Award Ticket Stopovers Explained in Plain English (Aeroplan, Alaska, JAL, ANA)

Rules on this page last verified 2026-07-09. Airlines change things; we re-check and date it.

You have a card that earns points, you've logged into the airline's mileage site once or twice, and every time you've redeemed, it's been for the obvious thing: a plain round-trip, home and back. Somewhere you've heard the word "stopover" attached to miles, usually inside a wall of jargon on a points blog written for people who already track fare charts for fun. This page is the version for everyone else.

What an award stopover actually is

A normal round-trip award flies you out and back. A stopover award does the same thing, except at one connecting point along the way, the airline lets you get off, leave the airport, and stay for real, sometimes for weeks, before continuing on the same mileage ticket. You are not paying for two trips. In the programs below, you're paying for one round-trip's worth of miles, plus in some cases a small flat add-on, and getting two destinations out of it.

The one thing that decides whether a stop even counts as a "stopover" instead of a normal connection is time: cross roughly 24 hours at that connecting city and it becomes a stopover; stay less and it's just a layover, no special permission needed, no extra stay to plan around.

The short version

Air Canada Aeroplan: the flat 5,000-point add-on

Aeroplan is the most straightforward of the four, because the cost is a flat number instead of a guessing game: 5,000 extra points buys you a stopover of up to 45 days at a city along your route, one per direction. The catch is geographic, not financial: the stopover city can't be in Canada, the US, or China, and you can't backtrack (fly toward your destination, then have the stopover pull you further away from it, then continue).

Worked example. Say you redeem Aeroplan points for a round-trip from Chicago to Tokyo. For an extra 5,000 points on the outbound, you add a stopover in Seoul, stay there for up to 45 days, and then continue to Tokyo on the same ticket. Your return still flies straight home, or you add a second 5,000-point stopover there too if you want another stop on the way back.

How to book it. On aircanada.com, search Aeroplan flight rewards using the "Multicity/Stopover" option instead of a plain round-trip search, and insert your stopover city as its own leg with your chosen dates.

Alaska Mileage Plan (Atmos Rewards): free, but only on one-ways

Alaska (rebranded Atmos Rewards) doesn't charge extra miles for a stopover at all, which makes it the best-value program on this list if you can work within its shape: the stopover has to be attached to a one-way award, and it has to land in a hub city of the partner airline you're flying, not just anywhere on the map. Book two one-ways (there and back) and you get two free stopovers instead of one.

Worked example. You redeem Alaska miles for a one-way award on Cathay Pacific from the US to Hong Kong. Because Cathay Pacific's hub stopover cities are eligible, Alaska lets you add a free stop in Tokyo along the way, no added mileage cost, just the taxes and fees that come with the extended routing.

How to book it. Search multi-city on alaskaair.com for straightforward routings. Some partners, notably Cathay Pacific and LATAM, can't be booked with a stopover online at all; those require a call to Alaska reservations.

JAL Mileage Bank: the most generous multi-stop rule of the four

JAL doesn't run a stopover marketing page (there's no branded "JAL Stopover Program," full stop) but its award chart is unusually generous about how many stops you're allowed to string together on one ticket: up to 3 on a JAL-only award, and up to 7 if you're mixing oneworld partners on a single multi-carrier award. No extra miles for adding them, just fare-rule permission.

Worked example. You redeem JMB miles for an award from the US to Bangkok, routing through Tokyo. JAL's rules allow up to 3 stopovers on that kind of award, so you break the trip with a few days in Tokyo, continue to Osaka for a few more, and only then fly onward to Bangkok, all on one ticket.

How to book it. Log into your JAL Mileage Bank account at jal.co.jp and use the international award booking tool directly; phone bookings through the JMB Award Reservations Desk work too, but carry an added service fee.

ANA Mileage Club: the mega-stopover era ended, the everyday one didn't

Here's the correction worth making, because a lot of what's floating around online about ANA is out of date: ANA used to sell a genuinely wild round-the-world award that allowed up to 8 stopovers on one ticket. That program stopped accepting new bookings on June 23, 2025. If you already had one ticketed before that date, it's still honored; if you're starting from zero today, it's gone, and no amount of searching will bring it back.

What's still there, and still useful, is the ordinary version: a round-trip ANA partner award lets you add one stopover, on either the outbound or the return leg, at no extra miles, as long as you stay past the 24-hour line at that city.

Worked example. You redeem ANA miles for a round-trip partner award from the US to Bangkok. On the outbound, you route through Tokyo and stay a week before continuing, using ANA's one-stopover-per-direction rule, then fly straight home on the return.

How to book it. ANA's online tool handles plenty of straightforward redemptions, but it's been reported to throw errors on itineraries built around a stopover. If the website won't cooperate, call ANA Mileage Club directly and have your dates and cities ready; a phone agent can build routings the search tool can't.

Where people screw this up

• Assuming every program charges extra for a stopover. Aeroplan does (5,000 points). Alaska, JAL, and ANA don't. Check which kind of program you're holding before you assume the stop is expensive.
• Trying to stopover somewhere the program doesn't allow. Aeroplan blocks Canada, the US, and China as stopover points. Alaska limits you to actual partner hub cities. Read the geography rule before you build the dream itinerary.
• Searching for ANA's old round-the-world ticket. It's gone for anyone without one already ticketed before June 23, 2025. The one-stopover-per-direction benefit on regular partner awards is still very real; don't confuse the two.
• Giving up when the website errors out. A failed online search, especially on ANA, often just means the itinerary needs a phone agent, not that the stopover itself is unavailable.

FAQ

Do I need elite status to add a stopover on any of these? No. All four rules described here apply to standard award redemptions; elite status affects things like fee waivers and availability priority, not stopover eligibility.

Does adding a stopover change how many miles the flight costs? On Alaska, JAL, and ANA, no, the base mileage cost stays the same; only Aeroplan adds a flat fee (5,000 points) for the privilege.

Can I do a stopover on a one-way award? Depends on the program. Alaska is built around one-ways. Aeroplan and ANA's standard stopover rule apply to round-trips (Aeroplan does also permit it on one-ways, per its own rules). Check the specific program's rule before assuming either way works.

What if I want to build the stop myself instead of using an official award stopover rule? That's the DIY multi-city method, the same fare-construction logic behind revenue-ticket stopovers, and it works alongside (not instead of) these award rules. See the full method for how to price and book it yourself.

Next time you're about to redeem points for a plain round-trip, stop before you hit confirm and check whether your program allows a stopover on that exact routing. It's frequently free, it's sitting inside an account you already have, and almost nobody who has a points card and has never redeemed for anything fancy realizes it's there. If you'd rather see JAL's rules in full detail with sourcing, they're already broken out on the JAL stopover page.