<12 hour stopover - can it be done?
 

I’m looking to book flights from Gla/Edi to east coast USA in May. In the past I’ve used Gatwick/ Heathrow as the departure airport and returned back to Edi or Gla. I’ve then separately booked a one way to Gatwick or Heathrow the evening before and we have stayed over before catching our flight next morning. The reason for this has been that we’ve had more than one failed connection and numerous near misses despite leaving circa 4 hours between flights. It simply became less stressful to do it this way and it was also nearly always cheaper than a round trip from Scotland.

this time, however, starting from London is proving more expensive so I thought I could book from Scotland on a late evening flight for the morning connection next day and still achieve the overnight stay. I couldn’t manage it online (multiple combinations available but nothing with an overnight stop) so I called BA to ask them to price it. I was a bit surprised to be told Stopovers within the UK are longer allowed unless departing from somewhere outside the UK. Is this correct? I couldn’t find anything in terms and conditions or on the website and when I asked for a pointer to this “rule” I was told it’s not publicly stated as “that just leads to people finding ways round them”.

Any thoughts ? - I did HUACA and got virtually the same answer but as I was asked for my exec club number I’m guessing there may be a record of the call.

AFAIK, a stopover is 24 hours (except some fares in the US, where it's 4). So should be doable. Did you try to book a multi-segment itinerary rather than a return?
For the record, my next two flights to the US involve overnight layovers in LHR (but I do not depart from Scotland).

Shuly

On an international connection, 12 hours between flights is not a "stopover"; it's a "connection." And there's a big difference between the two.

I suggest that you call BA back, and ask if they can sell you a ticket with an overnight "connection" in LON, not a stopover. Or, you might look at other airlines that offer non-stop service to the U.S. from EDI/GLA. Just Google ""EDI airport wiki," and "GLA airport wiki" to find each airport's Wikipedia entry. Then, click on "Airlines and Destinations" to find the airlines that fly to the U.S. from each of those airports. (If you want to collect Avios/tier points, look for service on oneworld member AA. And if Aer Lingus serves either EDI or GLA, try pricing a trip on them: Aer Lingus serves several U.S. cities from DUB.)

Absolutely possible to leave glasgow the night before and then fly on from london the following morning. Since the one flight a day i have 'home' from heathrow sometimes leaves before 8am i have to overnight.

Try the flight selection as multi city and put in the respective dates.

No need to call BA at all. Easy to do online and you can then have a choice of your EDI-LHR and LHR-USA flights and see the relative pricing before choosing.

Didn’t think of multi stop - doh! Will try that and see what it yields.