Update: You can no longer book stopovers on American Airlines awards.

The card offers listed at the conclusion of this post have expired. Click here for the top current credit card sign up bonuses.

American, Delta, United, and US Airways all offer some version of a free stopover on award itineraries booked with their miles. Free stopovers are a great way to add tremendous value to your awards, but free stopovers can add complication to the booking process.

A natural instinct might be to call up the airline to book whenever your dream award includes a free stopover.

This is the second post in my Anatomy of an Award series, in which I take a real award I've booked and break it down step-by-step to elucidate the award booking process. If you have a real award you'd like to write up in a similar post, please contact me, and you can write a guest post.

Last year, I signed up for two Citi AA cards and netted 150,000 AAdvantage miles.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the twenty-first post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the nineteenth post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flier miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

Here are the basics of using aa.com for award bookings.

This post is part of a four-part series. In Part 1, we looked at the mechanics of the AAdvantage program. In Part 2, we looked at the mechanics of a stopover, including how to use them to get free oneway trips within North America. In Part 3, we valued specific AAdvantage awards. In Part 4, I’ll put a number on one AAdvantage mile.

In this post, I'll explain why I value one AAdvantage mile at 1.77 cents per mile, but your value will be different.

This post is part of a four-part series. In Part 1, we looked at the mechanics of the AAdvantage program. In Part 2, we looked at the mechanics of a stopover, including how to use them to get free oneway trips within North America. In Part 3, we’ll value specific AAdvantage awards. In Part 4, I’ll put a number on one AAdvantage mile.

Now that we understand the AAdvantage program, and in particular its stopover rules, it's time to value a few specific AAdvantage awards.

This post is part of a four-part series. In Part 1, we looked at the mechanics of the AAdvantage program. In Part 2, we’ll look at the mechanics of a stopover, including how to use them to get free oneway trips within North America. In Part 3, we’ll value specific AAdvantage awards.

This post is part of a four-part series. In Part 1, we will look at the mechanics of the AAdvantage program. In Part 2, we’ll look at the mechanics of a stopover, including how to use them to get free oneway trips within North America. In Part 3, we’ll value specific AAdvantage awards. In Part 4, I’ll put a number on one AAdvantage mile.

1) American Airlines has two region-to-region charts, one for travel on American Airlines and one for travel on its partners.

Below is a list of all possible North American international gateway cities when using American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Why are these important? As we'll learn in my series on the value of AAdvantage miles, when traveling on an AAdvantage award from North America to any other region, a free stopover is allowed at the North American gateway city.