Most travelers have flown on a code-share flight, where they were holding tickets issued by one airline but another airline was operating the flight.

When you search for airfares, knowing what airlines partner with one another can save money since the airlines that partner on code-share flights often charge different amounts for the same flights.

For example, Latin American carrier LAN offers code-share flights with American Airlines from Dallas to Buenos Aires. Through this arrangement, you can fly on a nonstop flight operated by American from Dallas to Santiago, Chile, then on to Buenos Aires on a flight operated by LAN. When we recently priced flights for October travel on this route, we found that LAN was charging $575 round trip, but American was charging $1,080 round trip for the same flight.

This code-share arrangement also covers frequent-flier miles, so I can buy my flight through LAN and save nearly 50 percent, while still earning AAdvantage miles.

Many people don't realize that airlines sometimes offer inexpensive stopovers, enabling travelers to enjoy two destinations for little more than the price of one. If you want to stop in a connecting city, look at the airfare rules to see what the fee is; sometimes you can stop over for free.

If you bought the Dallas-Buenos Aires flight through LAN, you could stop in Santiago for $75, while the American fare didn't allow stopovers. When we looked at flights from Dallas to Santiago, they were $1,295 round trip, so if Santiago was your destination, you could save a bundle by booking on LAN to Buenos Aires and paying for the $75 stopover.

Fares can vary, depending on travel dates. When we priced the above flights for midsummer, LAN was more expensive than American, with LAN flights costing $1,458 round trip and American's running $988 round trip.

We looked at late summer flights from Dallas to Sydney and found that you could book a flight through Qantas for $938 round trip. The itinerary included travel on American between Dallas and Los Angeles and travel on Qantas between Los Angeles and Sydney. American was charging more than $2,000 for travel on the same flight.

When we looked at the Qantas fare rules, the airline offered one free stopover in Auckland. In addition, the fare allowed for a second stopover for $150. Delta and United also offered two stopovers at $150 each, but it's hard to beat Qantas' deal.

We checked stopover rules on flights from Dallas to Hawaii and found a number of carriers allowed stopovers. American allowed one stopover in each direction in Los Angeles or San Francisco for $60 each. Continental offered one stopover in each direction in Houston or Los Angeles for $60 each. Northwest offered one free stopover in each direction in Honolulu or Portland, and for $60 each stop you could stop once in each direction in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Francisco or Seattle. United offered one free stopover in each direction in Honolulu or Maui and one stopover in each direction in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles or San Francisco for $60 each.

We also looked at flights from Dallas to Hong Kong and found that American was offering one free stopover in each direction at the gateway city, so if your flight goes from Dallas to Tokyo to Hong Kong, you could have a free stop in Tokyo.

Since finding and booking flights with stopovers can be tricky, this may be a good time to book through a travel agent.

Tom Parsons is publisher of BestFares.com.

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