Did you know that American Airlines is giving away free one way flights in the US? No, it’s not too good to be true and it’s very easy to do on aa.com! One of American’s routing rules allows for a free stopover for up to 1 year from an international gateway city on a one way or roundtrip award reservation.

Let’s start by defining two key terms. First, a stopover is similar to a layover, except that a stopover generally means that you stay in a city for more than 24 hours while a layover is generally defined as a stay less than 24 hours. Second, American defines an international gateway city as a point of departure (or arrival) on an international flight. On American Airlines, these cities include New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and a few others.

Now, let’s explore a reservation. In the example below, I suggest a trip from New York to Paris on November 7 and returning from Paris to New York on November 11. The bonus is that I also add on a trip from New York to San Francisco on December 7 for no extra mileage. When I return on November 11, New York is considered my international gateway city and I am entitled to stop over in New York (even if I live there!) for up to 1 year before continuing my travels. This also means that I am allowed to change the date for no charge on the New York to San Francisco leg as long as the travel takes place within one year of the first date of travel on the ticket, which in this case is November 7.

Here’s how you do it: on American’s homepage, click on Refine your search. On the next tab, be sure to click on the AAdvantage Award tab at the top and then select Multi-City. For my example, I will populate the cities and dates as I noted above.

The search results look typical: for off peak travel (September 15-May 15 to Europe) it’s 20,000 miles each way.

But continue scrolling, and you’ll notice that the flight from New York to San Francisco is listed with zero mileage. In fact, the rule I mentioned in the beginning of this post is quoted at the top: “This international reward allows a stopover at New York – NYC for no additional miles.”

Continue through and you’ll see that with taxes, the entire trip prices at 40,000 miles and $90.60. This includes a mandatory $2.50 tax on the free one way ticket.

So how will you get home from San Francisco? You can redeem 12,500 miles for a one way ticket from San Francisco to New York or buy a one way ticket at $167 per a recent Kayak search. Or, create another international reward reservation and this time, put the free one way at the beginning of the trip!