Previously I had written a list of airline stopovers, but since then (if you didn’t notice) I’ve gone chart crazy and I’ve written about a few more airlines like Korean. This post will give both a chart of each airline’s stopover rules, and fuel surcharges.
Then I’ll go give some great posts on stopovers too.
Couple things to note about this chart. Sometimes an award is bookable as a oneway, but I put roundtrip prices because you can’t have stopovers on a oneway. The second thing is that I added a column about fuel surcharges. And even though it can say “Yes”, there may not be any fuel surcharges to pass on. So even if it does pass on fuel surcharges, there can still be partner airlines bookable with no fuel surcharges to pass on. (See: Master Chart of Avoiding Fuel Surcharges).
Actually, one other thing. Some airlines allow open-jaws on the stopover, and most only allow open-jaws on the destination.
Airlines Stopover Chart:
| Stopover | With Oneway or RT? | Fuel surcharges? | Transfers From: | |
| United | 1 stopover and 2 open-jaws | Roundtrip | None | Chase UR |
| US Airways | 1 stopover or 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | None | SPG |
| American Airlines | None | Oneways | None (except on BA) | SPG |
| Lufthansa | 2 stopovers and 2 open-jaws | Roundtrip | Yes | |
| Air Canada | 2 stopovers or 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | Sometimes | Amex MR, SPG |
| Delta | 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | Yes | Amex MR, SPG |
| British Airways | Charge Per Segment | Yes | Chase UR, Amex MR, SPG | |
| Alaska Airlines | 1 stopover | Oneways | Yes | SPG |
| Korean | 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | Yes | Chase UR |
| Singapore | 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | Yes | Chase UR, Amex MR, Citi TY, SPG |
| ANA | 3 stopovers | Roundtrip | Yes | Amex MR, SPG |
| Asia Miles | 4 stopovers | Roundtrip | Yes | Amex MR, Citi TY, SPG |
| FlyingBlue | 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | Yes | Amex MR, Citi TY, SPG |
| JAL | 7 stopovers | Roundtrip | Yes | SPG |
| Air Berlin | 1 stopover on a two region award, and 2 stopovers on a three region award | Oneways | Yes | SPG |
| Alitalia | 1 stopover | Roundtrip | Yes | Amex MR, SPG |
| Asiana | 4 stopovers | Roundtrip | Yes | SPG |
| LAN | 1 stopover or 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | None | SPG |
| Thai Airways | 1 stopover and 1 open-jaw | Roundtrip | Yes | Citi TY, SPG |
Breaking British Airways
The first thing to note about this chart is that there is one airline that just doesn’t really do things the same way, BA Avios. With every BA ticket you are paying per segment and distance based at that. You figure out the distance of a segment, and then figure out the price of that segment based on that distance. Then add up the segments.
If you’re flying from Charlottesville to Chicago, then Chicago to Denver, the ticket is priced as the sum of each flight. So, go to GCmap.com and take CHO to ORD (which is 650 for 4,500 Avios), then ORD to DEN (888 miles, which is 7,500 Avios). Therefore the total flight is 12,000 Avios one way.
However, I noticed an odd thing…
A flight 6,000 flown miles is 30,000 Avios, but two 3,000 mile flights would be 25,000 Avios (12,500 Avios each). In other words, it’s cheaper to book stopovers than it is not to book stopovers.
I built an entire series around this concept.
Read: Saving Avios by adding stopovers
Breaking United with Stopovers
United is my pride and joy because I’ve spent a lot of time discovering their routing rules. In fact, I believe I’m the first to do a post about all of their new routing rules.
Read: The Complete Guide to United Routing Rules
But by far the most popular post on Travel Is Free is a post about tricking United’s pricing engine with stopovers. For example, a ticket to Australia is 80,000 miles roundtrip, but if you include a stopover and also stop in Fiji, the roundtrip ticket becomes 70,000 miles. Save miles by seeing more places.
Read: United Stopover and Routing Secrets
ANA Miles
Now these are the most underrated miles. If you compare each mileage program back to back to back for the cheapest miles to each program, ANA has consistently some of the cheapest mileage prices to many places. And then throw in 4 stopovers, and wow. It’s a great program.
Read: A Guide to ANA Miles
Singapore Miles
Singapore is now the most transferable airline. You can earn from Chase UR points, Amex MR points, Citi TY points, and SPG points. And it is a diverse and interesting program with the best access to the famed Singapore Suites.
Read: Best Use of Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles
Lufthansa Miles
Lufthansa is an underrated program that allows 2 stopovers and 2 open-jaws. Just watch out for the fuel surcharges.
Read: Lufthansa Miles Don’t Suck
And if you’re really into the crazy crazy “Hopper” posts, Read: The Trans-Pacific Hopper with Lufthansa Miles
Korean Air Miles
Korean Air SkyPass is now a transfer of Chase UR and has a few real cool redemptions. Mainly, the cheapest tickets to Hawaii for 25,000 miles roundtrip. North America is one region that’s 25,000 miles and includes Hawaii, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Alaska. Another really interesting thing to me is all flights within Indonesia on Garuda are 20,000 miles, and Indonesia is huge and expensive to get around in sometimes.
Read: Best Use of Korean Air Miles
Conclusion
There’s a lot to consider when picking a mileage program but I’d put the order of importance as:
- Are their fuel surcharges?
- Is the award chart reasonable?
- Can I add stopovers?
Fuel surcharges are a deal breaker for me, and no one has to pay them. Although the first two are both important. I’m not going to choose to blow twice as many miles with Delta when I could use half priced miles with AA. And that goes beyond award chart, but checking actual availability and prices. That being said, fuel surcharges are no bueno.
Stopovers are then a bonus. It’s not how I pick who to fly unless there is a special opportunity, like the Indonesian Hopper. And even that falls under the first two of being well priced and without fuel surcharges.
Assuming you are transferring from AmexMR, 80% of the time I recommend Aeroplan over ANA. 1) less partners with FQ 2) changes are MUCH easier. Especially last minute/after travel starts. That’s an interesting idea for a chart, “Award changeability and costs by program.” Also, how about an ” Average intelligence of phone agent by program” chart? 😉
Another great article/chart. Love your blog to the nth degree. It is my favorite. Can’t wait to hear you at the Chicago Seminars this weekend!! Really got into the game this year (but not before ignorantly obtaining hundreds of thousands of Delta Skymiles) and will be a first time attendee. 🙂
How did you get hundreds of thousands of Delta miles? Even skypesos could be useful with that many.
Mostly from actually flying for work over the last two and a half years (only about 100k from a credit card, platinum status gifts, and SPG crossover). I haven’t needed to really use them because I keep getting and using vouchers so they just kept stacking up. I live in ATL so I defaulted to Delta and will definitely make good use of them, but my reference to my previous ignorance is that I obtain a diversity of airline miles with more intention now.
Hope you are not slotted between MMS and TPG and FTG.
If that occurs someone please take a picture and email it to me, thanks!
Another valuable tool. Thanks. Looking forward to Chicago this weekend.
Really handy. Thanks for consistently posting legitimately useful stuff.
Error – Alaska has no fuel surcharges except for BA
JAL does permit stopovers on one ways, as of April 30, 2014: http://www.jal.co.jp/cms/jalmile/en/en_jmb_00268.html
1.One-way trips are permitted.
2.”Point of origin” and “Final returning point” may be different and those cities may be located in different countries.
* Please note that one-way itineraries and itineraries in which the “Point of origin” and “Final returning point” are located in different countries cannot be booked from the JAL website. For such bookings, please contact the appropriate call center.
interesting. ever use JAL miles for a multi-stop one-way?
How can I get the password to United Routing Rule Secrets? Thanks! Love your blog!
Hint – Google it
CLP, I finally found the password. That was hard, lol.
You skipped Avianca Lifemiles…on purpose?
@travelisfree
-good info. good blog.
-i feel like another useful column for the chart would be “maximum # of segments”.. ex. LH allows 2 stopovers but only 3 segments in each direction.
-JAL’s 7 stopovers are very intriguing! any useful hopper routes with low YQ that you know of please?
thanks
Drew, are these stopover rules updated?