Let the government pay for your next flight
How to use stopovers to hack your multi-city itineraries
Did you know Etihad Airways will practically pay you to visit Abu Dhabi during your next international trip? It’s called a stopover, and it’s the easiest hack for adding an extra stop to your itinerary.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say I’m traveling from NYC to Delhi during mid March. There’s a $411 option that involves connecting through Abu Dhabi (AUH) with a 3.5 hour layover:
But Abu Dhabi is beautiful and maybe I’m not quite satisfied just exploring the airport — after all, if I’m connecting through Abu Dhabi anyway, I might as well stay there for a few nights and explore! This mean I need to book 2 separate one-way trips (JFK > AUH, AUH > DEL), but that costs a total of $802; almost double my original itinerary price!
Here’s the secret galaxy brain travelers know: Etihad has a free stopover program where they’ll let you book an itinerary with a multi-day Abu Dhabi stay in between, but without the extra markup + taxes from booking two separate one-way trips. In other words, Etihad will just pretend you’ve booked a single trip (NYC-DEL in this case) that just happens to have a verrrrryyy long connection in their home city (AUH). Getting this free stopover is easy; I simply go to the Etihad site and check the box saying I’d like a free stopover:
This gives me access to a new itinerary option that costs $434, almost the same price as my original itinerary, but with one big difference: I get a 48 hr connection time rather than just 3.5 hrs. And obviously, I’m more than welcome to leave the airport and explore the city during that time.
So far, Etihad has subsidized my airfare by effectively treating my two separate trips as if it were just one. But Etihad goes one step further and actually comps my hotel for up to 2 nights! Etihad will let you choose from one of nine 3-star partner hotels for your complimentary stay (usually would cost $60-$100/night). Etihad also gives you the option to upgrade your stay by giving you deep 40% discounts on bougie 5-star hotels like the Shangri-La Qaryat Al Beri or the Grand Hyatt Abu Dhabi (details here).
Let’s recap. I was going from NYC to Delhi but noticed I had a connection in AUH. Initially I was going to just rot at my gate for a lackluster 3.5 hr layover, but because of Etihad’s stopover program, I’m actually able to explore the glory of Abu Dhabi for 2 nights for practically the same cost! That’s 2 trips for the price of one! (If you’re doing the math, between the subsidized airfare and the free hotels, that one little stopover checkbox on the Etihad site has saved me over $500.)
Quick Vocab Note: Layover vs Stopover
Layovers are less than 24hrs in length, and usually don’t involve leaving the airport. The vast majority of flight connections are layovers — you’re just there as a means to an end.
Stopovers are usually 24hrs or more, and involve you intentionally leaving the airport to explore the city. The connecting city becomes a destination in and of itself.
Some stopover programs require you to contact customer support, so knowing the difference and using precise language with the support rep can expedite your process.
Why do free stopovers even exist?
As you saw in the Etihad example, stopovers save you a ton of money on multi-city trips. But why does Etihad care about subsidizing your travel like this? Why do free stopover programs even exist? To answer these questions, we need a quick airlines industry lesson.
Many of the world’s major airlines are at least partially, if not majority-owned by their home government. The Singaporean government’s investment arm, Temasek, owns 56% of Singapore Airlines. TAP Portugal was swallowed up by the Portuguese government in 2020 when they bought out 72.5% of the carrier — the list goes on. These nationalized carriers are often called “flag carriers.”
Most governments have an active interest in boosting tourism to their nation. Since they have a majority stake in their flag carriers, foreign governments can use them to incentivize impulse visits by implementing stopover programs. So when Etihad offers you a free stopover in Abu Dhabi, you’re getting your travels subsidized by the Emirati government in the hope that you’ll come again and maybe even tell your friends. Talk about customer acquisition cost…
This concept might be a bit foreign to us in the USA; the airlines industry was deregulated and privatized in America in the 70s, so the USA doesn’t have official “flag carriers” that have the US government’s investment and blessing. For my international readers, that means stopovers in the US aren’t really a thing (although there is a hack that I’ll share in a future Shreycation Snack!).
Five awesome stopover programs
There’s a ton of stopover programs out there, and they all vary in their perks, pricing, and how long you’re allowed to stay. Most aren’t as generous as Etihad and won’t comp your hotel, but in all cases, the programs below will let you stay a few days in their host city without needing to book separate one-way tickets, which saves you some dough. Other programs let you do free stopovers, but only on award tickets (i.e. tickets you buy using points/miles).
Going through all the stopover programs is beyond the scope of this article, but I will introduce a few fan favorites:
Turkish Airlines
Like Etihad, Turkish also gives you a truly free stopover experience with hotels and all. The rules are a little more specific though: you need to have already booked a route with a 20hr+ layover in Istanbul (IST). If you are, you’re entitled to (a) stopover without increasing your airfare and (b) one night in a 4-star hotel if you’re flying economy, or two nights in a 5-star hotel if you’re flying business! This can be a fantastic way to explore one of the world’s oldest and most historic cities.
As always though, Turkish is a little behind the times on technology. There may be little indication during the booking process that your flight is eligible, and you’ll need to contact them via email to actually arrange your stopover (it’s not an automatic process like others on this list).
What if my layover is less than 24 hours? Well turns out Turkish still has something for ya! If your layover is 6-20 hrs, Turkish offers layover service! You can just hit up a “TourIstanbul” counter during your layover and they’ll put you on a tour bus and show you around and give you a meal for free. If you’re at the upper end of this layover range (12+ hrs), Turkish will let you relax in a hotel for free too (think of this as “Stopover-Lite”).
Links: Stopovers, TourIstanbul, Layover hotels
JAL
Japan Airlines will let you spend 1-6 nights in Tokyo or Osaka. If you’re heading to say, Niseko for skiing this season, might as well throw in a stop at Tokyo! Technically, you should be able to use Japan Airlines’ multicity booking tool to just specify your desired stopover, and it should give you the same price as with a non-stopover itinerary. In practice, JAL’s tech isn’t that great, so sometimes you’ll see the price jump. No worries though; you can call up their booking agents and they can set up the stopover without the price difference.
I’m working on a definitive guide to stopovers that covers all the carriers that offer free stopovers, and the easiest way to book them. As you’ve seen above, stopover programs have various rules and quirks, but I’m working on compiling those in one place for you. If you refer 3 new subscribers to Shreycation, I’ll send it to you for free! Make sure to use the share button below (or the one earlier in this post), or your referral may not count.
TAP Portugal
TAP Portugal has been gaining popularity these days as one of the cheapest ways to fly to Europe on cash. If you’ve taken one of these flights, you know that you’ll likely layover in Lisbon or Porto. But you can also stopover in these cities for up to 10 days! TAP makes it super easy to book these directly on their site.
Also, TAP will give you 25% off airfare to other Portugal destinations during your stopover, including exotic getaways like the Azores!
Singapore
If you’re flying into Asia, you can add a free stopover in Singapore as long as you’re booking using Singapore KrisFlyer miles (sorry, no free stopovers on cash tickets). For example if I want to fly SFO > BKK (Bangkok), that would cost 42k miles each way on Singapore Airlines, with a connection in SIN (Singapore). In theory, if I wanted to build in my own SIN stopover on miles, I’d actually need to book 3 flights on miles: SFO > SIN (42k), SIN > BKK (13k), BKK > SFO (42k), total of 95k miles. But since Singapore has a free stopover program, that SIN > BKK flight basically becomes free, and I save 13k miles!
Note that you get 1 free stopover if you book a roundtrip saver award, or 1 free stopover on a one-way advantage award (saver, as the name suggests, is a cheaper award that has limited capacity). Also, Singapore doesn’t give complimentary hotels, but they do offer deep discount stopover packages that include accommodations, transportation, and attraction tickets.
But Shrey, I don’t have KrisFlyer miles! Yes you do. Every major card program except Bilt transfers points into Singapore KrisFlyer. If you’re not sure what that means, check out my breakdown on transfer partners!
What if I have a long layover in SIN but I don’t want to stopover? SIN is widely considered the world’s best airport and there’s so much to do there (I almost missed a connection because I was too engrossed), but if you do want to get out, Singapore does offer free 2.5hr tours if your layover is 5.5hrs or longer.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
I’ve written about the Flying Blue frequent flyer program before, and it’s truly the gift that keeps on giving. Let’s say you wanted to book an economy ticket on points from Toronto (YYZ) to Rome (FCO) for the Italian summer. Flying Blue currently has promo fares for routes involving Toronto, so you’d get a great rate; just 22k miles for YYZ > FCO on KLM, connecting through Amsterdam (AMS). But we can stretch our miles even further and make our AMS layover into an AMS stopover at no extra points cost!
Unfortunately, you do have to book these over the phone, as their online award search tool doesn’t let you book multi-city itineraries. But Flying Blue makes up for it with the most liberal stopover policies of any other program on this list: you can stopover in ANY of the connecting cities on ANY of their partners. Flying Blue has 34 partners (including SkyTeam airlines like Delta and Virgin Atlantic), so you could do stopovers anywhere from LHR to HKG to CDG to GRU (Sao Paolo) and more. This is in stark contrast with other programs that only let you stopover in the carrier’s host country. Also, they let you spend up to 12 months on you stopovers; great for digital nomads!
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