Stopover on a revenue airline ticket?

[Blues]

I know that on a frequent flyer award, you can "stopover" somewhere for a few days on your way back, and it simply counts as a round-trip award ticket. What I'm wondering is, is there a similar provision for revenue (paid in cash) tickets?

I'm trying to plan a trip to Italy next October. Probably SFO-FCO round trip. On the way back, I'd like to stop in Chicago for 48 hours or so for my mother's 95th (!) birthday.

So, is there any "stopover" provision where I can book a round trip of SFO-FCO via ORD, but move the last ORD-SFO segment back a day or two? Or is my only recourse to buy a multi-city ticket? In the later case, I'd probably just buy SFO-FCO-ORD on an international carrier, and get Chicago (MDW) to the bay area (SFO/OAK/SJC) on Southwest, where I have lots of points.

Thanks for any insights.

 

[am1]

Maybe. Try multi city tickets. It could be less then a straight direct ticket.

 

[SMHarman]

Most international rev tix allow a free gateway / first point of entry stopover.

Price out the multiple leg on the same site as the round trip. See if the price changes.

 

[Talent312]

I routinely rely on ITA-Matrix to find fares and fare rules: http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
They don't sell tickets. They make it easy to try various combinations.

Once you click on a price, it shows the fare basis and you can click on "rules," such as:
Category 8: Stopover restrictions
UNLIMITED STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT IN
EUROPE AT USD 500.00 EACH.

Category 10: Combinability
DOUBLE OPEN JAWS NOT PERMITTED.
END-ON-END NOT PERMITTED. SIDE TRIPS PERMITTED.
APPLICABLE ADD-ON CONSTRUCTION IS ADDRESSED IN
MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS - CATEGORY 23.
OPEN JAWS/ROUND TRIPS/CIRCLE TRIPS
FARES MAY BE COMBINED ON A HALF ROUND TRIP BASIS
-TO FORM SINGLE OPEN JAWS
-TO FORM. ROUND TRIPS
-TO FORM CIRCLE TRIPS EXCEPT FOR AROUND-THE-WORLD FARES.
A MAXIMUM OF TWO INTERNATIONAL FARE COMPONENTS
PERMITTED.
PROVIDED -
COMBINATIONS ARE WITH ANY FARE FOR CARRIER AA/BA/IB/AY/
US IN RULE 7001/7003/7004/7005/7006 IN TARIFF
ATAAR - BETWEEN AREA 1-AREA 2/3 VIA ATLANTIC
OR ANY RULE IN TARIFF
IPRA - USA/CANADA-AREA 2/3 AND GUAM-AREA 2 VIA
ATLANTIC
IPRAI - BETWEEN THE USA/CANADA-AREA 2/3 VIA ATLANTIC
IPRSAA2 - BETWEEN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE-AREA 2 VIA
ATLANTIC.
NOTE - THE CITY PAIRS BELOW ARE CONSIDERED THE SAME POINT-
FLL-MIA OAK-SFO OAK-SJC SFO-SJC LAX-ONT BUR-LAX
LAX-LGB LAX-SNA BUR-ONT LGB-ONT ONT-SNA BUR-LGB
ORF-PHF BUR-SNA LGB-SNA EWR-NYC BWI-WAS