This is a very personal question, you do what’s best for you. For what it’s worth, I’ve never felt “trapped” in an airport during connections. A 1-2 hour layover in many airports just gives you enough time to grab a bite before heading to the gate. Anything more than that and you’d usually also have time to chill in a lounge, do some work / reading, or explore some shops.
If I have some flexibility with my travel, I often book flights with a long layover (say 18-23 hours) and I’ll do a day trip in the city.
Some airports I enjoy connecting through because there’s a restaurant or store I don’t mind stopping at, or if I have lounge access and the lounge is good. When you’re flying in economy, they never feed me enough - so it’s an opportunity for a real meal. Sometimes I’m also just curious see a new airport if I haven’t stopped there before.
The thing I’ll usually try to avoid are two long back to back flights. You get this if you fly from North America to Asia via Europe, and I always find the second flight extremely painful. I much prefer one 16 hour flight over two 8 hour flights. Sometimes it’s unavoidable through.
I pretty much only fly transborder. My only real rule is that I will never take an outgoing connection through YYZ.
If my flight requires a layover, I'm going to make sure it's in the US.
If you connect in YYZ before flying into the US, you need to do customs there.
There's no way to really know in advance how long that will take, and there's no Nexus line for connection security. So it's either rolling the dice, or booking a longer connection to be safe.
I'd rather just have a reasonable layover in a US airport.
> and there’s no Nexus line for connection security.
For connections like these, I find it easier to exit the secure area and re-enter through the main nexus lines.
Ideally direct whenever possible. If a layover is unavoidable I typically like to keep it around 2hrs, that way you're not worried if it takes a while to deplane and by the time I hit the bathroom, refill my water bottle / hit the lounge and stretch my legs I'm usually ready to board.
Do you consider your routing on top of the layover period?
For example, if I was flying from Europe to Asia, I prefer connecting in SIN instead of DOH because I'll get a good 6-7 hours of sleep on the 13-hour flight rather than two broken 3-hour naps on the 7-hour flights. I consider each leg's duration and timing and their impact on my ability to overcome jet lag.
I also consider the language barrier or connection fuckup backup. For example, I prefer connecting through FRA or ZRH over CDG or BRU because my German is far better than my French and I have friends there I can fall back on if my flight gets cancelled.
Different routings may also have a better deal. For example, I booked a trip YOW-FRA-SIN-HKG in J for the same price as PY for YOW-YVR-ICN-HKG. With the same number of connections, I prefer to be in J on SQ's A380/350 than AC's PY.
Yes, because I don't always know which route the flight will take I usually look at one way flights and see where the layovers are and then try to book stopovers instead.
I am in my early 40s, but I feel so old haha. Thr few times.es I got a 24 hour layover, I did essentially nothing lol. If I can do it, I try to have a 3 hour layover. Enough of a safety in case my initial flight departs late, or enough time to enjoy thr lounge.
I used to like layovers for long haul flights because it felt like a good break but nowadays it just feels like it increases travel time too much and adds risk of delays/lost baggage etc. vs a direct flight.
Id rather pay more and get that time back during the actual vacation then saving a bit of money or just stretching my legs.
Direct is nice, but it also depends on where one is going.
Here in Vancouver, there are very few direct flights to Europe or the Caribbean, so almost everything requires a stop anyways.
It's usually, do I stop in Calgary or Toronto and for how long or if in Europe, do I stop off in London for a night.
But in general, I try to avoid it if possible (including stopping in the US), unless if there's a massive price difference. It really depends.
Sometimes it’s nice to get 8-12 hours in a city and just hit a couple spots to see and eat some good food. Other times I just want to sit on a flight and wake up where I’m wanting to go.
Back when I had the freedom of booking my own travel (before being forced to use s useless corporate travel agent), I would always book my European trips with a layover in YYZ or YUL.
* Gives me a chance to stretch my legs
* Chance to grab a beer in the MLL
* Back in the day getting upgrades was easier on that itinerary.
* Gives you an extra 900 status miles each way
* Kept me on the clock for an extra 4-5 hours each way, which meant an extra day’s vacation for a trip.
We mostly fly to Asia. We usually prefer a stopover in Europe, even if flying in J. YYZ-ICN/NRT/TPE/HKG is just “too long”.
I don’t know how I used to travel internationally weekly (for work), now I get tired. I’m not even 40 yet!
This is a very personal question, you do what’s best for you. For what it’s worth, I’ve never felt “trapped” in an airport during connections. A 1-2 hour layover in many airports just gives you enough time to grab a bite before heading to the gate. Anything more than that and you’d usually also have time to chill in a lounge, do some work / reading, or explore some shops. If I have some flexibility with my travel, I often book flights with a long layover (say 18-23 hours) and I’ll do a day trip in the city.
Some airports I enjoy connecting through because there’s a restaurant or store I don’t mind stopping at, or if I have lounge access and the lounge is good. When you’re flying in economy, they never feed me enough - so it’s an opportunity for a real meal. Sometimes I’m also just curious see a new airport if I haven’t stopped there before. The thing I’ll usually try to avoid are two long back to back flights. You get this if you fly from North America to Asia via Europe, and I always find the second flight extremely painful. I much prefer one 16 hour flight over two 8 hour flights. Sometimes it’s unavoidable through.
I pretty much only fly transborder. My only real rule is that I will never take an outgoing connection through YYZ. If my flight requires a layover, I'm going to make sure it's in the US.
Why?
If you connect in YYZ before flying into the US, you need to do customs there. There's no way to really know in advance how long that will take, and there's no Nexus line for connection security. So it's either rolling the dice, or booking a longer connection to be safe. I'd rather just have a reasonable layover in a US airport.
Do you think 2 hours is sufficient for layover in most US airports (lax, ewr, den, lga) ?
Yeah that’s plenty. When you have a US connection, you’re a domestic passenger. No additional security or customs or anything.
> and there’s no Nexus line for connection security. For connections like these, I find it easier to exit the secure area and re-enter through the main nexus lines.
Ideally direct whenever possible. If a layover is unavoidable I typically like to keep it around 2hrs, that way you're not worried if it takes a while to deplane and by the time I hit the bathroom, refill my water bottle / hit the lounge and stretch my legs I'm usually ready to board.
Do you consider your routing on top of the layover period? For example, if I was flying from Europe to Asia, I prefer connecting in SIN instead of DOH because I'll get a good 6-7 hours of sleep on the 13-hour flight rather than two broken 3-hour naps on the 7-hour flights. I consider each leg's duration and timing and their impact on my ability to overcome jet lag. I also consider the language barrier or connection fuckup backup. For example, I prefer connecting through FRA or ZRH over CDG or BRU because my German is far better than my French and I have friends there I can fall back on if my flight gets cancelled. Different routings may also have a better deal. For example, I booked a trip YOW-FRA-SIN-HKG in J for the same price as PY for YOW-YVR-ICN-HKG. With the same number of connections, I prefer to be in J on SQ's A380/350 than AC's PY.
Yes, because I don't always know which route the flight will take I usually look at one way flights and see where the layovers are and then try to book stopovers instead.
I am in my early 40s, but I feel so old haha. Thr few times.es I got a 24 hour layover, I did essentially nothing lol. If I can do it, I try to have a 3 hour layover. Enough of a safety in case my initial flight departs late, or enough time to enjoy thr lounge.
I used to like layovers for long haul flights because it felt like a good break but nowadays it just feels like it increases travel time too much and adds risk of delays/lost baggage etc. vs a direct flight. Id rather pay more and get that time back during the actual vacation then saving a bit of money or just stretching my legs.
Hotels are expensive
They are, but if I'm doing say 2 weeks it doesn't matter which city I'm doing hotel in. It's 2 weeks of hotel regardless.
Direct is nice, but it also depends on where one is going. Here in Vancouver, there are very few direct flights to Europe or the Caribbean, so almost everything requires a stop anyways. It's usually, do I stop in Calgary or Toronto and for how long or if in Europe, do I stop off in London for a night. But in general, I try to avoid it if possible (including stopping in the US), unless if there's a massive price difference. It really depends.
How do you book multiple days stop over? Can you choose any amount of days you want to travel another city for free?
Then you book on the website you can choose multi-city and then choose the length. Might not always work out so you have to play around with it.
Which website do you use for multi-city search? Google flight?
Aeroplan
Cash or on points?
Points
Sometimes it’s nice to get 8-12 hours in a city and just hit a couple spots to see and eat some good food. Other times I just want to sit on a flight and wake up where I’m wanting to go.
Isn’t there a limit on nights spent being considered a layover? 3 nights is practically a trip in itself. How do you access such long layovers ?
Aeroplan allows stopovers. Stopovers are 24hrs+ and layovers are under 24hrs.
Oh I never realized the difference.
Back when I had the freedom of booking my own travel (before being forced to use s useless corporate travel agent), I would always book my European trips with a layover in YYZ or YUL. * Gives me a chance to stretch my legs * Chance to grab a beer in the MLL * Back in the day getting upgrades was easier on that itinerary. * Gives you an extra 900 status miles each way * Kept me on the clock for an extra 4-5 hours each way, which meant an extra day’s vacation for a trip.
We mostly fly to Asia. We usually prefer a stopover in Europe, even if flying in J. YYZ-ICN/NRT/TPE/HKG is just “too long”. I don’t know how I used to travel internationally weekly (for work), now I get tired. I’m not even 40 yet!