If you’ve ever wished you could turn a single award ticket into two separate vacations, the Air Canada Stopover program might be the trick you need. With Aeroplan, adding a stopover to a one-way award can cost as little as 5,000 extra points and last up to 45 days. That means you can fly from New York to Portugal and spend a week (or more) in Switzerland on the same award—hello, two trips for almost the price of one.

Table of Contents

• What is an Air Canada Stopover (vs. a layover)?
• Rules to Know Before You Book
• Who Can Use the Air Canada Stopover?
• Two Ways to Find and Book a Stopover
• Traps and Pricing Quirks to Avoid
• Star Alliance Tip: Use Partner Airports Strategically
• Quick Booking Checklist
• Final Thoughts

What is an Air Canada Stopover (vs. a layover)?

A layover is a short connection—usually under 24 hours. A stopover is any connection that lasts longer than 24 hours. With the Air Canada Stopover option you can:

• Pay 5,000 extra Aeroplan points for one stopover on a one-way award.
• Make that stopover last up to 45 days.
• Book these on either economy or business class award tickets

Rules to Know Before You Book

Air Canada keeps the stopover rules simple, but you must follow them:

• One stopover per one-way ticket.
• The stopover cannot be in the United States or Canada.
• You can’t fly in and out of the same city twice on a one-way itinerary (no repeating cities).

Who Can Use the Air Canada Stopover?

Aeroplan is a transfer partner of most major flexible-point programs: Chase, American Express, Capital One, and Bilt – (Citi and Wells Fargo are not Aeroplan transfer partners). If you hold transferable points, moving rewards into Aeroplan is straightforward and often instant, one reason the Air Canada Stopover is accessible for many travelers.

Bonus Tip: your transfer may not be instantaneous if you have a brand new Aeroplan account before transferring. I always recommend making your frequent flier accounts now before you need them.

Two Ways to Find and Book a Stopover

There are two practical approaches to finding Air Canada Stopover itineraries: spot a natural long layover and convert it, or build the trip intentionally by locating award availability first.

Method 1 — Find a long layover and turn it into a stopover

Award Search Tools like AwardTool & PointsYeah (and similar tools) are great for quick inspiration. Start with a simple search from your origin to your desired final destination and filter by class (economy/business) and find your preferred Air Canada flight.

If you spot a routing with a long connection—say Orlando → Munich → Barcelona—you can often convert that connection into a stopover on Air Canada’s site.

1. Note the connecting city (e.g., Munich) and the long layover duration.
2. On Air Canada’s site, choose multi-city/stopover and insert that city as your stopover for the number of days you want.
3. Search, and adjust the stopover length if the exact dates don’t line up—availability can vary day-by-day.
4. Transfer points and complete the booking once you find the right result.

Tip: Sometimes you’ll need a little luck—one segment might have consistent availability while the onward segment doesn’t. Try different stopover durations to hit an available day.

Method 2 — Build the itinerary using Seats.Aero (more intentional)

If you want to be deliberate about which long-haul and partner flights you include, Seats.Aero is a powerful tool. The pro subscription shows extended award availability (a year instead of 60 days).

1. Search award availability from a North American gateway to your overseas hub (e.g., Miami → Lisbon).
2. Confirm the business/first class long-haul availability.
3. On Air Canada’s booking tool, use the multi-city/stopover feature: set the hub as the stopover and then choose your final city as the end point (Rome in this example).
4. Transfer points and complete the booking once you find the right result.

Traps and Pricing Quirks to Avoid

“Free” stopovers can be a bargain, but there are a few gotchas:

• Mixed-cabin awards: Sometimes results include mixed cabins (part business, part economy). Air Canada will price the whole itinerary as if it’s the higher-priced cabin, so avoid them if you can – if you can’t make sure the long haul is in the premium cabin.
• Distance-based pricing bumps: Aeroplan uses a hybrid award chart (region + distance bands). Adding a stopover can increase total distance and push you into a higher award band—so a 60,000-point segment can become 70,000 + 5,000 stopover fee = 75,000 points overall.
  • Example: JFK → Geneva (60k) plus Geneva → Lisbon pushed the combined distance into a higher band, resulting in a 75k total instead of 65k one way.
• Partner quirks can work for you: Occasionally adding a stopover on a United-operated long-haul can reduce the price because Air Canada applies partner pricing differently for certain Star Alliance carriers. That’s rare, but it can save points.

Star Alliance Tip: Use Partner Airports Strategically

Air Canada is a Star Alliance member, so knowing alliance carriers helps when you pick stopover cities. Useful carriers and hubs to consider:

• Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
• Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
• Croatia Airlines (Zagreb and Split)
• LOT Polish (Warsaw)
• Lufthansa (Frankfurt, Munich)
• Swiss (Zurich, Geneva)
• TAP Portugal (Lisbon, Porto)
• Turkish Airlines (Istanbul)

Asian partners are included too, but award availability there tends to be tighter—expect more competition if you want two premium seats to Asia.

Quick Booking Checklist

1. Decide your origin, preferred long-haul hub (potential stopover), and final destination.
2. Search for award availability on a tool like Seats.Aero or PointsYeah DayDream Explorer for inspiration.
3. Confirm the long-haul segment availability first (this is the hard seat to find).
4. Use Air Canada’s multi-city/stopover booking tool to create the stopover and pick your stopover duration (up to 45 days).
5. Watch for mixed-cabin warnings and distance-based pricing jumps before transferring points.
6. Transfer points to Aeroplan and complete the booking.

Final Thoughts

The Air Canada Stopover is one of those underused sweet spots in award travel: cheap (often just 5,000 points), flexible, and generous with stopover length. It’s not always perfect but with a little patience and the right tools, you can create two great trips from one award ticket.