How to Win at the Stopover Game

If you want to visit Honolulu and Fiji on your flight to New Zealand or Australia, or add stays in Budapest and Prague en route to Moscow, or roam around Lima or Panama City while bound for Rio de Janeiro, you may be able to do it at little or no extra charge through the use of stopovers.

Many regular fares offer unlimited stopovers on an airline’s route system within the mileage permitted for that flight. Promotional fares, on the other hand, may limit or not allow any stopovers, or impose an extra charge per stopover.

Such promotions as the advanced purchase excursion fare (APEX) don’t permit stopovers to Europe, but promotional rates to the South Pacific, Orient and South America can present another picture.

The day of the week and whether it’s high or low season also can affect the stopover picture. And don’t forget that promotional fares usually mean conditions such as advance purchase, minimum and maximum stays, etc.

On domestic flights, if you stay more than four hours in a city it’s generally considered a stopover. If your stay is less than four hours it’s called a connection.

Internationally, it works like this: If there is no connecting flight on the same day you arrive, and if you continue on the following day within 24 hours of arrival, it’s still considered a connection.

Point-to-Point Basis

The difference between a connection and a stopover is important, as your fare is on a through basis as a connection (a connecting flight means that you have to change aircraft, but not necessarily the airline). If your stopover is now allowed, your fare is calculated on a point-to-point basis.

Let’s say you were booked on a Los Angeles-Atlanta-London flight on Delta Air Lines using an APEX fare (which would not permit stopovers) and with an 8:40 a.m. departure from Los Angeles International Airport and a 3:43 p.m. arrival in Atlanta.

The continuing flight from Atlanta to London is scheduled to depart at 7:15 p.m. As you would have less than four hours in Atlanta, you would be on a connecting flight. Your round-trip fare would be $568 or $598 depending on the time of the week.

But if you elected to catch the flight to London from Atlanta on the following day, your time in Atlanta would be classified as a stopover and you would have to pay the regular LAX-Atlanta and Atlanta-London fares, which would come to $1,091 on a regular weekday economy-fare basis.

If the flight from Atlanta to London was overbooked (or was canceled or postponed for weather or technical reasons) and you had to stay over in Atlanta, Delta Air Lines would treat your fare on a connecting basis.

Some travelers will book flights that have a stopover for the chance to have a quick visit to a friend, a business appointment or just a tour of the city.

They plan on arriving in a city too late to catch the airline’s next flight to their destination. In such situations, some airlines will provide gratis overnight accommodations for travelers; this policy often depends on the fare type. Obviously, first- and business-class passengers are more likely to receive such perks.

No Extra Cost

On a regular fare from LAX to Rome on TWA you could stop over, at no extra cost, in New York, Paris, Geneva and Milan. The mileage on this stopover routing amounts to 6,792 miles, well within the mileage limit of 7,606 miles set for this route.

What’s more, all the flight segments don’t have to be on TWA. “Not all travelers realize they can use other airlines for some stopover flights, with these tickets still written in the United States,” Diane Meese, area sales manager for TWA, said.

Delta Air Lines also offers unlimited stopovers to its full-fare business- or first-class passengers who fly on the carrier’s routes. This means you could stop off with no extra charge at such domestic destinations as Salt Lake City, Cincinnati, Dallas/Fort Worth and Atlanta on an LAX-Atlanta-Frankfurt routing.

Lufthansa is another example. Using full fares, if you were booked on an LAX-Frankfurt-Moscow routing, you would be entitled to a free stopover in each direction, within the mileage allowed. In this case, you could stop off in Budapest eastbound and Prague returning to Frankfurt. And the Budapest-Moscow and Moscow-Prague segments would be on other carriers.

In planning trips, if you would like to visit many places, you might be better off paying a higher regular fare that permits free stopovers rather than a discounted fare that does not.

The TWA regular coach fare from LAX to Rome is $1,872 compared to $786 on an APEX fare. If you were to fly to several other cities in Europe from Rome after arriving there on an APEX ticket, your total air costs could easily go over the regular LAX-Rome fare. European point-to-point air fares generally are on the high side.

Free Stopovers Available

An example of stopovers on unrestricted regular fares to South America comes from Varig. Free stopovers are available at either Lima or Panama City, depending on the day of the week, on the carrier’s one-stop flights from LAX to Rio de Janeiro. These stopover rights are good for any class of service.

With discount fares, the situation changes. On a 30-day APEX fare you still get one free stopover in either direction. Any additional stopovers cost $50 each, and might involve a surcharge on mileage depending on the routing. However, you can interline (fly on other airlines) with this fare.

Varig has another APEX fare good for three months that does not permit stopovers. “This fare is for people who plan to stay a while at one point, while the 30-day APEX fare is used a lot for tours, as it can involve many destinations,” said a Varig spokesman.

In the South Pacific area, Singapore Airlines offers unlimited stopovers, depending on mileage, on full fares. Honolulu is a free stopover on all of its promotional fares. On the carrier’s Super Easy Fare, $1,000 round-trip economy on an LAX-Singapore-LAX routing, additional stopovers other than Honolulu cost $50 each.

Singapore Airlines also has an Easy Fare that allows two free stopovers plus Honolulu. However, under this fare ($1,200 economy on the same routing) you may use another airline that expands your options.

For example, you could fly LAX-Honolulu-Singapore-Bangkok on Singapore Airlines and then use another airline from Bangkok to Hong Kong. Your return flight from Hong Kong to LAX would again be on Singapore Airlines.

Air New Zealand offers unlimited stopovers for all classes on its regular fares to the South Pacific. You can, for example, have gratis stopovers at Honolulu, Tahiti, Fiji and Rarotonga on an LAX-Auckland flight.

Turnaround Point

Stopover rights vary with the carrier’s promotional fares. On the Kiwi Smile/Aussie Wonder APEX fares you get three stopovers plus the turnaround point.

If your turnaround point were Sydney on the Aussie Wonder fare, you could have stopovers at Honolulu, Fiji and Christchurch. On the Kiwi Smile fare, Auckland or Christchurch could be your turnaround points. You could have stopovers at Honolulu, Fiji and either Auckland or Christchurch, depending on which of these two cities was your turnaround point. Tahiti is excluded as a stopover on these APEX fares.

On the carrier’s Superpass excursion fares you have unlimited stopovers. Time, interest and budget permitting (you still have to pay for hotels, meals and other expenses), you could have free stopovers on an LAX-Sydney routing at Tahiti, Rarotonga, Fiji, Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch, and either Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane before returning to Los Angeles. And on the one-way Super APEX fare you get one stopover, excluding Tahiti.

Japan Air Lines, on its full-fare flights to Tokyo, allows first-class passengers to fly to Honolulu on another airline gratis and then pick up a JAL flight from Hawaii to Japan. Business-class passengers can stop over in Honolulu for $30 and then take the Hawaii-Tokyo flight. Normally, JAL’s flights are nonstop from LAX to Tokyo.

JAL also has two types of Super Saver; available all week, you get two free stopovers plus the turnaround point. Extra stopovers would be $50 each.

An example of such an itinerary might be LAX, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Hong Kong and Singapore, with Singapore the turnaround point. Tokyo and Seoul would be free stopovers, but Taipei and Hong Kong would cost $50 each or $100 extra in the fare. There would be no charge for Singapore as the turnaround point. You can also use other carriers in this routing.

There is a midweek Super Saver that doesn’t allow stopovers, but it’s possible to combine the regular and midweek Super Saver fares to get one free stopover. You still wouldn’t be able to get additional stopovers at the $50 tab.

Discovering what stopovers you’re entitled to can greatly affect your planning, both in terms of price and time.

It’s worth the effort. As stopover rights are not always promoted or well-known, it’s advisable to check your options with a good travel agent. You may be surprised at what places you can visit free or for a relatively small surcharge.