Taking AAdvantage of American’s free stopover policy

Did you know that when booking an international award flight on American you can get up to two free additional (one-way) flights? That’s right, it’s called a stopover.

The requirements

Your international trip must originate from a North American gateway city (Milevalue has compiled a good list of all of the eligible cities), therefore it’s best for those who live close enough to use the airport in one of those cities. If not, you can still have a free stopover on your way to or back home from another continent. It’s also important to keep in mind that all travel must be completed within one year of booking.

Here's a sample booking 

I’ll take you through a sample award reservation (assuming you're flying in coach). Let's say you live in Dallas and are taking a vacation to Miami in December 2012. Then, in April 2013 you are going to Madrid, Spain. If booked separately, these trips would "cost" 65,000 miles. But if you book using a stopover, it will only take 52,500 miles.

Flight one

DFW to MIA in December—12,500 miles

On the aa.com home page page select "Redeem AAdvantage Miles" and "One-Way," then input the date and location. Then confirm on the screen below.

Confirm date and mileage, then book it

Flights two, three and four

MIA to DFW in December

DFW to MAD in April
MAD to DFW in April--40,000 miles

Select "multi-city" link

Enter dates and cities

Confirm dates and miles, then book it

Key wording to look for

For a second free one-way, you can tack on an extra leg after the MAD to DFW award using the "multi-city" page, still for a total of 40,000 miles. Let’s say you decide to go to Chicago for a weekend getaway in May 2013. Then you would need to book a one-way return flight from ORD to DFW for 12,500.

That brings the “cost” for three round trip flights to 65,000 miles. Those three round trips booked separately would be 90,000 miles, so a savings of 25,000 miles.

Tip: you will need to make sure your trip falls within the "off-peak" Europe dates in order to book for 20,000 miles, otherwise it will take 30,000. American's award chart can be found here.

It took me a bit to truly understand how the free stopover works, but I got it after fiddling around on aa.com. I'll certainly be taking advantage of the free stopover for my European vacation this fall. With this policy, you can even tack on trips to Hawaii or the Caribbean to get the maximum benefit out of your AAdvantage miles.