers and open jaws with Alaska is the fact that you are restricted to one partner airline per award ticket (plus any Alaska flights to get to your international gateway). As a result, you can't fly from New York to London on British Airways and then return from Helsinki to New York on Finnair. You could, however, do something like this:

This Japan-based airline has been a longtime favorite of points and miles enthusiasts thanks to generous rates on awards for both ANA and partner-operated flights. While you're only allowed to book round-trip awards, ANA does allow stopovers and open jaws on certain eligible routes.

This last point is most confusing. ANA uses a zone-based award chart, with 10 different geographical zones spread across the globe. However, those zones are arranged into three "areas" that apply to open jaws:

The British Airways Executive Club program could be viewed as the most flexible or least flexible out there for stopovers and open jaws. It follows a distance-based formula for calculating how many Avios you need for a particular award redemption, and the total cost is based on the individual costs of your segments. As a result, you can build in as many stopovers as you'd like. However, since you're charged on a flight-by-flight basis, you'll wind up paying more to stop in London en route from JFK to Madrid (for example) than you would by flying nonstop from JFK to Madrid.

While dynamic pricing is beginning to feel like the norm these days, it was Delta who gets credit for this "innovation" several years back. However, even before the carrier removed its fixed award chart, it decided to get rid of stopovers and open jaws on award tickets. I had used both tactics several times and was quite disappointed to see them disappear. However, since Delta allows one-way award tickets, you can still build in either one or two open jaws by booking two different one-way award tickets on a single itinerary. Doing this is a great way to avoid the carrier's absurd surcharge for award reservations that start in Europe.

Japan Airlines and its Mileage Bank program is an intriguing option for stopovers and open jaws, especially since it uses a distance-based award chart for partner redemptions. However, the rules are a bit different for flights on JAL vs. flights on partner airlines. Here's a breakdown of how these strategies work:

Even after a pair of devaluations to Singapore's premium class award rates and its partner award chart, there's no denying that Singapore Airlines has some incredible premium-class products (and TPG himself loves flying in Suites Class). The carrier also gives you some flexibility to build in stopovers and open jaws on award tickets, though like many programs listed above, the exact policies vary depending on the type of award you book. If you are traveling exclusively on Singapore flights, you can have one stopover on round-trip saver awards. You can also have a stopover on one-way standard/full awards or two stopovers on round-trip standard/full awards.

While United doesn't explicitly permit stopovers or open jaws, it allows you to create your own unique itinerary through the Excursionist Perk. If you're not familiar with this unique program you should start by reading our complete guide to it, but here's the basic principle:

You can use this to create a number of stopovers and/or open jaws, and there's room to get very creative here given how few rules United has about the perk. I'll leave you with one simple example that incorporates a stopover, an open jaw and a free flight. You could fly from Newark (EWR) to London-Heathrow (LHR), stop for several days, continue on to Frankfurt (FRA) for free, and then fly back from there to Chicago-O'Hare (ORD).

Hopefully you've seen how to begin taking advantage of stopovers and open jaws on award tickets, as many carriers give you valuable flexibility to extend the value of your miles. However, there are a few additional suggestions I have to help as you're planning your next trip:

3. Diversify, diversify, DIVERSIFY. One of the best lessons I've learned in this hobby is the importance of diversification. By having multiple pots of mileage from which to choose, you have incredible flexibility when it comes to booking award tickets but also filling in open jaws. This is one reason why I love transferable point currencies and think that all award travelers should have them. These programs allow you to wait to transfer points until you are sure of your redemption needs.

Building in stopovers and open jaws on your award tickets can be a great way to make the most of your hard-earned points and miles and see a second city at no additional cost. If you're the type of traveler who lets the deals plan your trips, you can even use some of the restrictions (like Alaska only allowing you to stop in a partner's hub city) to begin mapping out your next trip. Hopefully this post has given you a solid understanding of what these strategies are but also (more importantly) how to begin utilizing them across the major airlines.

Le deuxième album était alors attendu avec impatience, impatience attisée par des teasers alléchants dans lesquels on pouvait voir les visages statiques de Dan et Olivia agités de couleurs sur des rythmes tribaux. Enfin, on eut droit au premier single et à son clip, "Slippery Slope". Sauvage et tribale, sur fond de percussions rehaussées par la voix sévère d'Olivia, cette première piste révélée laissait penser que The Dø avait décidé de laisser s'épanouir les aspects tambourinant et indomptés perçus sur des pistes comme "Playground Hustle" ou "Queen dot Kong". Et tout ceci était de très bon augure. Alléché, le critique musical fourrait sa serviette dans son col et attendait devant son assiette en battant la mesure avec ses couverts : "on a faim !". Et enfin, un beau jour de l'année 2011, Both Ways open Jaws fut servi. A table.

Our aim was to compare feeding kinematics for the six species as the larvae graze on a common substrate. We controlled for phylogenetic relationships among our study taxa and tested whether maximum gape, the total number of tooth rows of each species and their feeding guild were good predictors of the speed at which tadpoles open and close their mouths. We hypothesized that tadpoles with a larger maximum gape or those with more labial teeth would have a longer gape cycle because it would require more time for the greater number of teeth to pass along the substrate. Findings from our previous research suggest that tadpoles in different feeding guilds vary in their jaw kinematics during feeding (Venesky et al., 2011). Thus, we hypothesized that tadpoles of species with similar feeding guilds (e.g. nektonic feeders) would have similar feeding kinematics. Lastly, we used geometric morphometrics to explore the change in shape of the jaw sheaths at different positions during the gape cycle. We hypothesized that if benthic feeding tadpoles regularly change the shape of their jaw sheath to scrape food from a variety of surfaces that differ in surface regularity, texture and hardness (e.g. rocks and leaves), then they would exhibit greater jaw sheath deformation during feeding than nektonic tadpoles.