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I want to visit some countries my flights transit through. I live in Pakistan and flights to America often transit through the UK or Europe. Flights to Europe mostly transit from Middle East. I assume that I need to have a regular visit Visa for these countries.

Can I book some flight that allows me to exit the airport and stay about 2-3 days (48-72 hours) in the country I'm transiting through?

Hanky Panky
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Asad Moeen
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    Look at the site you use to book your travel and see if there is an option for 'longer transit' or some option for a break. I know Iceland is a good one for getting a longer stop. But also check visa requirements. Often people traveling from Pakistan need Schengen visa and find them hard to get. – Willeke Aug 07 '16 at 10:57
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    What is a "transit flight"? Do you mean you want to book a ticket with longer layovers/stopovers between flights? – hippietrail Aug 07 '16 at 11:31
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    Yes exactly that's what I mean @hippietrail – Asad Moeen Aug 07 '16 at 11:31
  • There are a couple airlines that promote their country's tourism through longer layovers. Off the top of my head there is Icelandair, and I heard Turkish Airlines offers a free hotel night for overnight layovers (but I am not sure they actually offer the long layover option). I'd recommend to search for the right airlines instead of the right flight. – Vince Aug 07 '16 at 15:33
  • I used to do this every time I flew JAL or Korean. In fact I booked those airlines for my flights to Canada, Europe, Mexico, and Turkey specifically because they were the cheapest option at the time and charged zero extra for the added stopover. Sometimes there were conditions such as only one stop or only in one direction. I usually got two weeks but I'm pretty sure I got a month once. – hippietrail Aug 07 '16 at 17:06
  • Book a multi city ticket maybe? I did that way when i needed about 24 hrs transit. like X-> Y, U can select time and date as u need Y->Z and directly Z->X (Incase u wana return direct.). – Dhina Aug 08 '16 at 01:21
  • But multi city tickets cost just as much as two separate tickets to those places, sometimes even more expensive than good individual deals so there's no point @Dhina – Asad Moeen Aug 08 '16 at 09:40

3 Answers3

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A good way to search for these stopovers is to use matrix. Here's an illustration of a search for stopovers of at least 36 hours (2160 minutes).

First do a simple search to get an idea of prices without stopover charges:

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Which produces this result (I requested prices in USD to make comparison easier):

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Next add in the /minconnect option which requests a stopover/layover with a minimum connection time in minutes:

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Which gives:

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You'll often find the same stopover point, so you might want to eliminate one or several stopover points from your search and you can do that by specifying "~XXX" for not airport XXX or "~XXX,YYY" for not either of airport XXX or YYY, followed by "*" meaning any number of additional flights, e.g.

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and you might end up with an alternative set of stopovers:

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Once you've found a set of flights that look suitable, you'll need to check visa requirements and then try to book the flights either on an airline's website with the multicity option, or call a travel agent.

Berwyn
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A transit is by definition less than 24 hours, with some rare exceptions if the best available connection is longer.

If you want to stay longer, you'll need to look for a stopover. These often cost extra (US$100 is typical), although some airlines like Singapore and Emirates offer well-priced stopover packages including hotel, and usually need to be booked by a travel agency instead of online.

lambshaanxy
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    Iceland Air (who do a lot of flights between Europe and the USA) offers this as well, for short stays in Iceland. – Tom Harrington Aug 07 '16 at 16:34
  • I even got a 10 day stopover for hardly any more money, all three day and less stopover are free on Icelandair. – Willeke Aug 07 '16 at 18:39
  • @Willeke Did they shorten it to three days? Icelandair used to have free stopovers up to a week. – gerrit Aug 08 '16 at 14:02
  • May well have been a week, I know I was over the limit but I do not remember by how long. – Willeke Aug 08 '16 at 15:42
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Basically you are going to stop or have a short stay for 2-3 days within EU countries and your final destination is USA, you are talking about multi destination flights and you can only do that with valid visas on you passport(Pakistani Passport).

I have traveled many times with multi destination flights from Pak-MiddleEast-eu-Usa in the last 15 years. However tickets prices may increase because of additional airport taxes and stopover charges.

Do you have any specific itinerary in your mind?, so that I would be able to suggest you a nice and affordable itinerary.

Ali Awan
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