Alaska Airlines Stopover Strategy: How to Book a Free Stopover with Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards

Booking a free stopover when already redeeming points for an award flight may sound too good to be true. But the Alaska Airlines Atmos™ Rewards program allows you to do exactly this.

Let’s look at how to build a free stopover into award itineraries booked through Alaska, giving you some inspiration for your next points-funded vacation. We’ll also check out some of the ways you can earn Atmos Rewards points for your next redemption.

Rules for Booking a Stopover with Alaska Airlines

To maximize your booking and routing options, it’s important to understand Alaska’s rules when booking stopovers.

First off, when we talk about booking a “stopover,” we’re referring to connections on international flights that are longer than simply a few hours spent in an airport. A stopover can last from 24 hours to two weeks and enables you to see an extra city en route to your final destination.

For instance, if you were flying from the West Coast to Australia, you could add a stopover in Japan to see the cherry blossoms in spring before heading to your final destination Down Under.

When booking an award itinerary that includes a stopover through Alaska Airlines, the following rules apply:

1. You need to be flying on an international itinerary. This free-stopover strategy only comes in handy when booking international trips (beyond the United States).
2. You can add one stopover per direction. If you book a round-trip itinerary, you can add one stopover on the way there and another stopover on the way back, enabling you to visit three cities for the price of one. On one-way flights, you can add a maximum of one stopover.
3. Stopovers are restricted to partner hubs. Your stopover will typically need to be in the hub city of the airline you’re flying with. For example, you’d need to have your stopover in Sydney when flying with Qantas, in Tokyo when flying with Japan Airlines, in London when flying with British Airways, in Dublin when flying with Aer Lingus and in Madrid when flying with Iberia.
4. Stopovers can last up to 14 days. This gives you ample time to explore the city of your choice en route to your final destination.

Needless to say, not every flight and routing option you want to book will be available, so it may take some searching to optimize your itinerary. However, on the plus side, you can fly from different airports within the same hub city if your chosen partner airline operates flights from multiple airports within the same city. This gives you some flexibility when searching for award availability.

Routing Options: Utilizing Alaska’s Partners

Alaska Airlines is part of the Oneworld alliance, which includes 15 member airlines. However, Alaska also has partnerships with several non-alliance airlines, with whom you can book award flights through Atmos Rewards.

Here’s an overview of Alaska’s alliance and non-alliance members with whom you can book award flights:

With the help of this extensive partner network, you can fly to almost every continent when booking award itineraries with Atmos Rewards points, opening up a number of stopover opportunities.

How to Book a Free Stopover Through Alaska Airlines

To book your award itinerary with a free stopover, begin by heading over to Alaska Airlines’ website and navigate to the “Book a flight” page.

Tick the “Use points” box and select ”Multi-city” as your itinerary.

Previously, you could add a “Departing flight” and a “Connecting flight” to initiate your free stopover award search. However, since Alaska updated its website, it now requires you to put in both a “Departing flight” and a “Returning flight” when searching for multi-city trips—making the “Connecting flight” box redundant for one-way stopover awards.

Therefore, when searching for multi-city flights with a free stopover, you’ll need to put your free stopover flight in the “Returning flight” box, even though it’s not technically a return flight.

Remember that you’ll likely need to select a connecting destination (i.e. city) that is a hub for the airline operating your flight. Once you’ve input these details, click “Find flights.”

Despite preselecting “Use points,” Alaska’s website sometimes still gives you cash fares on the first search. If that happens, you need to click on “Change your search” in the upper left corner.

From here, you’ll be able to input your itinerary again and initiate the search.

For example, you could fly from San Francisco (SFO) to Sydney (SYD) with a two-night stopover in Tokyo-Haneda (HND) on Oneworld partner Japan Airlines.

Once you’ve found award availability, simply select the flight you want and click “Add to cart.” From there, you can complete the booking process and look forward to your free stopover.

If you compare the prices of booking a stopover of several days to booking a flight with a connection of a few hours, you’ll see that you end up paying the exact same price in points and taxes with Alaska.

For instance, if you wanted to fly from Dallas (DFW) to Rome (FCO) with a four-night stopover in Helsinki (HEL), you could fly with Finnair for 35,000 Atmos Rewards points in economy class.

If you click “Details,” you’ll be able to see the exact length of the stopover.

Alternatively, if you booked a flight from Dallas to Rome with a standard connection—instead of a stopover—in Helsinki, you’d pay the exact same price, regardless of the fact that you’re staying a few days or only four hours and 50 minutes in Helsinki.

Such is the beauty of the free stopover with Alaska Airlines. This policy gives you a wide range of potential stopovers on international itineraries, enabling you to see a total of three cities for the price of one on round-trip itineraries and two cities for the price of one on one-way itineraries.

Tips for Booking a Stopover with Alaska Atmos Rewards

Booking a free stopover with Alaska is one of the wonders of award travel. However, it can come with several difficulties.

Here are some insider tips for booking a stopover with Alaska Atmos Rewards successfully:

• To make your search easier, consider searching for one-way award fares first. For instance, if you want to fly with Cathay Pacific from Los Angeles (LAX) to Johannesburg (JNB) with a stopover in Hong Kong (HKG), you’ll want to search for award availability on the LAX to HKG and the HKG to JNB segments individually. Once you’ve found availability for both segments, you can then initiate a multi-city award search using those dates.
• Using American Airlines’ website can also be more useful when searching for Oneworld award availability and enables you to search by month. This can speed up the search process and prevent frustration.
• Prioritize searching for long-haul segments first. Finding long-haul award availability is typically more challenging than finding short-haul award space. In the worst case, you can always use a cheap domestic positioning flight to help you find long-haul award space.
• Get creative with stopover destinations. The Oneworld alliance is full of foreign carriers, enabling you to take advantage of free stopovers in a number of interesting cities, from Hong Kong and Casablanca, Morocco, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Doha, Qatar.

Best Ways to Earn Alaska Atmos Rewards Points

One of the easiest ways to earn Atmos Rewards points is by flying on Alaska, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines and other Oneworld carriers.

Aside from that, you can transfer Bilt Points at a 1:1 ratio to Atmos Rewards points.

You also can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Alaska at a 3:1 ratio, with a transfer bonus of 5,000 points for every 60,000 points transferred.

Alternatively, you could open the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® Card, the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Card or the Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card. All three cards offer lucrative welcome offers to help stock up your Atmos Rewards points and enable you to earn points on everyday spending.

Final Thoughts

Alaska Atmos Rewards is already an attractive program when it comes to booking award flights on Oneworld alliance and non-alliance partner airlines because of its region-based and distance-based award charts.

Being able to add one stopover per direction of travel to your award itineraries makes it an even more attractive program for award bookings.

So the next time you’re flush with Atmos Rewards points or are looking to book a Oneworld-partner award flight, consider adding a stopover to your journey to see two or even three cities for the price of one.

If you want to learn how to leverage your everyday spending for more points-funded travel, sign up to our free 10xTravel course today.