Stop over
 

Got a question for everyone.

How do book a flight online with a "free" stopover?

We're flying to Austria via London. In the past, when I booked the ticket though a travel agent, I was always able to add a few days in London on the way back. This time around, I though I'd try it online since the quotes I'm getting a cheaper, but for the life of me, I can't seem to be able to arrange for the stopover. I can do it as multiple flights (ie: austria london + london home) but it counts it as a separate flight and ends up costing much more.

Any idea?

It's governed by the fare rules. If you can access those you can see what the carrier allows. I forget what sites allow viewing (Zuji, maybe), but the stickies at the top of forums like Mileage Run or MilesBuzz usually have the latest info about what online tools have the best information.

U.S.-based carriers tend to be pretty strict on stopovers, counting anything over 4 hours domestically or 24 hours on an international itin as a stopover and then saying (especially for lowest fares) that you can't have any. Sometimes they might lighten up, like UA's $50 DEN stopover they had for a time, or making a connecting city an allowable stopover. Non-U.S. carriers are sometimes more flexible.

If the fare allows it then the online systems should price it out correctly when you book it as a multi-segment itinerary with the couple days in the stopover city. More and more of the least expensive fares are not allowing free stopovers these days, so that may be part of the problem.

With dates and cities (and carrier if there is one you are looking at specifically) someone here can probably help you find the fare rules and a better answer.

You might want to continue checking the separate flights option. I'm not sure where you're flying from, but I've found many times in the past that two tickets, which may be on separate airlines, one from a US gateway to London and a separate one from London to another European airport, actually can cost substantially less combined cost than a single round trip ticket from the North American departure to that second European destination airport. Admittedly I had to search over a period of time to find two tickets that did this, but I've usually succeeded.

Could be the culprit is not the airline but extra taxes imposed at Heathrow. I need some idea of dates and cities to try to help. If you just wanted a sight seeing stop and it need not be London, then another city might be much cheaper.