Beginners Guide: What is a Stopover & What is an Open-Jaw?

Stopovers and open-jaw flights are great ways to increase the value of your points and miles. You can add extra destinations to award flights — often at no additional cost — allowing you to see and experience new locations without spending more miles for the privilege. Unfortunately, award routing rules and restrictions vary widely by frequent flyer program, making it even more difficult for beginners to start taking advantage of stopovers and open-jaw flights.

So, what is a stopover, and what is an open-jaw flight? In this post, we'll cover what they are, how they work, and introduce a few examples to help clear up any confusion.

What Is a Stopover?

A stopover occurs when you make an extended stop at another airport while traveling to your ticketed destination. A stopover on a domestic flight is generally considered to be any scheduled time on the ground longer than 4 hours; an international stopover is a stop of more than 24 hours.

While a stopover is traditionally on the way to your final destination, each award program has different rules and region classifications for a stopover, which can allow for complex routing if you understand the program's fine print.

One of the most appealing aspects of stopovers is that you can extend the time spent in the stopover city for as long as the program's ticketing allows, typically up to a year. So you can fly from the departure point to the stopover city, stay for almost a year, and continue to your ticketed destination.

Credit: ScribbleMaps

The example above shows a round-trip flight from Chicago (commonly referred to as the “origin”) to Madrid, Spain (the “destination”), with a stopover in Paris. The initial flight is from Chicago to Paris. You can then spend a day, a week, or — depending on the airline's rules — a month in Paris before continuing with a flight from Paris to Madrid. Then, you can generally spend as much time as you want in your destination of Madrid before flying back to Chicago and completing your trip.

If you haven't learned what a stopover flight is, hopefully, this example can show you some of the power of stopovers. In many cases, you can book a ticket like the one above for one price and visit two cities for the price of one.

Reserve a stopover package with select airlines

You should also keep in mind that several international airlines offer complimentary or reduced-price accommodations on stopovers up to a certain length. Some examples include:

• Emirates: Get a free hotel in Dubai on long layovers.
• Ethiopian Airlines: Free hotels and meals on stopovers in Addis Ababa.
• Etihad Airways: Get a free hotel stay on your Abu Dhabi stopover.
• Qatar Airways: Reduced-price meals and hotels on Doha stopovers.
• Turkish Airlines: Free hotels and tours during layovers in Istanbul.

What Is the Difference Between a Stopover and a Layover?

There are a few key differences between layovers and stopovers, but the main difference is the amount of time spent in the connecting city. Put simply, all stopovers are layovers — but not all layovers are stopovers.

For example, suppose you’re flying from Cincinnati (CVG) to Houston (IAH) on American Airlines, and have a connection in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) requiring you to switch planes before flying onwards to Houston. A layover is a short, sub-four-hour block of time for domestic travel and a sub-24-hour block for international travel. Within that time window, you must connect to the next scheduled flight to reach your ticketed destination, or it's considered a stopover. A stopover occurs when you exceed that four or 24-hour block of time.

You might have seen this before when searching for connecting award flights. When you have a connection that is only a layover on a domestic flight within the United States, you're generally only charged $5.60 in taxes and fees. But if your layover turns into a stopover (due to a connection over four hours), you'll be charged $11.20 in taxes and fees (the security fee of $5.60 times two).

Credit: American Airlines

The first result in the picture above has a layover in Dallas of only an hour, but the second result has a 5 hour layover, meaning you're charged $11.20 in taxes and fees instead of only $5.60.

Frequent flyer award redemption rules outline how many stopovers, connections, or layovers you’re allowed on one-way and round-trip awards. A round-the-world itinerary is a special kind of award ticket that includes a set number of stopovers and must be ticketed in one direction, i.e., continuously traveling east.

Related: A Complete Guide to American Airlines Award Travel Rules

What Is an Open-Jaw?

An open-jaw is when you have a round-trip airline ticket where the destination and/or the origin are not the same in both the outbound and return travel. There are a few different ways of putting together open-jaw itineraries:

• Fly City A to City B, make your way own way between City B and City C, and then fly from City C back to City A. In this example:
  • City A is Chicago
  • City B is Paris
  • City C is Madrid

Credit: ScribbleMaps

• Fly City A to City B, fly from City B back to City C, either to make your own way back to the original departure point, City A, or continue your travels from City C. In this example:
  • City A is Chicago
  • City B is Paris
  • City C is Philadelphia

Credit: ScribbleMaps

Provided the open-jaw flight is within the program rules and follows the routing restrictions set out by the carrier, it will cost the same as a standard award, significantly increasing the value of your miles as you’re adding a destination for free.

Combining Stopovers and Open-Jaws

Things start to spice up if a program allows you to combine stopovers with one or more open-jaw segments. This adds substantial value to the award as you can add multiple cities to the itinerary but still only pay a single award fee.

Credit: ScribbleMaps

A classic example comes courtesy of Cathay Pacific, which allows up to five stopovers, two transits, and two open-jaws on a single Oneworld partner award ticket. There are some pretty strict guidelines to follow, but if you can piece an itinerary together and get a knowledgeable reservations agent who knows how to book it, you can extract tremendous value from a single award fare.

What Happens if I Book a Stopover or Open Jaw When It Isn’t Allowed?

Let's say you book a one-way international ticket with a connection of more than 24 hours. If the program whose miles you used to book the ticket doesn't allow a stopover, you'll be charged for each trip separately. For example, if you book a flight from New York to Paris and Madrid using American Airlines miles, you'll pay the one-way rate from New York to Paris (say, 30,000 miles in economy), and then you'll pay the one-way rate from Paris to Madrid (say, 12,500 miles in economy).

The secret of maximizing stopovers is to book your ticket using miles that will let you pay a total of 30,000 miles (or less) for both flights together using a stopover.

Airlines That Allow Stopovers and Open-Jaws

We won't examine every carrier's stopover and open-jaw policies. Instead, we'll cover major airlines that allow stopovers and/or open-jaw itineraries.

Of the programs listed, Asiana, Japan Airlines, and Cathay Pacific have some of the most generous routing restrictions but can be tricky to navigate. Alaska Airlines will allow you to book a stopover on international one-way awards — a rarity for U.S. programs. Also, you can also pull some pretty good value from United’s Excursionist Perk. And don't forget about Flying Blue's complimentary stopovers, either.

Example of an Open-Jaw Award

In this example, we will run through a basic ANA Mileage Club open-jaw award and fly from Vancouver to Tokyo to Los Angeles. ANA operates a fantastic award chart with some of the best-value business awards across the Pacific to Asia.

Points transfer to ANA  1:1 from Amex Membership Rewards and 3:1 from Marriott Bonvoy so you can leverage points earned via The Platinum Card^® from American Express or the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant^® American Express^® Card for ANA flights.

It's worth noting that ANA routing rules differ depending on the carrier you fly and your departure point, something we cover in more detail in our ANA sweet spots post. Also, the price you'll pay in miles fluctuates throughout the year as ANA's prices change.

The first step is to sign into your ANA account, and select ‘Award Reservation‘ and click ‘Open-jaw.'

Credit: ANA

The next step is to select your flights.

Credit: ANA

And, finally, review your award booking before proceeding to the reservations page.

Credit: ANA

How To Take Advantage of Long Layovers

The final item to mention when discussing stopovers and layovers is the ability to string together long layovers on an international flight. Because anything less than 24 hours is considered a layover, you can sometimes book multiple layovers up to 23 hours on the same award ticket. This can work even with programs that don't allow stopovers on an award ticket.

As one example, you might use Air Canada Aeroplan points to fly:

• From Toronto to Cairo on EgyptAir, spend 23 hours in Cairo, then fly.
• From Cairo to Abu Dhabi, spend 23 hours in Abu Dhabi, then fly.
• From Abu Dhabi to Singapore on Etihad, spend 23 hours in Singapore, then fly.
• From Singapore to Bangkok on THAI.

All on one award ticket. Of course, this is subject to award availability and finding an agent who can book it for you (since these complicated itineraries often can't be booked online).

Related: The Secret Sweet Spots of Aeroplan Stopovers and Open Jaws

Final Thoughts

Stopovers and open-jaws can be tricky to wrap your head around initially, but it’s worth investing your time to understand the routing restrictions of each award program. Understanding what a stopover or an open-jaw flight is can add enormous value to your miles and allow you to visit multiple destinations on just one award ticket.

AwardWallet Tip of The Day

Did you know you can see the transaction history for most of your loyalty program accounts in AwardWallet? In your AwardWallet account dashboard, click the + sign next to the account you want to view. Then, click the History tab to see your individual transaction history.
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