1 trip, 2 destinations: How flight stopovers can enhance your trips | Cruising Altitude
This might actually qualify as a genuine travel hack. If you’ve ever wanted to visit two distinct and disparate countries in one vacation, you should look into airline stopover programs.
As the name suggests, stopovers allow travelers to break up connecting flight itineraries with some time on the ground in your connection city. Many airlines offer them free or at reduced prices compared with buying separate flights.
“You can add a second destination at no additional cost or very little additional cost. There are two different destinations, completely different, that you can go two different places for the same price,” my colleague Wilson Santiago Burgos, founder of Mochileando.com and regular contributor here at USA TODAY, told me. “It’s an amazing deal for travelers that want to save money and visit two countries.”
How do stopovers work?
The terms vary by airline and destination, but in general, stopovers give you the chance to leave the airport and explore an extra location on your way to or from your primary destination on the same flight ticket.
“It gives you a chance to see another city for the same price, and for myself, that’s what I do,” Steve Kadin, a real estate syndicator in New York, told me. “I love exploring. It gives me another city to do. The first time I did it, I fell in love with Portugal.”
Kadin said he has done three stopovers in Portugal, twice in Lisbon and once in Porto, and that it has changed the way he travels to Europe and other places where TAP Air Portugal flies.
“This gives me the opportunity to pop in for three days, maybe every year or every other year,” he said. “The second time I went, I stayed by a friend that I met the first time. And the third time, we met up in Porto, so the second and third time, the trip was together.”
Santiago added that some airlines and locations have even more perks as part of their stopover programs.
“If you stop in Dubai, they offer you a hotel for a very, very affordable price,” he said. “(With) Turkish Airlines, if you stop in Istanbul for one day, they offer you a completely free tour with breakfast, lunch and dinner and a complete tour around Istanbul.”
So if you’re traveling somewhere far-flung, it can be a real bonus to your trip if you add a stopover. Not only does it give you a chance to stretch your legs on what could otherwise be an interminable travel day, but it also opens the opportunity to explore somewhere you might not get to see otherwise.
Katy Nastro, a travel expert at Going.com, said she likes to take advantage of stopovers on longer trips, even if the stop is just somewhere else in the U.S.
“If you’re going on a long-haul flight from LA down to Sydney, Australia, I like to stop in Honolulu to break up the trip,” she said. “It really gives you a chance to set yourself up for that longer leg.”
How can I book a stopover with my airline?
Santiago said different airlines have different procedures, so it’s worth doing your research.
“TAP Portugal asks you in the process if you want to stay in Portugal for a few days for free,” he said. “Some airlines like Iberia, and Virgin, what you have to do is to choose a multi-city search. You have to make a search with three different destinations, including the destination where you want to do the stopover. Normally, the destination that you would do the stopover is the base for the airline.”
Santiago added that others may make you call customer service, especially if other perks like a hotel stay are provided as part of the package.
Nastro said you can also create your own stopover if the airline you’re flying doesn’t have an official program, though she added that doing it that way can take a little more work and come with a few extra risks.
“Let’s say I want to check out London on my way over to somewhere else in Europe. I can get my flight to London at a certain price,” she said. “Then I could hop onto a European budget airline at any time.”
Just make sure you plan ahead if you’re creating your own stopover. If one of your flights gets canceled, you may not have any protection for the rest of your itinerary and could have to pay for rebooking new flights.
Cruising Altitude: What flight attendants really do.
What airlines offer stopover programs?
Stopover programs may be more common than you realize. It can be hard to pin down exactly which airlines offer them because some advertise more clearly than others, but here’s a list of carriers with the most popular stopover programs:
Aer Lingus – Ireland
Air Canada – Canada
Air China – China
Air France – France
Air New Zealand – New Zealand
Azores Airlines – The Azores
British Airways – The U.K.
China Southern Airlines – China
Copa Airlines – Panama
Emirates – Dubai
Ethiopian Airlines – Ethiopia
Etihad – Abu Dhabi
Fiji Airways – Fiji
Finnair – Finland
Hawaiian Airlines – Hawaii
Iberia – Spain
Icelandair – Iceland
Japan Airlines – Japan
LOT Polish Airlines – Poland
Oman Air – Oman
Play Airlines – Iceland
Qantas – Australia
Royal Jordanian – Jordan
Virgin Atlantic – The U.K.
TAP Air Portugal – Portugal
Turkish Airlines – Turkey
If you’re flying one of these carriers, check out the terms for what’s available, from how long you can stay to what else might be included in the offer. And if your airline isn’t on the list, it may still be worth a quick internet search or a call to customer service to see what your options are if you want to add a stop to your itinerary.
Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How to take advantage of airline stopover programs | Cruising Altitude
