International stopovers, anyone?

Although free stopovers have become scarce, you can still find a few. As I noted several weeks ago, those options, once common, have all but disappeared from the domestic market. However, some airlines based overseas still offer free stopovers—at least on some tickets—at their home-base city. And especially for seniors, a break in an ultra-long itinerary can be most welcome.

Typically, stopovers are limited to travelers from the U.S. or Canada to some point beyond the line's home city, and they allow you to stop off at that home city for a day or two. Many include special hotel rates for one or two nights, often with the option of extending the stopover time, but at somewhat higher hotel rates.

Here are the stopover deals I was able to find by searching the various airlines' websites:

• Air Tahiti Nui offers low-cost stopovers in Tahiti on some through tickets from the U.S. to Australia or New Zealand, including economy class, with hotel rates starting at $100 per night double occupancy.
• Austrian Airlines' "Vienna On Us" promotion provides a hotel for one night at no cost, plus airport transfers to business-class travelers from the U.S. to points beyond Vienna.
• On most tickets, including economy class, Cathay Pacific offers low-cost stopovers in Hong Kong to travelers from the U.S. to points in Asia beyond Hong Kong. The website doesn't display special hotel prices.
• Emirates offers stopovers of one or two nights in Dubai to travelers flying beyond Dubai on any published fare. Package prices start at $138 per night, double occupancy, including hotel, breakfast, transfers, and a short-term visa.
• Icelandair provides free stopovers in Reykjavik, up to seven days, for travelers between the U.S. and continental Europe on any class of ticket. Hotel packages are optional.
• Malaysia Airlines posts stopovers in Kuala Lumpur to travelers from the U.S. heading to destinations beyond Malaysia. The website provides no information on prices or restrictions.
• Royal Jordanian's "Zuwar" stopovers in Amman (with hotel options in other Jordanian cities) are available on through tickets from the U.S. to points beyond Amman. Hotel rates start at $72 per night per couple, including hotel, transfers, and breakfast.
• Singapore Airlines' Singapore Stopover program provides for stops in Singapore. Travelers may choose any class on flights from the U.S. to points in Asia beyond Singapore. Rates start at $60 per couple for the first night, and include hotel, transfers, and a handful of discounts and local promotions.
• Thai Airways offered a low-cost Bangkok stopover package in 2006. Although no information is available about this year on the website, there's a good chance the airline is repeating it.

Other airlines undoubtedly offer similar promotions, but don't list them on their websites, or have hidden them so carefully that I can't find them. For example, Airstop, a Belgian website, posts a few stopover options, including several I cited plus others I couldn't locate. Alternatively, ask your travel agent to check on possible stopovers.

You can sometimes arrange an unofficial stopover even when it's not in the official ticket rules. On most connecting itineraries, the requirement for a through fare is that you take the next available connection out of your connecting city (subject to the usual minimum connecting time). If your connecting flight happens to be on a route with service less than daily, you can ticket yourself from your home to arrive at the connecting point on a day when there's no ongoing flight connection. You can then stay at that connecting point until there is a flight—which might be a day or two. That strategy used to be easier than it is now, when daily flights have become the norm on all but the lowest-traffic routes.