I will use my specific situation, but this should only be considered as an example which should be applied generally. My itinerary would be as such:
London --> Austin --> Rio de Janeiro --> London
and my goal is to do this as cheaply as possibly. After receiving this epic answer I learned that my best option is to find a flight via the US that allows for some sort of 'extend stopover.' referred to as a Free Stopover. Continuing my research I found a flight on the American Airlines website for a return ticket that has two stopovers, one in each direction:
London --> Dallas --> Rio de Janeiro --> New York --> London
for a very good price. To be clear Dallas
and New York
are stopovers. This would be ideal since Dallas is only a three hour drive from Austin. Now, the question is, how do I book this itinerary that allows an extended stopover. In other words, I would like to land in Dallas
on Monday and then take the flight to Rio
the following Friday i.e. 5 days later.
I realise there are already similar questions out there (such as this one and this one), but they don't cover the specific and pragmatic issue of exactly how to book such a ticket. Obviously, I can already just buy the ticket online, but how do I change the date of the Dallas --> Rio
flight?
EDIT
I should clarify, that the flight I found has two stopovers, but I only need the one in Dallas. Also, and I am not sure if I am becoming annoyingly redundant yet, but I am not looking to simply get a stopover, but to have what is termed a Free Stopover
, that is being able to arrive in Dallas, but then have a flight for Rio scheduled days later, but still within the dates of my return
ticket.