Stopover Rules on Award Tickets: How to Maximize Your Travel

February 5, 2023
Brian Soares

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February 5, 2023
Brian Soares

Travel on Point(s) is an independent, advertising-supported website. This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites like Cardratings.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Travel on Point(s) has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site. Reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any partner entities.

Stopover Rules on Award Tickets

Stopovers are a great trick for squeezing another little trip into your itinerary. In this guide, we cover stopover rules on award tickets by airline for some of the best options across popular loyalty programs. This list is by no means exhaustive, but covers programs with the easiest or most generous stopover options for award bookings.

Table of Contents

What Is a Stopover?

Stopovers are different from layovers. A stopover is a layover that is longer than 24 hours. Meanwhile, connections under 24 hours long are generally considered to be layovers. This little difference is a big deal because airlines and their loyalty programs treat layovers and stopovers very different from each other.

To state the obvious: pretty much any airline will let you book a connection on an award flight. After all, there are only so many non-stop flights throughout the world. But not every airline lets you book a stopover.

So let's go over how some of the major loyalty programs treat stopovers. Which ones allow stopovers? For how long? On what kind of bookings?

Stopover Rules by Airline

Let's dive into how stopover rules on award tickets are treated by the major airline loyalty programs.

Air Canada Aeroplan (AC)

Right off the bat, Aeroplan has some of the most generous stopover rules. If you're booking a Star Alliance award flight and want to enjoy a stopover, Aeroplan should be on your radar.

Maximum duration: 45 days
Cost: 5,000 additional miles
Itinerary type: Allowed for one-way, round-trip, and multi-city bookings, with one stopover allowed per direction of travel
How to book: Online (by selecting the Multi-city/Stopover option when searching) or over the phone. (Also check out our step-by-step guide to booking stopovers with Aeroplan.)
Notes: Stopovers are not permitted in cities in the US or Canada
ToP Take: It doesn't get much better than Aeroplan for stopovers. Cheap cost, generous duration, and easy to book online. Even better: Aeroplan has some great non-alliance partners where a stopover can really come in handy, like Emirates, Etihad, and Oman Air. Lastly, let's not forget that Aeroplan miles are also easy to earn through multiple transfer partners.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan (AS)

Not to be outdone, Alaska Airlines has the most generous policy. Stopovers are free and there is no limit to the duration. That's right, your stopover is only constrained by how far the award calendar is open.

Maximum duration: None.
Cost: Free (no fee or additional miles).
Itinerary type: Allowed for one-way and round-trip.
How to book: Online (by selecting the Multi-city option when searching) or over the phone.
Limitations: Stopovers are not available on awards within international regions (e.g., intra-Asia or intra-Europe).
ToP Take: What's not to love about Alaska's stopover policy?! As always, we just wish Alaska miles were easier to earn.

All Nippon Airways Mileage Club (NH)

ANA's stopover rules are pretty good, but the program doesn't allow for one-way redemptions, which really hamper value.

Maximum duration: None.
Cost: Free (no fee or additional miles).
Itinerary type: Limited to round-trip awards (ANA does not permit one-way award bookings).
How to book: Online or over the phone.
Limitations: One stopover permitted en route to your destination. Stopovers are not allowed on itineraries originating in Japan. Also, ANA only allows for round-trip awards, regardless of whether you're including a stopover.
ToP Take: ANA's website is far from among the easiest to use. And the prohibition on one-way bookings makes this a pretty niche program. But ANA's award chart has some great sweet spots, which get even better with a free stopover. But keep in mind: ANA has some hefty surcharges, even on many partner awards.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (CX)

Cathay's Asia Miles program offers a lot of value, but it is far from user friendly. Unfortunately, Cathay removed stopovers as an option for one-way award bookings in 2020, but they are still allowed on round-trips.

Maximum duration: None (can also include multiple stopovers in one itinerary).
Cost: Free (no fee or additional miles).
Itinerary type: Only allowed on round-trip award bookings.
How to book: Online or over the phone (note that some partner bookings can only be booked over the phone).
Notes: Stopovers are not permitted on one-way awards, only for round-trip award bookings. If you have a layover that is longer than 24 hours, Asia Miles requires you to make two separate one-way award bookings. You can include up to 5 stopovers in a round-trip itinerary.
ToP Take: Cathay's award chart offers plenty of sweet spots where a stopover can be helpful (not to mention the ability to include multiple stopovers). But the round-trip requirement is very limiting.

Emirates Skywards (EK)

Emirates offers different stopover rules depending on the the category of awards you book. There are three different categories Emirates offers for redemptions: Saver, Flex, and Flex Plus. First class awards are only available as Flex Plus (whether one-way or round-trip). Economy and business class one-way awards are also only available as Flex Plus, while round-trip can be booked in the lower tiers.

Maximum duration: None.
Cost: Free (no fee or additional miles).
Itinerary type: Allowed on one-way Flex Plus bookings and all round-trip bookings.
How to book: Online (click on “Advanced search: multi-city, promo codes, partners”) or over the phone. Stopovers on one-way awards can only be booked over the phone.
Notes: Be mindful of Emirates' sky-high fuel surcharges on award bookings.
ToP Take: It's nice that Emirates allows stopovers on one-way awards, if you're willing to book a higher tier redemption. Emirates' surcharges are very high, but a free stopover can help alleviate that sticker shock.

Air France/KLM Flying Blue (AF/KL)

Flying Blue, the joint loyalty program for Air France and KLM, recently announced that travelers can book free stopovers on award tickets. Details are still emerging and stopovers are not yet bookable online. So this is very much something to continue monitoring.

Maximum duration: None.
Cost: Free (no fee or additional miles).
Itinerary type: Allowed on one-way and round-trip bookings.
How to book: For now, only over the phone.
Notes: For now, stopovers are bookable only over the phone (but not all agents seem capable of doing it).
ToP Take: We're excited to see one of ToP's favorite programs adding free stopovers on awards. Flying Blue consistently offers great availability to Europe and regularly has transfer bonus across its multiple transfer partners.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (SQ)

Singapore's KrisFlyer program has plenty going for it, including lots of transfer partners and better saver award availability on its own flights than any of its partners. Stopover rules are similar to Emirates', where the type of redemption dictates your stopover parameters. With Singapore, travelers can book Saver and Advantage awards, with the latter category being more expensive.

Maximum duration: Up to 30 days.
Cost: Free (no fee or additional miles).
Itinerary type: Advantage awards allow one stopover one a one-way and two stopovers on a round-trip. Saver awards allow one stopover on a roundtrip and no stopovers on a one-way.
How to book: Online or over the phone.
ToP Take: Singapore is a popular destination for stopovers, and it's helpful to have the country's flag carrier as a reliable option for stopovers. Although you have to book the more expensive Advantage awards to score a stopover on a one-way itinerary, Singapore's myriad transfer partners make it easy to come up with those extra miles.

Airlines that Do Not Permit Stopovers

Unfortunately, not all airlines play nice. Here are some popular airline programs that currently do not permit stopovers on award tickets:

American Airlines (AA)
Avianca LifeMiles (AV)
Delta Air Lines (DL)
United Airlines (UA) (but check out the famous United Excursionist Perk)

The Major Airline's Stopover Rules On Award Tickets: ToP Thoughts

Stopovers are a great way to stretch your miles even further by visiting another city. Maximizing stopover rules definitely takes effort, but like most things in the award travel space, hard work pays off. Aeroplan and Alaska offer the best of both worlds with a very generous policy that is also easy to book. While not all of these programs can be as generous or as straightforward, there's something in this list for everyone.