That same sentence you quoted starts with “As a general rule…” and I note two exceptions. You’ve mentioned two more. But for the dozens of programs and thousands of theoretical connections between them, the rules do not allow it.

You can also transfer to IHG Rewards at 1:1 ration with the same minimum amount and increment levels.

Thanks for the tip!

SPG actually doesn’t require that the other person be a spouse or domestic partner. They need only be a resident at the same household for at least 30 days.

Also I believe SPG allows spouse or domestic partners to combine miles when redeeming awards and this has to be phoned in.

No, you do need to book a round-trip as one reservation to get a stopover. I just meant that if another reader read your comment and booked their award with a different program that this would not be an issue. Delta and American don’t allow stopovers whether you book two one-ways or one round-trip. Alaska allows stopovers on both one-way and round-trip itineraries.

So if we were able to book the round trip in one sitting, does that mean that there wouldn’t have been a free stopover anyway? We used United miles to fly with their partners (except for a United flight to get us to IAD)

The stopover is only an issue for United Airlines as far as domestic programs are concerned. American and Delta don’t allow them anyway, and Alaska allows stopovers even on one-way awards.

I did this for a trip to Africa with my gf using United miles, which we’ll be taking next month. We were waiting for her bonus to kick in, and availability was dwindling, so we decided to jump on the one ways to get there. Her bonus kicked in a few weeks later and we booked the one-ways coming back at that point. We did lose out on the free stopover on the round trip, but felt better about being able to land business class flights going there and coming back.

Definitely. Thanks for the tip.

You might also consider booking the first one-way now, while you have enough miles and can find award space, then book the other one-way later after earning the remaining miles needed. I did that with my sister last year when booking a trip to Hong Kong. Some of her miles didn’t post until after we’d left on the outbound itinerary, so we used them to book the return.

Another possibility is placing each award on hold before booking, but it may not avoid the problem of disappearing award space. It would just help you avoid getting stuck with one ticket that you then have to cancel.

An agent may be able to help with this situation. Reservation systems and their capabilities vary, so you will have to ask the agent. I don’t have enough experience to say with certainty which ones can do it. But I have had circumstances where an agent was able to pull up multiple reservations at once and switch between them. In a situation like that they may be able to request award space for each reservation separately and “hold” them just for a few minutes while they complete each transaction (even if they are unable to place a real hold for one or more days).