MileValue is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.


Update: You can no longer book stopovers on American Airlines awards.

The card offers listed at the conclusion of this post have expired. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

American, Delta, United, and US Airways all offer some version of a free stopover on award itineraries booked with their miles. Free stopovers are a great way to add tremendous value to your awards, but free stopovers can add complication to the booking process.

A natural instinct might be to call up the airline to book whenever your dream award includes a free stopover. Fight that instinct. By knowing how to book your free stopover online, you’ll save yourself a $25 per passenger phone booking fee and the headaches of hold time, talking to computers, and talking to incompetent agents.

American, Delta, and United allow you to book a free stopover online as long as the airlines you’re flying are bookable online. US Airways does not allow you to book a free stopover online, but at least the $25 phone fee is waived by US Airways when you’re calling to book an award you can’t book online.

Let’s start with American. On the aa.com homepage where you can search flights, check the box that says Redeem AAdvantage Miles, then click the link that says Multi-city.

This will bring you to a screen like the one shown below. Note what I’ve highlighted in red boxes.

The first two things I’ve highlighted show that you should automatically be brought to the AAdvantage Award tab with Multi-city selected. If you weren’t brought there, get there. Next search for the itinerary until the stopover and for the itinerary after the stopover.

Here I’ll be searching for my award LA to London (LAX-LHR). I’m taking advantage of American’s free oneway stopovers to get a free flight from Honolulu to LA (HNL-LAX) before my trip to London.

So I’ve typed in HNL-LAX for Flight 1 and LAX-LHR for Flight 2. Important: Type in your origin to your stopover for Flight 1, and your stopover to your destination for Flight 2. Do not type in each individual segment. For instance if I wanted everything the same but a destination of Paris not London, I would type in HNL-LAX and LAX-PAR. I would not type in HNL-LAX, LAX-LHR, LHR-PAR.

Next I’ve highlighted the dates just to point out that the stopover can be as long as I want. In this example, my stopover is almost eight months, which is convenient since I live in LA, and this is not really a stopover, but an award to London with a free trip to Hawaii tacked on.  The stopover is only limited by the fact that all award travel must be competed within one year of booking.

After filling out the form, click the red GO button.

You should now be brought to a screen like this:

Look at what I’ve highlighted in the middle: the computer knows you’re getting a free stopover!

Now it’s up to you to choose what class you want. If you want Economy, select the Economy MileSAAver Off Peak for both legs. If you want business, select Business/First MileSAAver for both legs. First class is not available these weeks, but if it were, you’d select that in both places.

At the top, choose the date of the HNL-LAX leg. Why are there dashes instead of prices at the top? Because this is a free stopover, so the leg adds nothing to the miles prices, which are listed below for the main award leg.

After selecting dates, you can select flights. After selecting flights, we come to the checkout screen. Look at that price: 20,000 miles and $5 for 16 hours of flying!

What an incredible deal. And by knowing how to book this stopover online, we saved $25 and the hassle of calling American.

Check back in the next few days for step-by-step guides on how to book United and Delta stopovers online.

Follow me @milevalue, and type your email address into the form on the right side of the screen to get daily emails with great posts from milevalue.com.

You can get 74,000 AAdvantage Miles in the Next Few Weeks by Getting These Two Cards Now!

Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® with 40,000 miles after spending $3k in the next three months

  • For a limited time, Earn 40,000 American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles after $3,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of cardmembership*
  • Your first eligible checked bag is free*
  • Priority Boarding with Group 1 privileges* and 25% savings on eligible in-flight purchases*
  • Earn a $100 American Airlines Flight Discount every cardmembership year with qualifying purchases and cardmembership renewal*
  • Double AAdvantage® miles on eligible American Airlines purchases*
  • Earn 10% of your redeemed AAdvantage® miles back – up to 10,000 AAdvantage® miles each calendar year*
  • *See full terms and conditions

CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® with 30,000 miles after spending $1k in the next three months

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.

With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!


Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.

The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.