Stopovers and Open-Jaws: Getting Two Trips Out of One Award Ticket
A standard award ticket takes you from A to B and back. A well-built one can do much more: spend four days in Lisbon on the way to Rome, fly into Paris and home from Barcelona, or turn an overnight connection into a free night in a new city. Stopovers and open-jaws are among the most valuable and least understood tools in award travel.
The vocabulary
- Layover or connection: a brief stop between flights, usually under 24 hours on international itineraries. It's part of getting from A to B.
- Stopover: a deliberate stop of more than 24 hours on international itineraries, where you stay in a city before continuing on the same ticket.
- Open-jaw: an itinerary where you fly into one city and out of another, such as into Paris and home from Barcelona, and make the gap in between on your own.
Each program defines these terms in its own rules. The exact thresholds and allowances vary, which is why the same trip can be easy with one program and impossible with another.
Programs that allow stopovers
As of late 2026, several programs allow stopovers on award tickets. Policies change frequently, so treat this as a starting point and check current rules before booking:
- Air Canada Aeroplan allows one stopover on a one-way award for an additional 5,000 points, with restrictions on travel wholly within North America. It's one of the best-known options, because it works on one-way tickets.
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue permits a stopover on one-way awards, including on partner flights, typically booked by phone.
- Singapore KrisFlyer allows stopovers on certain award types, with more flexibility on higher-priced awards.
- ANA Mileage Club generally allows a stopover on round-trip awards.
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles typically allows an Istanbul stopover on round-trip awards, usually booked by phone.
- Alaska Atmos Rewards has allowed stopovers in some circumstances, though travelers report that it doesn't always work in practice.
- British Airways Club prices multi-carrier awards in a way that allows stops in each city along the route, within segment limits.
Some programs that once allowed stopovers have restricted or eliminated them. Read the current terms before transferring points with a stopover in mind.
How to use a stopover well
The best stopovers are in cities you'd naturally pass through on the way:
- A European hub on the way to the Mediterranean, such as a few days in Zurich, Lisbon or Istanbul before continuing to Greece, Italy or Spain
- An Asian hub on the way to Southeast Asia or Australia, such as Tokyo, Singapore or Taipei
- A Middle Eastern or African hub on the way to Africa or Asia, such as Istanbul, Doha or Addis Ababa
Because the stopover is part of the same ticket, you often pay little or nothing extra in flights. You just add a destination.
Open-jaws: the quiet workhorse
Open-jaws are even more broadly useful than stopovers. Many travelers want to see more than one city, and backtracking wastes time.
Examples:
- Fly into Rome and home from Venice, taking the train between them.
- Fly into Lisbon and home from Madrid.
- Fly into Tokyo and home from Osaka.
With one-way pricing now common, many programs make open-jaws easy: book two one-way awards, out to one city and back from another. In programs that still price round-trips, open-jaw rules vary. Some allow one open-jaw, others limit where the gap can be.
Bonus: departing from a different city sometimes changes taxes and fees, for better or worse. That's another reason to compare. Our guide to avoiding fuel surcharges covers why departure country matters.
Airline stopover programs with a free hotel
Separate from award-ticket stopovers, several airlines run stopover programs that encourage travelers to stay at their hub. Some include a free or heavily discounted hotel:
- Ethiopian Airlines offers a free hotel, meals and transfers for connections of roughly 8 to 24 hours in Addis Ababa, including on award tickets. See our full guide to Ethiopian's stopover.
- Turkish Airlines has offered free hotel nights in Istanbul to eligible passengers on longer stopovers, with more generous benefits in business class.
- Qatar Airways and Emirates have offered transit hotels for qualifying connections, generally on paid tickets with minimum fares, and generally not on award tickets.
- Royal Jordanian has offered transit hotels in Amman on eligible tickets, including some award tickets.
Icelandair and TAP Air Portugal are known for letting travelers add a stopover in Reykjavik or Lisbon at no additional airfare, though without a free hotel.
Terms for all of these change regularly, and many have minimum fares, eligible fare classes and request deadlines. Confirm details with the airline before you plan around them.
Common pitfalls
- Booking online when the program requires a phone call. Many stopover itineraries can't be booked on airline websites, so you'll need to call.
- Misreading the 24-hour rule. Under many programs' rules, a connection over 24 hours becomes a stopover, which may change the price or not be allowed.
- Forgetting about the alliance. Stopovers are often easiest on the program's own airline or close partners. Our guide to airline alliances explains which programs book which airlines.
- Assuming last year's rules still apply. Stopover rules are among the most frequently changed parts of award programs.
The bottom line
Stopovers and open-jaws turn award tickets into multi-city trips. Know which programs allow them, build them around cities you'd pass through anyway, and confirm the rules before you transfer points. Combined with airline stopover programs that include a hotel, they're one of the best ways to see more of the world for the same points.