If you have reached this article about the stopover and you are actually going to make a connection of several hours to your final destination, do not miss this other post about flights with a stopover, in which you will be able to answer many questions.
What is a stopover exactly?
As we have already introduced before, a stopover is a stopover of more than 24 hours in a country during a trip with long stopovers.
Although each company has its rules, on some occasions, as in the case of the Emirates company, based in Dubai, and its flight service with stopover: the “Emirates Stopover” (also called “Dubai Stopover”) includes the transfer to the hotel (choose from more than 90 accommodation options) with check-in at any time of the day or night, plus transfer to the airport to start the next leg of the trip. The scale can be up to 30 days with the possibility of processing the “Stopover visa” only and exclusively for that period. You can take advantage of the Stopover visa to make some Tax Free purchases, or visit some of its emblematic buildings such as the Bruj Khalifa, or Ain Dubai. For stopover visa consult here
In short, a well-organized stopover is a wonderful opportunity to get to know one more destination during our trip, at a cost that is normally very convenient.
How to search for stopover flights?
There are several ways to find cheap flights with stopovers, depending on our flexibility and personal interest in doing so in a particular city.
Search by longest stopover: Nowadays, most flight search engines offer the possibility of organizing the results by price, to find the cheapest flights; by number of stops, since the more stops there are, the cheaper the final result will be, but the longer the trip and the more likely the risk of incidents; or by time, that is, the time elapsed from departure to arrival at destination, regardless of the number of stops. For more blogs about travel click here
The best way to find flights with stopovers is through the option: organize by time which, in addition to saving our flight, will also allow us to find out those flights with the longest stopovers. From there, we will only have to choose the flights with the times that best suit us and the destinations that we like the most.
*It is recommended to deactivate the “direct flights” option so that the search is more successful.
Multi-option option/several cities: Another way to find cheap flights with stopovers is through the “multi-option” format, which allows you to select more than one route in the same reservation. For example: Madrid-Paris and Paris-Beijing. In this way, we can assign the departure dates that we want both from Madrid and on the second flight from Paris.
In either of these two options, it is necessary to take into account that some countries require an entry visa to leave the airport, regardless of the number of hours spent in them.
Destination:
Search by airline and desired destination: For those who wish to make their stopover in a specific destination, they can join the stopover programs of the airlines based in the chosen cities (if they offer the service).
For example, if we want to travel from Barcelona to Bangkok and we want to make a stopover in Amman, we should choose Royal Jordanian, which offers stopover service in the country as long as the stopover is a minimum of 6 hours and a maximum of 24 hours. This will allow us to bathe in the Dead Sea, visit the Catholic city of Madaba or the ruins of Petra. Of course, always on a tour organized by the company and following its itinerary.
In this case, since it is the company that offers the service of tickets with stopover included, it will not be necessary to bear the costs of the entry visa to the country (40JD – 50€ approx.), however, the tour must be paid after make the flight reservation.
Which airlines offer the stopover service?
In addition to the already mentioned Icelandair, Emirates and Royal Jordanian, with stopovers in Reykjavik, Dubai and Amman, companies such as Qatar Airways, TAP Portugal or Turkish Airlines, also offer the possibility of enjoying cheap flights with stopovers in which to discover new destinations. . Among the most popular we can find:
- Turkish Airlines allows free stopover in Istanbul. In addition, depending on the chosen rate, if the stopover is overnight, it also includes the hotel for free.
- Japan Airlines offers free stopover in the cities of Tokyo and Osaka.
- Singapore Airlines offers a stopover service in Singapore, free of charge.
- Emirates Airlines offers a stopover in Dubai from $50 with transfers, bed and breakfast, tours and visas included.
- Etihad Airways also offers the possibility of making a stopover in Abu Dhabi for €50.
- Hawaiian Airlines stopover in Honolulu
- Finnair offers free stopover at its Helsinki hub.