These 24 Airlines Let Flyers Stop Over in Their Hubs for Free

Want to spend a few days in Madrid on the way home from Rome? Shop the markets of Casablanca after seeing Egypt? Take an extended break in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Istanbul, or Qatar after an African safari? Several airlines let passengers tour two spots for the price of one with free stopovers: When connecting through their hubs, instead of lurking for a few hours at the airport you can spend part of your vacay in a second place without buying an additional ticket or paying extra fees.

The most well-known stopover program is probably Icelandair’s—so popular it’s largely responsible for fueling its country’s tourism surge. Several other carriers, including Emirates, Finnair, Qatar Airways, and TAP Air Portugal also actively lure customers—and juice their countries’ tourism economy—by promoting free stops for short stays.

Because it’s Checkbook’s mission to zoom in on great deals, we wanted to make a list of airlines offering free stopovers. We figured there were only five or six operators to research. But after spending several days exploring fare rules and pricing trips for every international carrier serving mainland U.S. airports, we realized many airlines allow free stopovers. They just don’t always advertise them.

Below, we list the 24 airlines offering free (or nearly free) stopovers of at least two nights for international routes originating in the U.S. We also summarize each airline’s stopover policy and tell you how to book one.

Some airlines have easy-to-find, explicit, free-stopover programs: For example, when booking a trip on the websites for Finnair, Iberia, Icelandair, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, and TAP Air Portugal, there are obvious spots where you can add extra nights in their hubs to your holiday.

But we found many more airlines have “unofficial” stopover programs. For some, generous fare rules allow you to schedule stopovers to and from your final destination, with no fees. Others price all their international itineraries in ways that effectively grant free stopovers. For example, although Latin American powerhouse LATAM doesn’t advertise stopovers, after digging into its fare rules for most international trips from the U.S. we found it allows one free stopover and a second for a $100 fee. And when pricing multi-stop trips on the websites for Aer Lingus, Air France–KLM, Japan Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Qantas, Turkish Airlines, and several others, we usually were offered fares for itineraries with lengthy stopovers that were the same as for one-way and roundtrip tickets with short-term connections.

With a few airlines—Finnair, Iberia, Icelandair—you have to book a roundtrip ticket to qualify for a free stopover. But all the others allow multiday layovers on one-way fares. This means you can mix-and-match among airlines for an epic adventure: Say, stop for a few days in Dublin en route to Scotland via Aer Lingus, then take Air France–KLM to Amsterdam or Paris for the weekend before continuing on to Switzerland, and then—why not?—fly eastward on a Chinese carrier and hang out in Beijing or Shanghai for a while before heading home.

To trigger free stopover fares, you usually have to book on the airline’s website or call its reservations line.

But before nabbing a ticket with a stopover, make sure that you’ll pay the lowest price for the trip. Although 24 airlines don’t charge extra (or don’t charge much) for stopovers compared to taking a regular connecting flight, we often found we could save by traveling similar routes on competing carriers. For example, for one sample trip to Berlin with a stopover in Paris on the way back, we turned up a price from stopover-friendly Air France–KLM thousands of dollars higher than what we’d pay by booking each leg of the journey with a different carrier. Keep in mind that ticket costs for regional flights within Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe are typically quite inexpensive—often costing less than $100 roundtrip. If you find a deal on a flight to a major foreign airport, you can usually create your own inexpensive vacation with variety without worrying about stopover fees.

We also found that some advertised stopover programs are far from free. While the websites for Brussels Airlines and SWISS offer to let you add a stay, their prices to include stopovers often added $1,000 or more to the fares for regular connecting flights. We think these two carriers are advertising stopover programs as bait to hawk vacation packages for their affiliated tour operators.

Even for airlines that don’t offer free stopovers, you can often visit an extra country for a day or night by booking a connecting flight with a long layover; many airlines even pay for a hotel room for a night. If you can’t locate a long layover in search results from your favorite booking site, call the airline. Make sure you don’t need a special visa to leave the airport—in some countries, short-term transit visas issued for connecting passengers won’t let them venture beyond nearby hotels.

Because U.S. carriers don’t offer free stopovers within the mainland U.S., we focused on international trips. But on domestic flights you might find booking a multi-stop ticket that includes a stopover sometimes costs less than what you’d pay for separate point-to-point tickets.

Airlines that Allow Free (or Nearly Free) Stopovers

Aer Lingus
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Dublin
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but when pricing multi-stop trips on Aer Lingus’ website we found it typically offers the same fares for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without them.

Air China
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Beijing
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but when pricing multi-stop trips on Air China’s website we found it typically offers the same fares for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without them.

Air France-KLM
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Amsterdam, Paris
Allows free stopovers lasting up to one year. At KLM.com or AirFrance.com use the “Multi-City” flight search option.

Air New Zealand
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Auckland, Rarotonga
Allows free stopovers in Auckland and Rarotonga lasting up to one year. Allows stopovers in additional New Zealand cities for $100 fee. At AirNewZealand.com use the “Book a multistop trip” option; call for assistance if you get prices that are higher than a regular connecting flight.

Azores Airlines
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Ponta Delgada
Allows free stopovers lasting up to seven nights. At AzoresAirlines.pt click on “Stopover.”

China Eastern
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Shanghai
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but when pricing multi-stop trips on China Eastern’s website we found it typically offers the same fares for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without them.

China Southern
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Beijing, Guangzhou
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but when pricing multi-stop trips on China Southern’s website we found it typically offers the same fares for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without them.

Copa Airlines
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Panama City
Allows free stopovers lasting up to seven nights. At the time of publication, its program was brand-new; call airline if you can’t book a stopover using its website.

Emirates
Stopover city for flights from U.S.: Dubai
Allows free stopovers lasting up to 14 nights. At Emirates.com, use “Advanced search” under booking options.

Etihad
Stopover city for flights from U.S.: Abu Dhabi
Allows free stopovers lasting up to six months. At Etihad.com, click on “Multi-city.”

Fiji Airways
Stopover city for flights from U.S.: Nadi
Allows free stopovers lasting up to one year. At FijiAirways.com, click on “Multi-city.”

Finnair
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Helsinki
Allows free stopovers lasting up to five nights on roundtrip tickets only. One stopover on an itinerary is free; if you want a second stopover on a return trip, it costs $100 extra. At Finnair.com search for fares using the “Stopover” option under “Find and Book Flights: Other Options.”

Hawaiian Airlines
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Honolulu
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but when pricing multi-stop trips on Hawaiian Airlines’ website we found it typically charges only $50-$60 more for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without them.

Iberia
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Madrid
Allows free stopovers lasting up to six nights on roundtrip tickets only. At Iberia.com use the “Stopover Hola Madrid” flight search option.

Icelandair
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Reykjavik
Allows free stopovers lasting up to seven nights on roundtrip tickets only. Can make a stopover on both outbound and inbound flights. At Icelandair.com, use the “Stopover” search option.

Japan Airlines
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Osaka, Tokyo
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but its fare rules for most international trips allow stopovers for each leg of the journey for $100 fee. When pricing multi-stop trips on Japan Airlines’ website we found it typically offers fares that are only $100 or so higher for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without stopovers.

LATAM
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Bogota, Brasilia, Buenos Aires, Guayaquil, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, São Paulo
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but its fare rules for most international trips allow one free stopover and a second for a $100 fee. When pricing multi-stop trips on LATAM’s website we found it typically offers the same fares (or even less expensive ones) for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without stopovers.

LOT Polish Airlines
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Warsaw
Doesn’t advertise a stopover program, but its fare rules for most international trips allow one free stopover in Warsaw for each leg of the journey. When pricing multi-stop trips on LOT’s website we found it typically offers the same fares for routes with long stopovers as it does for connecting flights without stopovers.

Qantas
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Any connecting city in Australia
Allows free stopovers lasting up to one year at any cities en route to a final destination on itinerary. At Qantas.com use the “Multi-city” search option.

Qatar Airways
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Doha
Allows free stopovers lasting up to four nights. At QatarAirways.com look for the “Add a stop in Doha” menu when searching fares.

Royal Air Maroc
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Casablanca
Allows free stopovers lasting up to 14 nights. At RoyalAirMaroc.com use the “Multi destination” search option.

Singapore Airlines
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Singapore
Allows free stopovers lasting up to one year. At SingaporeAir.com use the “Multi city/Stopovers” search option.

TAP Air Portugal
Stopover cities for flights from mainland U.S.: Lisbon, Porto
Allows free stopovers lasting up to five nights. At FlyTap.com use the “Stopover” search option.

Turkish Airlines
Stopover city for flights from mainland U.S.: Istanbul
Allows stopovers lasting up to one year for nominal fee (usually $20-$40 each). At TurkishAirlines.com use the “Multi-city” search option.