Multi City Stopover Flights

According to the transporter, you may have to do some preliminary work to organise a free stopover. Call centre dial-in may be necessary, or a single trip on one airline's reservation page for multiple cities may be sufficient. These are some of the best carriers that provide free (and almost free) stops at key locations, as well as tips on how to make a reservation.

Icelandair is probably the best known of all the big carriers for its advantages in free stopovers. Reykjavik has long promoted stations in its Reykjavik hubs at no extra charge beyond a regular return fare. Please use the airline's reservation machine and choose the Stopover Iceland checkbox to make your reservation.

Comparing the price of multi-city trips with overnight stays in Reykjavik with the price of short stay trips, I found the same price. It' a real free stopover. Icelandair is probably the best known of all the big airline companies for its advantages in free stopovers. Reykjavik has long promoted stations in its Reykjavik hubs at no extra charge beyond a regular return fare.

Please use the airline's reservation machine and choose the Stopover Iceland checkbox to make your reservation. Comparing the price of multi-city trips with overnight stays in Reykjavik with the price of short stay trips, I found the same price. It' a real free stopover. Several years ago, there was a page on Air France's website promoting free stops in the airline's Paris city.

However, it appears that the French airline no longer sells free Paris bus stop for routes to other cities. What then results from a test query on the Air France website? Even though there were no free breaks during the test booking, multi-city tariffs with overnight stays (or longer stops) in Paris were only a hint more costly than return trips.

81, against a $1,130 round trip. A multi-city finder on the Air France website shows tariffs by season and not by fare, making it hard to find the best itinerary. Obviously Turkish Airlines does not promote free transit destinations, but like many of the airlines on this page, it does offer multi-city tours with hub-city stations at rates equal to (or sometimes lower than) those of regular round trips.

Searching for roundtrip prices from Washington, D.C., to Beijing with a flight in Istanbul, the Turkish Airlines hub, I found seats for only $1,542. I found my multi-city quest with a stopover cheaper: $1,407 for the journey from D.C. to Beijing on the same days, with a two-day stopover in Istanbul.

Thanks to its comprehensive worldwide services, Türkisch is one of my favourite stopover carriers. JAL provides free stops in Tokyo (Haneda and Narita airports) and Osaka, according to a Japanese airline agent. Use either JAL's Multi-City Reservation Tools and choose "Stopover", or, if you are planning a short journey, try the default Round-Trip Reservation Tools, which will display Tokyo JAL Club nights when available.

Comparing multi-city fares to roundtrip fares on exactly the same date, I encountered a small threshold with the former; when that happens, call JAL to make your booking. However, as the carrier is promising a free stopover, a sales agent should help you organise this Tokyo Stopover for the same fare as a similar round tour.

The Hawaiian Airlines is another airline that does not promote a real free stopover for all flights. However, when I did a test quest for rates, I found that in many cases you can spend a few additional nights in Honolulu for a little more than a return like this. One of the main reasons why this is so appealing is that it provides travellers with a break from the tropics in the middle of extensive trans-Pacific air routes.

Buying a Los Angeles to Taipei bus stop in Honolulu for two days cost $1,436. Outward and return journey 92. Hawaiian's multi-city reservation engine lets you create your stopover route. A Finnair agent said: "We are offering a free stopover in Helsinki, apart from the cheapest tariff categories (tickets with the least flexibility).

There are 2 million travellers via Helsinki, so there is a great deal of scope to develop the stopover service further in the area. "Your stopover in the Finnish capitol could be better than free - it could be less expensive than a normal round tour. On the Finnair website, my test quest for rates resulted in a much lower cost for a Helsinki stopover than a similar Helsinki connection.

After a short stay in London, my return flight was $1,296.36. However, a multi-city journey from JFK to Amsterdam with an accommodation in Helsinki resulted in a return journey of 897 dollars. Emirates connects 140 cities through its Dubai hubs and promotes a stopover pack that offers free visa for up to 36hrs.

However, the reservation procedure is not that easy - especially for those of us who are used to purchasing all our trips on-line. First of all you have to buy a plane; you can do this via the "Multiple Destinations/Stopovers" checkbox on the Emirates reservation machine. Secondly, get in touch with a tourist agency or go to an Emirates agency to arrange and settle the stopover packages that include airport transfer, breakfasts, accommodation, various trips and this free entry ticket.

Comparing multi-city flights with stops in Dubai with scheduled round-trip flights showed that fares are almost the same. One return flight from New York to Mumbai costs $1,361. 27, while the same route with a two-day stay in Dubai amounted to $1,429.07. Singapore, like Icelandair and JAL, is one of the few large carriers to offer a real free stopover in its hubs.

Free stops at the Singapore hubs of the same name can be readily purchased on the airline's website. Testing routes from the US to some of the cities Singapore serves, I found the same prices for round-trip and return flights and for multi-city reservations that included a stopover in the city state. Thus, for example, the ticket from San Francisco to Beijing with a brief flight in Hong Kong and an over-night stopover in Singapore totaled 1,580 US dollars; a suitable route without a stopover was the same fare.

Like Emirates, Singapore is promoting a stopover pack that contains accommodation and transfer. Did you book a free stopover with the carrier?