Kellye

Is there a way to book flights online through one of the search engines (not airline specific) and deliberately choose layovers up to 24 hours without putting in all the legs separately? If I could get 24 hours in a European city on a layover, without additional "leg" cost, it might be fun to just do a quick highlights tour. I like the convenience of looking at everything online and booking that way when I choose rather than doing it on the phone. I figured you guys were the ones to ask...

Ackislander

Try reposting this on the Fodor's airline board. They are a mostly different crowd, and some of them are very knowledgeable.

flanneruk

Whenever I've tried to do this between Europe and North America, the machine always zonks you for extra. But:

- if you're travelling from North America to much of Asia or Africa, it's practically routine for there to be a 12-15 hour, daytime, gap between arriving at London or Amsterdam and catching the onward flight to Nairobi or Calcutta.

- Or, get an open jaw, say, outward to London and return from Amsterdam or any of the other major hubs (usually, Paris, Franfurt and Zurich). Then go to whichbudget.com for cheapos to and from your final destination in Europe. Even if that involves using a different airport in London, Paris or the Frankfurt area, if you're going into town to sightsee anyway, it really doesn't matter if your onward flight, say to Rome, is from Hahn when you arrived at Franfurt-Main.

Nikki

When I search for flights to Europe on www.kayak.com, I frequently find that some of the choices are for very long layovers, even without trying. I am normally trying to eliminate the overnight layovers, but they are there if you want them. There are filters that allow you to specify the maximum and minimum layovers to help you sort through the choices.

Gardyloo

Use www.itasoftware.com and when you get to the results screen, click on the "Choose flights - text" or "Choose flights - graphical" boxes at the top, and you can see layover points and durations quite easily.

If you see a routing you like, go to the first carrier's website and see if you can re-create it (be specific on departure time) or else phone the airline directly and walk them through it.

Kellye

Thanks for the links. I'll check those out.

trsny

Hi Kellye, I too am a lover of long layovers. After I spent 10 hours in Zurich for a trip to Amsterdam, I was hooked!

Since then, I've done 22 hours in Madrid for the trip I took on Iberia to Copenhagen and in the future, will always look for a way to maximize my trips with a stop in a new city or to revisit old favorites.

I have been using Kayak for this purpose and have found success with such flights, but nothing more than 24 hours. One flight that recently caught my eye was to Munich out of JFK on AA that had a day long layover in Brussels on the way, and a day long layover in London coming back.