Air France / KLM Flying Blue added a free stopover on award tickets late last year, but that was initially limited to being available on Air France or KLM-operated flights. Loyalty Lobby reports that this capability has now been expanded to partner awards, which could make for some pretty interesting opportunities, particularly with some of their partners outside of SkyTeam. Currently, the only way to book an award with a stopover is via the Flying Blue call center (800-375-8723).
Air France / KLM expand free stopovers on award tickets with partners
Not many programs still allow stopovers at all and the only two that immediately come to mind that allow a free stopover are Alaska Mileage Plan and now Air France / KLM Flying Blue (Air Canada Aeroplan allows a stopover for 5,000 additional miles). I’m glad to see this option added.
While this could certainly be useful if you’d like to visit, for example, two cities in Europe, I think it is equally interesting when you consider some of Air France’s non-alliance partners.
For instance, in my post about forgotten airline partnerships in South America, I noted that Air France / KLM Flying Blue partners with Copa. Aerolineas Argentinas is a SkyTeam Carrier. I couldn’t find any Gol flights available via Flying Blue, but given that Air France / KLM owns enough of a stake in Gol to brand the cabin with their logo also, I would think that perhaps you’ll be able to book Gol flights with Flying Blue miles at some point.
All together, that adds up to a number of possible ways to imagine leveraging a stopover. Copa sometimes has decent award availability to/from South America, so at the very least you could consider a stopover in Panama City on the way to/from South America. I could also imagine using this within Argentina to fly from, for example, Iguazu Falls to Patagonia with a stopover in Buenos Aires for what I would expect should be 10,000 miles one-way.
The nice thing here is that there is no fee for a stopover. You may pay a little bit more in taxes in some cases, but any additional cost should generally be nominal.
What are the stopover rules on Air France / KLM Flying Blue award tickets
One Mile at a Time reports on pretty generous rules regarding stopovers, including:
- A stopover is free, even on a one-way award
- You can combine airlines so long as the origin and destination is a valid city pair
- Stopovers don’t have to be at a hub
- A stopover can last for up to a year (this can be useful for nesting awards)
- You must call Flying Blue to book a stopover for now (800-375-8723). They eventually expect to roll this out online.
All of the above is great news, particularly when you consider Air France’s airline partners:
SkyTeam partners
- Air France
- Aeroflot
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa
- Alitalia
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- Czech Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Garuda Indonesia
- Kenya Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Middle East Airlines
- Saudi Arabian Airlines
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airlines
- Xiamen Air
Non-alliance partners
- AirCalin
- AirEuropa
- Air Mauritius
- Copa Airlines
- GOL
- Qantas
- Japan Airlines
- Middle East Airlines
- Westjet
- And more
Those could make for some pretty cool stopover options.
How do you know if a flight is eligible for a stopover?
When it comes to knowing whether or not a flight is eligible for a stopover, this will be very simple on partner airlines: if the partner flights are available to be booked separately via Flying Blue on the dates you want, a phone agent should be able to book it with a stopover. Note that this is a new feature, so do not be surprised when some call center agents don’t know how to book stopovers or price them correctly. I recommend knowing how many miles the award should cost before you call. I could absolutely see some agents mispricing these as two separate awards, so don’t be surprised if you need to hang up and call again.
Things get trickier when you’re looking to include a flight or flights operated by Air France or KLM. My understanding is that the lowest-level award tickets (i.e. those that cost 55K miles from the US to Europe) should be eligible for a stopover, but I don’t think all Air France and KLM flights will be eligible.
That said, it could be worth some effort to put together an award since you could at least potentially save yourself some miles and/or put together a really interesting itinerary, particularly with some of Flying Blue’s partners.
It is expected that Flying Blue will eventually make this available online, though anyone who uses their website much knows that there are quite a few improvements they need to make that I would imagine are more urgent priorities. In other words, I don’t expect this to get added to the website in the near future.
Bottom line
It’s great to see that Air France / KLM has added the ability to book a free stopover on an award ticket (even a one-way award) and has now extended that to work on partner airlines. You could potentially put together some really cool awards to visit two places given the reach of Air France’s partners thanks to this cool new functionality — just expect that you may run into some difficulty with phone agents who are unfamiliar with the system and process. I’ve actually had very good experiences with call center agents from Flying Blue, so I am at least hopeful that a number of them are well-trained on this feature and I imagine that will get better with some time.
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Can I fly SEA – CDG – EZE with a stopover at CDG?
[…] Airfrance and KLM’s FlyingBlue program now allows stopovers on award tickets for no additional charge, either one-way or round-trip, which is an amazing opportunity for travel hackers, especially if you’re able to talk your way into multiple stopovers on a single itinerary, which may or may not be permitted. The quick overview:– The length of the stop-over can be between 24 hours and 365 days– Different airlines can be combined on a single itineraryYou currently can’t book these online, so you’ve got to call FlyingBlue directly. In my experience FlyingBlue representatives are some of the most competent out there despite their reputation, the main downside is a typical 10-30 minute wait to talk to one, even as an elite. (Thanks to FM) […]
My DP trying to book a stopover: found ORD-HAN for 55K miles with layover in Paris, ORD-CDG (biz) on Air France, CDG-HAN (biz)on Vietnam Airlines. Before booking the ticket, I called to make that layover into a stopover of 3 nights in Paris before continuing on the same exact flight on Vietnam Airlines. Side note: the Vietnam Airlines segment was 312K miles when priced alone on either day. The first agent told me the ticket cost was 159K miles for ORD-HAN including the stopover in Paris. I declined and called again. Second agent understood what I wanted to do right away and put me on hold to reserve the flight, but after several minutes we were disconnected without getting a confirmation number. Called again, third agent said yes, I see a reserved booking but the 12 hour CDG-HAN flight was in economy, for 159K miles. I declined again. So much for free stopovers….
Darn! I already booked flights KLM to CDG with a layover in Amsterdam…. Our plan is to stay in Paris 3 night and then continue on to Rome or Bari/Brindisi to check out Puglia area. Have you heard of anyone having any luck calling KLM after already making a reservation to add the second part of the journey to take advantage of the free stopover? Or is this not permitted?
Sorry for a newbie question but how can I book with Saudia airline with a stop over as it’s sky team partner? West should I say to the agent?
I just booked an economy ticket ATL-PRG and PRG to ATL with a stopover in AMS. The phone agent was very knowledgeable and found me an award price lower than what I calculated online. Then later I saw I was charged €20 for both tickets for booking over the phone. Since these award stopovers cannot be booked online, they refunded the fee after I sent a complaint. Be sure you’re not charged for these bookings.
I would like to use a stopover in AMS flying from KRK to LAS in July 2024. Both flights with KLM. How do I actually know before calling the Flying Blue agent how much will it cost me without searching leg by leg? I know the dates and I know how much each leg costs KRK-AMS and AMS-LAS but combining them, would I pay the total sum of each leg? I need premium economy for the long haul flight. My children I assume would receive 25% discount on that award with a stopover?
I also looked at flying AMS-MSP, AMS-LAX, AMS-ORD, AMS-SFO for point cost comparison
Couple errors: 1. Aeroflot is barred from Skyteam. 2 Air Europa is in both lists, they are Skyteam.
I already have award flights booked. Called and agent said she cannot add a stopover to an existing award ticket, looks like it has to be booked outright, fyi.
I have never booked a stopover. Let’s say I want to do RDU to Paris(stop over) with a final destination to Madrid.
Would I tell the agent to look at the flights separately almost like a multicity ticket?
Thanks in advance
Yes but you say you want to fly RDU to CDG, stopover, and continue to Madrid so they know you want it as one ticket and not get charged twice.
Can you still check a bag when you do a stopover?
Yes – you can get it tagged to your stopover point.
“A stopover is free, even on a one-way award”
I’m probably just uninformed, but isn’t a one-way award, by definition, a stop-over? 🙂
You can stop over at the connecting city. So for example: JFK-CDG (stopover) then continue onto FCO (destination).
Ah, now I get it. I was envisioning a direct flight from origin to destination.
Thanks.