Vacations are fun. Taking two vacation for the price of one is funner. I love to travel and am always looking for bargains, just like anybody else. There are plenty of bargains out there, but when you are looking for one, where are they? I pay attention close attention to everything when I am planning my vacation. This makes it fun as you are living it. Stopover is one such bargains. Stopover is not very much spoken about anywhere.
Airlines advertise them in their planes but not when you are booking a flight. This is one of the reasons why a lot of people don't take advantage of.
What this is, that when you book your flight through an airlines that they will let you stay at the their hub for anywhere from a day to seven days without anything extra to pay. Let me explain if you book your flight with Copa Airline to go to Peru. There will be a layover in Panama most of the time as that is their main hub or home. So all you have to do is to let them know that you want to spend a couple of days in Panama on the way in or out. This way you see Panama and Peru for the same price.
The way this is done is at the time of booking, you will enter multiple city and enter Panama as one of the cities. It does not cost you any more than your original destination to Peru. This program is done by many airlines to encourage passengers to visit their home country. This is good business for them and the country. They also hope you will talk to your friends and family about the vacation as a good deal and they may plan a similar vacation with the same airline. This brings more business to the airline and stopover programs boost tourism.
It does not stop there. The airlines are willing to give free offers such as attraction tickets, hotel accommodations for a couple of nights and are even willing to help you with the visa. However this is not all airlines. At the time of booking you could ask or research on their website for advertised offers.
I was flying to Paris in Iceland air and the layover was in Rekyvik. As this is their hub or home. I had the the option to stay over to spend a couple of days in Reyyvik. I didn’t take the opportunity as we had plans in Paris to do a road-trip of seven countries. We only had nine days. Iceland is actually would have been a wonderful vacation if we have had time. You may want to think of this for the next time you plan a vacation.
Taking an extended layover in cities has been there for along time but it always came with a price in the past. You can visit some interesting places that you may never think to visit. You may think to go to South Africa but Ethiopia. Taking the right airline can make this happen. Vacations become more interesting and more to brag.
Every airline has its own protocol to qualify for stopovers. It is as simple as your layover being longer than six hours. This can be a little out of the ordinary to your regular flight booking. It will be all worth it for the extras. Air China lets you book a free transit hotel if your transit is long. This is a wonderful opportunity to explore more for less.
If you prefer to take it with you, you may want to subscribe to my series of podcasts
Comments
Post a Comment