When does the 24 hour layover rule apply?
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 21 Jul, 2023
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Don’t rely on it, but recently I ended up with a layover-price 48 hours stay:
I had a layover of 22 hours (including overnight) in a country, then I missed my flight the day after, and was allowed to board the plane the next day at no extra cost. So I was able to enjoy that country twice as more. I would never do this on purpose, though.
Alright, To make things simple best thing to do is to check the available/offered flights by the website and check the best price that would suit your budget.
However a little hint about how it works. It will definitely varies from one airlines to another and from one fare to another and sadly chances are REALLY SLIM to get to talk to someone who is knowledgeable enough about how the airlines that he works for builds the fare. plus there is an article in the ticket fare rules with the title “Stopovers” actually most of the time you’ll find it say “One stopover permitted or two .. or one from the first connection and so on” so this is how it works for the sake of the knowledge but it won’t help you get a better fare because most probably you’re using a website which is auto pricing anyway. But if you are building a ticket manually in a Computer Reservation System that would make a major difference for sure
This is one of those areas where the answer can vary from airline to airline.
There are a few “official” definitions of an “international flight”, such as in the Montreal Convention and Warsaw Convention, and these define an international flight as including any domestic segments that form a part of transporting a passenger between two points in different countries (and/or territories). In effect, the domestic legs are considered international if there isn’t a stopover between them and an international leg.
Although technically this isn’t the definition that airlines have to use for pricing decisions like stopover v’s layover, it is the one that most airlines use.
Thus on an itinerary like MEL-SYD-LAX-JFK, ALL of the flights would be considered “international”, presuming you didn’t have a break of over 24 hours at any point. Thus you could technically have up to a 24 hour break at each of SYD and LAX, and neither would be considered a stopover.
Using your example of LAX-JFK-LHR, you can most certainly have a “free” up-to-24-hour layover in New York without issue.
However, what’s allowed under the ticket rules, and what a travel website will ‘price’ could be two very different things. Sometimes websites will price such an itinerary as two separate legs, thus increasing the total fare. If you talk directly to the airline they should be able to book it for you, but may charge you a phone booking fee for doing so!
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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