Travel Deal of the Day (March 4, 2008)

The next few entries will relate to usage of frequent flyer points. Today, I will discuss an added option available when redeeming miles for an airline ticket – stopovers.

The Deal:
When redeeming your airline frequent flyer points for a free ticket, many people forget and/or ignore the fact that they are allowed a free stopover on most award itineraries. Some carriers require that the stopover occur in a natural connection point (i.e. the city where you would be forced to connect on that carrier to get from your origin to your destination), but other carriers have extremely generous rules for stopovers, allowing you to stop in a highly circuitous location. For instance, some carriers on domestic awards allow you to stop in any city in the Continental US on the way to your destination or coming home from your destination. Adding a stopover to your award itinerary can really add value to the miles you have redeemed – for instance, if you are flying from the East Coast to Hawaii, you may be able to enjoy a long weekend in the Bay Area of California and then proceed onto Hawaii. Or, you may be able to fly from Texas to Maine but have a stopover in Las Vegas for a few days. Check with your airline's frequent flyer award customer service department to verify the exact stopover rules that apply.

How:
One thing to note about adding a stopover to your award itinerary, you usually must call the airline (rather than using the airline’s website) to book an itinerary with a stopover. Nonetheless, if you like to get the most out of your miles, adding a stopover can really provide extra value