Knowing your Airline options - More stops added for Free

So you're getting to go on a gut busting, click a pic n dash, mad grand tour of Europe. Every day is a new city, a new adventure and you're looking for a way to squeeze in one more quick stop. Or maybe you're flying from the entirely wrong side of the continent you are on and you'd just like a break from the hours and hours and hours in the air.

Its time to explore the 24 hour layover rule. I'm doing my usual yesterday, wandering the internet for good air fare deals. I think I've found what I want. I'm about to hit Buy Now - then the thought of 18 hours of travel hits me like a ton of bricks. Wow, that sounds like no fun. So I check with my travelin buddy for this trip....did you say you wanted to see London? Yep. So instead of finishing my transaction online I go old school and dial the digits for American Airlines reservations.

Yes, its true you can stop in any city that is on your route for up to 24 hours of fun and exploring for no additional charge. Lets take a peek at what I did. The original plan was to leave Austria at 11am arrive in London at 1pm sit around for two hours and get on the flight home at 3pm. Which means I would have been in airports from nine in the morning for almost 24 hours. Instead we broke it up into something more manageable.

Now we leave Vienna at the same time a day earlier, and arrive in London at 1pm. Plenty of time for a few rounds about town on the tube and a boat tour for a river view of London before we grab some munchies at Piccadilly Circus and hit the town at night. Time for a proper english breakfast before its off to the airport for our non stop flight home.

Since this was my first 24 hour layover adventure, I went a head and booked with the reservation agent so there was a $20 per ticket charge. So this extra day in London cost me $40 this time. Now I know what the restrictions are and that I have to keep my layover under 24 hours. I will just use the multi-destination search option online next time and get the extra stop for free. You can too! Here's to seeing more and spending less. Cheers!