How To Make The Most Of A Layover

When you’re booking travel, you may not always be able to make the plans that you want. In an ideal world, you’d be able to get quick, convenient, and cost-effective direct flights to wherever it is that you want to go. But that doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, there’s isn’t a direct flight. Or it’s not on the day or you. Or the time you want. Or the direct flights are double the price! So sometimes, you’re forced to take the layover option. Now, so people don’t mind that. But sometimes, having a layover can be boring, tiring, and stressful - especially if you then get delays! So, if you have an autumn break with a layover coming up, here’s how to make the most of it.

1. Get The Timing Right

So the very first thing you can do here, is to make sure that you have the best possible layover times. Sometimes, you will need to get a slightly annoying first flight in order to get this to work out. But, it's better to have your layover at a good time compared to a more suitable first flight. So as you’re starting to look at flight times, just try to be a bit more conscious of the times that you’re going to need to wait.

2. Get A Hotel Close-by

Another good tip is to look for a hotel during your layover if you can. Sometimes, this isn’t possible. But if you do have quite a few hours and you’d like to get some sleep in, find something like the hotel near Chicago O’Hare Airport or wherever you’re going. That way, you could get your layover for the night time, sleep it out, then head out and get your next flight. Easy peasy!

3. Research The Airport Resources Beforehand

If you’ve only got a couple of hours, then you may want to just make use of the time you have in the airport. So take a look at the facilities before you get there. You may find that there’s a really nice restaurant or a shopping area that you can explore and kill time with to minimize your boredom.

4. Make Use Of The Lounge

Another really great idea is to use the airport lounges! If you’ve got a few hours, it’s better to spend them in a little more comfort than it is laying around the airport. Utilizing Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be an excellent strategy to gain access to airport lounges, providing a more comfortable and enjoyable experience during layovers or waiting periods between flights.

5. Book A Longer Stop

Or, if you really want to make more use of the layover, then why not just book a flight to the one location first, spend a day there, and then head off? If you know that you have to stop off, then extending it can be a great idea. Not only does it give you more time to have a break, but you get to take in another area in your break too. So this can feel like a bit of a treat when you’d usually dread having to layover.

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