How to turn a long layover into a free mini-trip with airline stopover programs

Airlines with stopover programs let you turn a long layover in the airline’s hub into a long stay in that city. Instead of killing time at a gate, you leave the airport, sleep in a hotel, and pick up your trip the next day or later. Such stopover programs have turned some of the world’s biggest hubs like Istanbul, Doha, or Singapore into free or nearly free vacation destinations.

Online, such programs are usually discussed as travel hacks for economy passengers stretching a trip on a budget. But, just like with cabins, a stopover program usually has tiers and benefits for business-class passengers that are worth discussing too. A longer stay in a more luxurious hotel might qualify for a genuine vacation, not just a break in a long journey. Join us as we discuss some of the most well-known Airlines with stopover programs, and how you can use them when flying business class.

What counts as an airline stopover program

A stopover is a deliberately extended layover, typically 24 hours or longer, booked on the same ticket with no change in airfare. A stopover program is an airline’s product that formalizes the extended stay with actual perks: a free or discounted hotel night, a guided tour, sometimes lounge access. That way, you are not arranging your extended layover from scratch.

The perks under these programs usually scale with cabin class. Book economy and you’ll typically get a short stay at a modest hotel. Book business or first class and the same airline stopover program puts you in a more luxurious hotel and allows you to stay there longer, as well as offering pleasant extras like city tours, spa and other activities.

Airlines take genuinely different approaches to these programs, each offering its own perks on its own terms. This guide covers a handful worth a business-class traveler’s attention: Turkish Airlines, Icelandair, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and some honorable mentions. But before we get to the stopover programs themselves, we need to discuss how the booking process works.

How to book a stopover flight

To book a stopover flight, you have to select multi-city or stopover as the trip type in the airline’s regular flight search, not a standard round-trip search. 

There are three ways to approach this process. The first is going straight to the airline’s website and using its multi-city or stopover search option directly. The second is working with a travel advisor, who can apply a stopover to a business class fare. The third is through miles or points, where several airlines allow one stopover per award itinerary at no extra mileage cost.

However, not every fare qualifies for a stopover program, regardless of cabin. Turkish Airlines, for example, excludes tickets issued in its N and R fare classes from the Stopover Accommodation Service entirely. Heavily discounted or restricted fares, the kind airlines use to fill seats during slower periods, often do not qualify as well. This isn’t always obvious from the fare name alone, so the safest approach is asking a travel advisor to confirm eligibility directly and check the specific terms tied to your ticket before booking. AranGrant travel advisors can help you with this process.  

Turkish Airlines stopover in Istanbul

A Turkish Airlines stopover program lets you spend 20 hours to 7 days in Istanbul on a single ticket, with the airline covering the hotel. Turkish Airlines calls this the Stopover Accommodation Service, and it’s one of the most generous stopover programs in the industry for exactly that reason: a genuinely complimentary hotel, not just extra time in the city.

How to qualify:

• Both your inbound and outbound flights need to be international, meaning neither one starts or ends in Turkey itself
• Your layover in Istanbul needs to be at least 20 hours, and no longer than 7 days
• You apply for the Stopover Accommodation Service separately, after your ticket is already booked, at least 72 hours before your flight

What it gets you:

• Economy: one night in a 4-star hotel, or two nights if your round-trip starts in the US, mainland China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, or South Korea
• Business class: two nights in a 5-star or boutique hotel, or three nights for passengers traveling from those same countries
• Breakfast included each morning; no other meals covered
• Hotel assigned by Turkish Airlines from its own partner list, not chosen by you

Turkish Airlines has a second, separate program called Touristanbul: a free guided city tour for anyone with a shorter connection, between 6 and 24 hours. This range overlaps with the Stopover Accommodation Service’s own 20-hour minimum, so if your layover happens to fall between 20 and 24 hours, you technically qualify for both. You can only apply for one, though, not both on the same trip.

Icelandair stopover in Reykjavik

Icelandair has one of the oldest stopover programs in the industry, officially called the Icelandair Stopover. Unlike Turkish Airlines, which pays for your hotel directly, the Icelandair stopover program gives you extra time with no added airfare and leaves the accommodation up to you.

How to qualify:

• Just one condition: you need to be flying transatlantic with Icelandair, between North America and Europe 

What it gets you:

• Extra time in Iceland built into your ticket, at the same price as flying straight through
• On Economy Light, Icelandair’s cheapest fare, up to 3 nights
• On Economy Standard, up to 7 nights
• On a Flex fare (Economy Flex or Saga Premium Flex), up to 21 nights. Anything past 7 nights can’t be booked online though; you’ll need to call Icelandair’s service center directly
• No hotel included. You choose and pay for your own accommodation, anything from a budget guesthouse to a nicer hotel

Since no hotel is assigned to you here, this program is a good choice if you want to extend your stopover and do not mind arranging accommodations yourself.

You might also like to read Icelandair Business Class Review: A Practical Take on Premium.

Qatar Airways stopover in Doha

Qatar Airways’ stopover program doesn’t offer you a free room like some other airlines. Instead, it gives you access to hotels with rates discounted so heavily that paying for the room barely factors into your decision. Discover Qatar, the airline’s own destination-management division, handles the hotel side separately from the flight itself.

How to qualify:

• Your transit through Doha needs to be between 12 and 96 hours
• You select the “Qatar Stopover” option when searching for your flight on Qatar Airways’ website, which builds the layover into your ticket from the start
• Once your flight is confirmed, you need to use your booking reference on Discover Qatar’s website to book and pay for the hotel

What it gets you:

• A choice of four hotel tiers: Standard (4-star, from about $14 per person per night), Premium (5-star, from about $24), Premium Beach (5-star with access to Doha Sands Beach, from about $31), and Luxury (5-star, breakfast included, from about $83)
• Up to 4 nights total, since the maximum transit time is 96 hours
• Optional add-ons available when you book the hotel: airport transfers, a desert safari, a Souq Waqif city tour, a dhow cruise, or a round at an 18-hole golf course

Even at the cheapest tier, a 4-star room in Doha for the price of a coffee elsewhere changes the math on whether breaking up a long journey is worth it. Most travelers won’t need to arrange anything extra for entry either, since Qatar lets citizens of over 100 countries visa-free for short stays. Anyone who needs a transit visa can arrange it directly through Discover Qatar.

Singapore Airlines stopover in Singapore

Singapore Airlines has two different stopover programs. Which one you get depends on how you paid for your ticket. If you are paying cash, you can use the Singapore Airlines stopover program called “Holiday Before the Holiday,” which started in 2025. If you are using Singapore Airlines’ frequent flyer program and redeeming KrisFlyer miles instead, you get an older, separate benefit that’s built into the award ticket itself.

How it works:

• If you are paying cash: you add the stopover by selecting “Multi-city/Stopovers” as the trip type when searching for flights on the airline’s website. Your stopover needs to last between 24 hours and 30 days. Both economy and premium cabins qualify.
• If you are redeeming miles: you search your route as normal, and Singapore Airlines will prompt you for an eligible stopover automatically once you’ve selected your flights. Singapore Airlines has two tiers of award tickets, Saver and Advantage. A Saver ticket includes one free stopover on a round trip. An Advantage ticket costs more miles but is easier to actually find a seat on, and it includes up to two free stopovers on a round trip. Either way, adding the stopover doesn’t cost you any extra miles.

What it gets you:

• If you’re flying business or first class on a cash ticket, you get a free hotel stay of one or two nights, guided city tours, access to the airport lounge, and a 40 Singapore dollar credit (roughly $30) to spend at Changi Airport’s shops and restaurants.
• If you’re flying economy on a cash ticket, you don’t get the hotel. Instead, you get a 20 Singapore dollar voucher ($15) for Changi Airport and access to discounted tour bundles.
• If you have an award ticket instead, you only get the stopover itself, meaning Singapore Airlines lets you break up your trip there for free. No hotel, no credit, no tours come with it. You have to book and pay for your own place to stay, the same way you would with Icelandair’s stopover.
• On a few specific routes, your award stopover doesn’t even have to be in Singapore. Singapore Airlines flies some routes that connect two other countries, bypassing Singapore entirely, and on those routes you can choose Frankfurt, Tokyo, Milan, or Barcelona as your stopover city instead.
• If you book your own hotel during the stopover, staying at Shangri-La Singapore, Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa, or JEN Singapore Orchardgateway earns you 500 KrisFlyer miles per stay, a perk Singapore Airlines specifically offers to stopover travelers.

Changi Airport (SIN) alone is worth a stop of almost any length. It’s been voted the world’s best airport more times than any other, and it has things like an indoor waterfall and a butterfly garden built right into the terminal. Even if you only have a few hours between flights, you’ll get something out of stopping there.

Other business-class-friendly stopover programs worth knowing

Emirates offers a stopover program called Dubai Connect, giving passengers a complimentary hotel, meals, and transfers for a layover in Dubai that lasts between 6 and 26 hours for business or first class (8 to 26 hours in economy or premium economy). First class typically gets a room in a 5-star hotel like the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai. Business class gets a similar tier, often Le Méridien Dubai. Economy or premium economy get assigned a 3- or 4-star hotel instead. However, you can’t deliberately stretch your journey to qualify for this program: your layover has to be the shortest one available on your route.

Etihad has a similar program for its Abu Dhabi hub. Passengers with a planned connection of at least 24 hours can book a complimentary one- or two-night stay at a 3- or 4-star partner hotel directly through the airline’s website, with the reservation typically needing to go in a few days ahead of arrival. Unlike Emirates, the hotel tier here doesn’t change based on your cabin.

How to choose the right stopover for your trip

To choose the right stopover for your trip, you have to consider your priorities. For example, choosing a stopover with Icelandair is a solid option if you want to have more time to explore beyond Reykjavík. Qatar Airways and its Doha stopover program is a sweet spot for travelers who want to break up their journey with a luxurious stay with extra activities as available options. Turkish Airlines and Singapore Airlines are good choices if you want a hassle-free stopover experience with a hotel stay that was arranged for you. Regardless of which one you choose, always verify whether or not you need a visa to stay in the country where you are planning to have a stopover. 

Hotel availability is also subject to change, since these programs work on a quota system, and shoulder-season demand can fill it up faster than most travelers expect. If you’re planning a stopover for October or November, book as early as you can. And if your airline’s program covers fewer nights than you’d like or doesn’t put you in a hotel at all, AranGrant’s hotel search can help you solve both of these issues, and you can easily find a hotel that suits your preferences. 

Which stopover to try first

For a first-time stopover traveler flying business class, Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul program is the easiest to build a trip around, and it’s free. Turkish Airlines flies to more countries than any other airline in the world, over 340 destinations across 130-plus countries, so wherever you’re actually headed, there’s a good chance Istanbul is already on your route.