Unlike Miami, New Orleans isn't exactly a travel hub and as a result I've traveled much less frequently since moving here. As tickets are now generally more expensive, I now spend a lot more time researching ticket prices and trends before I buy. Thus, the discovery of the extended layover.
Yes, it's already the premise of the Anthony Bourdain show "The Layover" and the New York Times column -- but what I didn't realize was that this actually works in real life! Since 2014 I've taken 2 trips with built-in extended layovers, essentially building a free mini-trip into my itinerary. The tickets are usually the same price as any other ticket but allow you to spend a day (or a few) in a new place!
When I plan a trip, I try to keep my dates flexible to a certain extent in order to get the best ticket prices. For example, if I have a week from work for a holiday, I will look at flying out on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday but returning only on the following Saturday. This way, I can consider not only price trends but also layover cities before booking.
For the most part, I use Kayak and the Google ITA software to compare prices. I almost always search for one way flights first, to see if an extended layover is possible.
If an extended layover flight exists for the trip, it will show up on the search results. On Kayak, update the sort settings to "Duration: Longest to Shortest" and click "show details" to check out your options!
Below is a screen shot of an "extended layover" flight from New Orleans to London. This flight includes a 22-hour layover in Istanbul for the same price as flights with a normal layover time.
Using this strategy, I was able to spend a weekend in Colorado on my way home from visiting my parents in Oregon and a weekend on Miami when I flew to Haiti.
Have you ever taken an extended layover flight? Where did you go? What did you do?
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