Booking a Connecting Award Flight

Finding these routings is currently a manual process, but breaking the trip into two searches can reveal additional choices.

How often the cheapest award fare connects

On many routes, the cheapest award fare is not a nonstop. In recorded finds from September to November 2026, as of 3 November 2026, this is how many business class finds from US departures were nonstop. Each find is the cheapest award fare one PointsGPT search returned, for one traveler, one way.

• Rome: 3 of 277 finds were nonstop.
• Lisbon: 3 of 194 finds were nonstop.
• Tokyo: 81 of 413 finds were nonstop.
• London: 181 of 345 finds were nonstop.

London is the exception here, with many nonstop flights from US cities. For the others, a search limited to nonstop flights would have missed most of these cheapest finds. If you only accept a nonstop, expect fewer choices, and try allowing one stop before you decide a trip is unavailable.

One ticket or two

A connecting award trip can be booked in two ways, and the difference matters if something goes wrong.

• One ticket. The airline program books both flights together on one reservation. If the first flight is late and you miss the second, the airline generally rebooks you on a later flight. This is the safer choice when it is available.
• Two separate tickets. You book each flight on its own, sometimes through different programs. This can open up choices that a single ticket cannot, but each ticket stands alone.

Start by searching the whole trip from origin to destination. If the program offers a connecting itinerary on one ticket, that is usually the better booking. The rest of this guide is about building the trip yourself when it does not.

Start with a practical connecting hub

Look at the hubs used by airlines that serve your destination. Long-haul networks often route through a small group of cities, so begin with a hub that has useful service from both your origin and to your destination.

Partner airlines matter here. Airlines in the same alliance often share hubs, and one airline program can usually book its partners' flights. A hub that two partners both serve gives you more ways to price each part of the trip.

Search each flight separately

First search from your origin to the hub, then search from the hub to your destination. This takes longer than a single search, but it can uncover award fares that were missing from the original query.

Separate searches also show which part of the trip has less availability, helping you decide where flexible dates or a different routing may help.

Allow enough time for the connection

If you book the flights separately, they are separate contracts. A delay on the first flight may leave you without protection for the second. Allow more than the minimum connection time and consider how you would handle an overnight delay at the hub.

A few more checks before you commit to two tickets:

• Bags. On separate tickets, you may need to collect your bags and check them in again at the hub.
• Airports. Some cities have more than one airport. Make sure both flights use the same one, or allow time to cross town.
• Entry rules. Collecting bags can mean entering the hub country, so check whether you need a visa or other entry document there.
• The cash part. Each ticket carries its own taxes and fees. Add both before you compare with a single ticket. The surcharge trap explains why programs charge so differently.

Compare round trips with two one-way bookings

A round trip depends on one airline program having availability in both directions. Booking two one-way trips lets each direction stand on its own and can allow you to use different points balances. The tradeoff is managing two bookings instead of one.

PointsGPT searches each direction of a round trip separately and shows the cheapest outbound and return pair it found. You book the two fares separately, and the total it shows adds both fares rather than quoting an airline's round-trip price. You can also ask for short layovers in the chat, and it checks flights at the listed points price.

Before you move any points

Confirm that both flights are available before transferring points. Transfers are one-way, and availability for either flight can change. If one flight is confirmed and the other is not, wait: a single booked flight to a hub is not much use on its own.

If your search was empty for another reason, why a search shows nothing explains the common causes, while what is award travel covers the booking order. To try a route now, start a search and compare nonstop and one-stop results. The airline programs PointsGPT searches are listed in Help.