How to Book Flights with a Long Layover

At Alternative Airlines, booking a long layover is simple. Just follow these steps!

Start searching 📱

Scroll to the top of the page to begin your flight search. Enter your destinations, dates, number of passengers and cabin class. Then click 'search flights'.

Filter stops 🔎

You'll see all the flights available for your selection. Navigate to the left-hand side of the page. Here you can filter the results, including filtering by 1 or 2 stops.

Choose your flight ✈️

Choose the flight that best suits your travel plans, then click 'next steps'. Go to 'flight details' to get more information about the flight you've currently selected, including where your layover will be and how long it will last. Hoping for a different layover? Then head back to the search page. You'll find plenty of options available!

If you’ve got a shorter layover, you need to decide if journeying beyond the airport is worth your time. In general, leaving the airport requires a layover of at least 9 hours, but the minimum time varies by airport. Here are some things to think about when deciding the minimum time you need for a layover.

Deplaning and going through immigration could take up to two hours, especially in the busiest hubs. In general, you'll need to go through immigration any time you land in a new country, though there are some exceptions, such as when you're travelling within the Schengen Area.

You’ll need to figure out ahead of time how easy it is to get from the airport into the city. Cities with excellent transit systems (like Amsterdam and London) make it easy to get back and forth, but if there’s no rail system available, you’ll need to check for traffic delays.

Allow yourself at least 2-3 hours before departure back at the airport to recheck your luggage (if necessary), get through security, and find your gate.

It's important to plan your layover and research the airline you want to fly with. You may have time to leave the airport therefore, it's useful to find out which airlines have extended layovers and which countries you could end up in. When searching for your flights you want to make sure the airline you have chosen has good flight times. Layovers can be short or long meaning a few hours or a day therefore, pick one that suits you.

If you’re looking for a connecting flight, It’s good to have some idea about the airlines that go to the destination you want to visit and where they stop off on the way. Here are a few of our favourite classic stopover locations to get your wanderlust underway:

• If you're going to Europe <-> USA: An Iceland stopover can shake up a transatlantic flight. Connect in Reykjavik with Icelandair.
  
• If you're going to the USA <-> Australia: Catch some waves in Hawaii with Hawaiian Airlines
  
• If you're going anywhere <-> South East Asia: Singapore is a great stopover location with with Singapore Airlines.
  
• If you're going East <-> West: Dubai with Emirates is possibly the most common stopover, but I think Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific is an excellent alternative.

Check to see if a visa is required. Find out if you need a visa for your stopover destination before booking your flight. You don’t want to find out that your 48-hour bonus holiday is going to be a whole lot of paperwork and cost you $100s of dollars in visa fees. In some cases, like Doha, you can easily get a transit visa specifically for the stopover, but you’ll want to avoid places like Russia that require an expensive visa.