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AirAsia's hub is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

They currently have a 20% off offer and I've found a flight from Australia to Japan I like, which includes 7½ hours at KUL in the middle of the night.

As far as I can tell if I book two separate flights, on their website, at the cheapest prices I can see, it's more expensive and will also incur the "hidden fees" of the site twice.

But is there a way to book the flight changing the layover to a stopover of a few days at KUL and still pay just the advertised discount fare (well plus the usual hidden fees of course).

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    Did you try a multi-city search on their website? You can insert a stopover that way
    – Berwyn
    Jul 20, 2016 at 7:58
  • No I didn't. I'll see if I can figure that out. (Doing some other searches right now too...) Jul 20, 2016 at 7:59
  • @Berwyn: It seems to work out the same price as booking separate flights. A travel agent friend tells me this is a typical limitation with LCCs, which makes sense. I used to do similar things with major airlines in the past before there were LCCs on the routes I wanted. Jul 20, 2016 at 9:25
  • LCCs don't usually have connections though.
    – Berwyn
    Jul 20, 2016 at 9:36
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    A connection is protected, so if you miss it, the airline is obligated to rebook you. LCCs usually sell point to point fares and thus they have no obligation to rebook you if you miss a "connection" in that case.
    – Berwyn
    Jul 20, 2016 at 9:51

2 Answers 2

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I managed to contact a travel agent friend and he tells me there probably isn't a way to get a stop at the same price, because this is a difference with low-cost carriers (LCCs).

That makes sense to me as I used to travel only with major airlines and always booked stopovers at the airline hubs, though I did it through travel agents in those days and the prices were way higher of course than the prices possible today with AirAsia and other LCCs.

I also checked multi-city options using the AirAsia website and it seems to work out the same price as booking separate flights, just more convenient.

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    It took me reading the Q, comments and A before I realized that LCC must stand for low cost carrier. Is that now common nomenclature versus LCA (low cost airline)? ...Just checked Ngram and low cost carrier has always been more popular than low cost airline.
    – mkennedy
    Jul 20, 2016 at 21:19
  • Yes sorry for that. I actually learned "LCC" on this site a couple of years back when it was in a post and I didn't know what it meant. Jul 20, 2016 at 23:48
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You best bet is to make a reservation based on most of the itinerary you want. Just Hold it, don't pay.

Then, call the airline and ask if the fare rules allow a stopover at the hub instead of a connection. If those particular rules don't, then ask the agent if there are similar discount fares that do allow a stopover.

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    Is there a way to "hold" a reservation/itinerary on AirAsia's website? Jul 21, 2016 at 1:35

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