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We'll admit, it sounds like a trick. You book a flight for almost free using miles, plus you get to add an additional stop in another city for free along the way. But that's exactly what Alaska Airlines lets you do when you book a qualifying award flight!
Let's get into how to book a free stopover when using Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles.
Page Contents
Overview of the Alaska Airlines Free Stopover Policy
What is a stopover?
First things first — what exactly is a stopover? A stopover generally refers to a connection that is longer than what's typically allowed. Depending on your route, connections can be limited to just a few hours and almost always no more than 24 hours. A stopover is a connection that can stretch for a few days or more!
Stopovers are most commonly booked on international flights. For example, if you're flying from New York to Zurich, you could book a flight from New York to London and stay for a few days. Then, you could continue on to Zurich, all for the price of the flight from New York to Zurich.
Alaska Airlines free stopover rules and guidelines
When it comes to booking a free Alaska Airlines stopover, there are some rules and guidelines you need to be aware of:
- You must be flying an international itinerary. Perhaps the biggest limitation for most travelers is that you must fly on an international itinerary to book a stopover.
- Most stopovers are limited to partner hubs. In the example below, you can book a free stopover by flying Iberia through Madrid. Other examples would be flying British Airways with a stopover in London, Qatar Airways with a stopover in Doha, Finnair with a stopover in Helsinki, or Japan Airlines with a stopover in Tokyo.
- Each one-way trip can have a stopover. So, you could potentially book two stopovers on a round-trip: One on the way out and one on the way back. This opens up even more opportunities to explore somewhere new for free!
- You cannot fly more than one partner airline. This is a general rule for Alaska partner awards, but worth mentioning. Your flights must be on a combination of Alaska Airlines and one partner or solely on the same partner airline. You can't combine flights on American Airlines and British Airways when booking awards through Alaska Mileage Plan.
- Not all flights will be available. It may take some searching to find flights that are available to book with a free stopover. Adjusting dates and airports can be helpful when searching.
How To Book an Alaska Airlines Free Stopover
Let's look at how exactly you go about booking an Alaska Airlines free stopover. First, start on the Alaska Airlines homepage. From here, click on “All search options.”
On the next screen, select “Multi-city” and enter your route, broken up by segment. In this example, we're searching from Boston to Madrid, then Madrid to Venice. Enter your preferred travel dates and click “Use miles.”
Click “Find Flights” and see what options appear. You may need to change dates or cities if no options are available. If you're redirected to another booking page, you can also re-enter your details and try again. Sometimes, this is all that's required for results to show up. Just make sure to double-check your parameters.
In this example, you can fly from Boston to Madrid, stopover for a few days, and then continue on to Venice for 27,500 Alaska Airlines miles total, plus nominal taxes and fees.
As you can see below, Alaska Airlines charges the same mileage price as if I were flying from Boston to Venice with a simple layover in Madrid. The simple connection only costs $6 in taxes and fees.
Once you've found the flights you want, select your flight and hit “add to cart.” From there, you will be taken to a page where you will enter your information and confirm everything you've selected.
Advanced tip for finding award availability
Rather than searching award availability day-by-day on Alaska's website, consider using American Airlines' website to find award availability. American Airlines and Alaska are both part of the Oneworld alliance. So, you can use AA's award availability calendar search to quickly identify dates with award availability.
For the best results, search each flight segment individually and limit results to nonstop options. For example, search New York to Madrid to find Iberia Airlines award availability on that route. Then, search flights from Madrid to your final destination to find which dates are available on that route.
Another alternative is to peruse Seats.aero and click on the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan sub-page. From there, you can filter by airline if you're looking for awards on a specific partner.
And once you find dates that work for your travel plans, search those dates on Alaska Airlines' website and follow the booking process from there.
Related: How To Find Airline Partner Award Flight Availability
Earning Alaska Airlines Miles: Building Your Mileage Plan Balance
To book an Alaska Airlines stopover with miles, you will need to have an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account. If you do not have one yet, then you can sign up here for free. This account is necessary to accumulate miles to be used to book award flights.
So, how do you accumulate miles? There are a lot of options! You can earn miles by:
- Flying with Alaska Airlines or one of its partner airlines.
- Booking car rentals through one of Alaska Airlines' car rental partners.
- Reserving hotel nights through one of Alaska Airlines' hotel and travel partners.
- Shopping through the Alaska Airlines shopping portal.
- Eating at restaurants that participate in the Alaska Airlines dining program.
- Transferring Marriott Bonvoy points to Alaska Airlines at a 3:1 ratio (plus a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60k points you transfer).
However, two of the most lucrative ways to earn miles quickly is to use an Alaska credit card or transfer points from Bilt Rewards.
Alaska Airlines credit cards
There are two co-branded Mileage Plan credit cards — the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card and the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business card. Each offers an awesome sign-up bonus plus a slew of Alaska perks, like a free checked bag, priority boarding, 3 miles for every $1 spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases, and more.
- Earn unlimited 3 miles for every $1 spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases
- Earn unlimited 2 miles for every $1 spent on eligible gas, EV charging stations, cable, streaming services and local transit (including ride share) purchases
- Earn unlimited 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other eligible purchases
- Earn 3 miles for every $1 spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases
- Earn 2 miles for every $1 spent on eligible gas, EV charging station, shipping and local transit (including rideshare) purchases
- Earn 1 mile for every $1 spent on all other eligible purchases
Transfer points from Bilt Rewards
Bilt Rewards is a fantastic program for renters. And it gets even better if you have The Bilt Mastercard®. Not only does the no-annual-fee card (Rates & Fees) let you pay rent without the transaction fees, but you can also earn valuable Bilt Points that transfer 1:1 to Mileage Plan.
Cardholders can earn points on purchases at the following rates:
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel
- 1x points on rent payments without the transaction fee (up to 100,000 points each calendar year)
- 1x points on other purchases
- 3x points on dining
- 2x points on travel
- 1x points on rent payments without the transaction fee (up to 100,000 points each calendar year)
- 1x points on other purchases
Related: Overview of the Bilt Rewards Transfer Partners
Bottom Line
It may take some searching to find availability, but using Alaska Airlines' free stopover benefit is one of the best ways to use your Alaska miles. It's like getting two trips for the price of one!
You can use it to break up a long trip and discover a new place — or plan a multi-city vacation with stops on the way out and the way home. This benefit is what makes Alaska one of the best, most flexible, and most rewarding mileage programs.
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