FirstClassFlyer

Our Stopover Loophole Strategy (SLS) Nets First Class Flights for the Price of Coach from Many U.S. Cities

When readers ask how we see ourselves, we often say, “We’re the accountants of the air.” It doesn’t sound glamorous, does it? But that’s what you pay us for: To scrutinize fare-rule minutiae, scour the upgrade universe, and scope out the loopholes.

This article is about the last of those tasks. It tells you how FCF’s Stopover Loophole Strategy (SLS) can get you a First Class seat at a fare that is less than, the same as, or slightly more than economy, or from another perspective: Three First Class tickets for just a little more than the cost of one.

The SLS fare strategy shows the tremendous benefits possible by taking ad-vantage of “stopover allowances,” the rules governing whether a fare allows a stop on an itinerary and if so, which cities qualify for a stopover. Buried among the bland prose—that’s our job to read it—are provisions in this strategy that make it possible to get free vacations, free upgrades to First Class, more award and Elite Qualify ing Miles, sometimes a lower fare, and perhaps even a tax write-off.

Sample Stopover Loophole Strategy At A Glance

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Stopover Provision

Technically, a stopover is a planned stop of more than 4 hours (do-mestic) or 24 hours (international) between flight segments on an itin-erary. Now here’s the little-known secret: Such stopovers on a ticket are sometimes allowed for free or a small fee. Stopovers can be a day— even weeks. That wrinkle is the key to executing “SLS.”

That means for example, if you live in Chicago, and your journey is Chicago-San Jose, Costa Rica, with flight connec-tions in New York and Houston, you could make a stopover in each connecting city. You can travel the Chicago-New York (segment 1) portion of your trip on one day, spend a day or week in New York, and then travel the New York-San Jose, Costa Rica (segment 2) portion a few days later. The same is true for the return. In other words, you can “bundle the places you need or want to be”—for business, pleasure or both—and it can at times amount to flying First Class for the cost of coach.

Where FCF’s Stopover Loophole Strategy (SLS) Works Best

In the western hemisphere: The destinations include Alaska, the Caribbean, Central America, Hawaii, and Mexico; and the departure cities range from big (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC) to small (Monterey, CA) and many others in-between.

Top Cities: SLS stopover cities in the U.S. are usually “major hub cities, en-route,” which include major business centers as well as top vacation spots for theater, or the beach, or activi-ties like skiing, and include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle.

Airlines: SLS works on Alaska, American, Delta, and United for travel in North America. See page 8 for more rule details.

A Sample SLS Travel Scenario

Let’s take the “SLS at a glance” itinerary from page 1 using United’s website; Chicago-New York, New York-San Jose, CR, San Jose, CR-Houston, and Houston-Chicago, as our sam-ple scenario. The cost of buying one First Class ticket using SLS came in $213 less than buying three round-trip economy tickets. (See chart below for five more SLS sample routes.)

Sample SLS Fares

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Who Can Use SLS and How

SLS can be used by leisure travelers to add on more side-trips for free (or a small fee) to see family or friends, or just visit another city.
SLS can also be used by business travelers to add one or two side trips (cut the cost of seeing or pitching clients possibly 67%), or to visit friends, family or add on an-other business meeting, or even just to lower the fare.

Let’s say you’re looking at a New York-Los Angeles round-trip on Delta and your ticket price is $3,440. If you were to book New York-Honolulu, routed through Los Angeles, and make a stop in LA (which the fare permits), the fare comes to about $1,541—a savings of $1,899 (55%).

For years, FCF has affectionately dubbed this “the Hula Loophole” … just by adding Hawaii—for free—you also chopped your fare in half.

But wait, there’s more: This fare, with the free (nice vacation) segment and fare halved, also permits another stop, such as Atlanta, where you could hold a business meeting (or you can go straight back to New York).

In this case you not only get two more cities for free, but the Honolulu segment even lowered your fare, making it cheaper-than-free.

In other words, combine objectives into a single itinerary, and you can reap almost unbelievable rewards.

Even more: SLS does not only give you more trips for the price of one, but it also earns more award and elite qualifying miles, for less than free at times.

Our samples show the maximum SLS benefit is three trips for about the cost of one trip, but a stopover can also be made just for one direction if you would prefer, giving you two trips, instead of a single trip.

There’s Always Fine Print

In most cases, a stopover city has to be en-route to your final destination. Hub-cities most often qualify. See chart below for most common stopover cities by domestic airlines.

Stopovers are usually not allowed within the departure region (i.e. San Francisco-Miami fare does not allow a stop in Dallas) when it comes to First Class fares on most major airlines, which means stopovers are prohibited in the Continental U.S., depending on how you look at it.

A stopover usually means you will have to pay a slightly higher tax (like an airport “facility charge”). Some airlines charge a stopover fee ($50 to $125).

Most Common Stopover Cities

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Enjoy a Stopover in Miami with American Airlines

Three-For-One Cheat Sheet

Best SLS Airline: American offers stopovers on more low First Class fares to more regions than any other airline.
Worst SLS Airlines: US Airways because it does not allow stop-overs on discounted First Class fares (booking code A), but only on full First Class fares (booking code F); and Air Canada, which does not allow a stopover on domestic flights within Canada on premium fares.
The Caribbean stopover rules and fares vary by island. Delta allows a stop in San Juan and St. Thomas on discounted First Class, but to Montego Bay and Bermuda, only on higher priced First Class fares.
Stopovers are sometimes valid on code-share flights. A First Class fare on Alaska sometimes allows a stopover via American. On Chicago-San Jose del Cabo, the flight Chicago-Los Angeles is on American and the connecting flight to San Jose del Cabo is on Alaska, which allows a stopover in Los Angeles for $125.
On many Business Class fares to Cancun and Acapulco, Aeromexico allows a stopover in Mexico City for $50

How to Find SLS First Class Fares

You might need a travel agent or else this might be like doing your own taxes. When we priced these SLS fares on airlines’ websites and via ITA Software, they were often a lot higher than when we used a trav-el agent with a “GDS system.” Use the article as the basis of a dialogue with your agent if you run into any pricing issues. (Even if some agents charge a small research fee to do the leg work for you, it could be well worth it as you can see.)

General Stopover Rules and Fees by Destination and Airline-at a Glance

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[["Price of One First Class Ticket*","Price of Three Discounted Economy Tickets*"],["Chicago - New York","Chicago - New York"],["New York - San Jose (Costa Rica)","Chicago - San Jose (Costa Rica)"],["San Jose (Costa Rica) - Houston","Chicago - Houston"],["Houston - Chicago",""],["$930<\/strong>","$1,143 <\/strong>"],["Savings $213 - on Top of Free Upgrade<\/strong>","#colspan#"]]

*Includes taxes and fees. More examples on page 6.

[["Airline","Three-Trip First Class Itinerary Taking Advantage of En-route Stopover Rules","First Class Fare for Three-Trip Itinerary","Discounted Economy Fare"],["Alaska","Boise - Portland","$1,330 ","$238"],["#rowspan#","Portland - Puerto Vallarta","#rowspan#","$620"],["#rowspan#","Puerto Vallarta - San Francisco","#rowspan#","$375"],["#rowspan#","San Francisco - Boise","#rowspan#","(Total $1,233)"],["American","Chicago - Dallas","$1,174 ","$310"],["#rowspan#","Dallas - Guatemala City","#rowspan#","$607"],["#rowspan#","Guatemala City - Miami","#rowspan#","$235"],["#rowspan#","Miami - Chicago","#rowspan#","(Total $1,152)"],["American","Los Angeles - New York","$1,350 ","$400"],["#rowspan#","New York - St. Lucia","#rowspan#","$760"],["#rowspan#","St. Lucia - Dallas","#rowspan#","$290"],["#rowspan#","Dallas - Los Angeles","#rowspan#","(Total $1,450)"],["Delta","New York - Los Angeles","$1,541 ","$400"],["#rowspan#","Los Angeles - Honolulu","#rowspan#","$610"],["#rowspan#","Honolulu - Atlanta","#rowspan#","$300"],["#rowspan#","Atlanta - New York","#rowspan#","(Total $1,310)"],["United","Washington, DC - Seattle","$2,015 ","$510"],["#rowspan#","Seattle - Anchorage","#rowspan#","$710"],["#rowspan#","Anchorage - San Francisco","#rowspan#","$560"],["#rowspan#","San Francisco - Washington, DC","#rowspan#","(Total $1,780)"]]

[["Airline","Stopover Cities"],["Alaska","Oakland, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle"],["American","Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York"],["Delta","Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco"],["United","Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle"]]

[["Airline","Alaska","Caribbean","Central America","Hawaii","Mexico"],["Alaska1<\/sup><\/span>","Usually offers one free en-route stopover in key cities such as Portland and Seattle","No Service","No Service","Usually offers two free en-route stopovers (one ineach direction) in Oakland, Portland, Sacramento, SanDiego, San Jose, and Seattle","Often offers free en-route stopovers in Seattle and Portland, and sometimes in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Other stops cost just $125."],["American2<\/sup><\/span>","One free en-route stopover permitted in such cities as Chicago, Dallas, or Seattle.","Often permits one en-route stopover to the Caribbean (exceptions are usually the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York, for a fee ranging from $100 to $125","Often permits one en-route stopover in Miami, depending on U.S. departure city. Some stopovers are free, others cost $100 to $125.","Usually offers two en-route stopovers (one in each direction) for $56 each in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles.","Usually offers one en-route stopover in such cities as Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York for a fee of $100."],["Delta","No en-route stopovers allowed","At times allows an en-route stopover in Atlanta for free to St.Thomas and San Juan on the lowest published Business Class fare.\u00a0Toother destinations, among them Bermuda, Montego Bay, Nassau, and St. Lucia, the stopover is also free, but only on the more expensive Business Class fares.","No en-route stopovers allowed","Usually offers two en-route stopovers (one in each direction) for $56 each in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Salt Lake City. Stopovers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York are also offered when using Delta\u0092s special transcon service.","No en-route stopovers allowed"],["United3<\/sup><\/span>","Usually offers two enroute stopovers (one in each direction) for $56 each in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle. ","No en-route stopovers allowed","Free en-route stopovers permitted in Houston, Miami, and New York.","Usually offers two en-route stopovers (one in each direction) for $56 each in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle. ","No en-route stopovers allowed"]]

1Alaska flights earn points in American and Delta milage programs. 2Stopovers usually not offered on AA’s transcon service. 3Stopover usually not offered on United’s transcon p.s. service.

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