ANC-ATL-DTW and not because I wanted too either. My cousin once flew DTW-DFW-FRA

admanager wrote:

People in my office thought SEA-LAX-YYZ this past weekend was mad - after reading the above; apparently I'm quite sane. However unlike Sheldon Cooper; my mother never had me tested.

LOL they could have driven to YVR had a nonstop and might have been cheaper.

admanager wrote:

People in my office thought SEA-LAX-YYZ this past weekend was mad - after reading the above; apparently I'm quite sane. However unlike Sheldon Cooper; my mother never had me tested.

LOL they could have driven to YVR had a nonstop and might have been cheaper.

I've done ABQ-DFW-BUR instead of ABQ-BUR due to price. That was 168% further than the nonstop!

The funny thing is when I first started flying on my own I had a real aversion to backtracking. The first time I ever booked a flight by myself I looked at all the flight options, looked at a map, and tried to find the connecting point that came the closest to a straight line from A to B. In that case there were lots of options for basically the same price, so backtracking wouldn't have saved me money anyway. I lost that aversion as I became a more experienced flyer and learned that it's not always possibly to travel in a perfectly straight line between two points, especially when traveling overseas.

LHR-IST-DXB-JFK wanted to try out the EK A380
LHR-CDG-DOH-HKG-NRT
NRT-AUH-LHR
LHR-WAW-FRA-IAH-AUS-JFK
EWR-IAD-FRA-WAW-LHR
NRT-KUL-LHR
and my most recent one last year
LCY-ORY-FDF-PTP-SXM-ATL-DTW-JFK
and the return
JFK-YVR-YUL-CMN-MAD-ORY-AMS-LHR
many more to come.

klm617 wrote:

admanager wrote:

People in my office thought SEA-LAX-YYZ this past weekend was mad - after reading the above; apparently I'm quite sane. However unlike Sheldon Cooper; my mother never had me tested.

LOL they could have driven to YVR had a nonstop and might have been cheaper.

True. I considered that, but on the return to Seattle Monday at 9:30pm it was nice to arrive in SEA and be 15 minutes drive home.

I'll also add JFK-YVR-HKG-NGO-HNL along with HNL-NRT-HKG-MNL-HKG-YVR-JFK all on CX and JL.

I did LAS-LAX-DEN once. Was less than half what the cheapest nonstop was.

My uncle once did PHL-DEN-PDX-LAS-SAT. I believe that decision was driven by his AvGeek side

When pricing out tickets for our last minute trip to Las Vegas, there was the nonstop PIT-LAS option, and then another option for the same price. That was PIT-FLL-BOS-MSP-LAX-LAS. lol. Oh Spirit....

Flew trans-Atlantic with QR from KUL to IAD with a return from LAX so I can save $400 on the fare.

It would have been almost 20% shorter distance for me to fly trans-Pacific via NRT instead.

MON wrote:

Some people's geography and sense of geography is awful but almost everyone is price sensitive.

A Delta executive recently said they had to make changes to the flight search engine because "people were trying to double connect to save $18."

They didn't make the change recently, he was just making commentary on what customers will do to save a few bucks.

I regularly fly JFK-CLT-RIC (and back) for work because JFK is closer to home, LGA is a pain to use and the non-stops have no FC which my company allow me to fly. In the BA Executive Club world it makes FC with a stop 1600% more lucrative than non-stop in Y.
JFK-RIC non-stop: 288 miles
JFK-CLT-RIC: 798 miles
360% of the distance

Part of a mileage run I did about 10yrs ago was OAK-LAX-SFO
OAK-SFO: 11miles
OAK-LAX-SFO: 675 miles
6136% of the distance!

I was on an MCO-MIA flight last week where someone was connecting to TPA
MCO-TPA non-stop: 81 miles
MCO-MIA-TPA: 396 miles
489% of the distance

As for CX about... Yes they're allowed to sell that because that will be a half return ex JFK to HKG, HKG being the breakpoint and then HKG -LAX being the return. I've organised the same kind of trips ex Australia to HKG for commercial lawyers who MUST hand deliver the documents and can't let them out of sight at all times... for them only to return to Australia a matter of hours later.

As for out of the way... other than those on industry fares (which sometimes requires creative connections) I'd say mileage runs are the biggest culprit and yes they will go LONG ways out of their way. I've literally seen things like London - Moscow - LAX or MEL-BKK-LAX. However if the prices is good enough, especially if a hotel is thrown in.. then a lot of price sensitive travellers are open to it. I find the milage run ppl tend to look for cheap business or premium economy tickets knowing that their more routine travel will see them with some kind of elite status all year and keep them in lounges globally. Oh one more crazy routing... once again all based on price... a few years ago due to the lack of Oceana - Latin America flights you'd regularly see people fly East Coast Australia, DXB/AUG-GRU/GIG/EZE and not even blink. You'd easy save $700!

Decades ago, I was working for AF at JFK. I was assigned to arrivals one day when an Indian family of six (mother, father, three kids and a grandmother) approached me and asked me to re-tag their bags. I asked where they were going. They said Brussels. I thought I misunderstood. I said to the father: "No, I asked where are you going?" Again, he said he and his family were going to Brussels. I was incredulous. I simply had to ask him: "All six of you flew all the way from Paris just to turn around and fly back to Brussels?" He looked at me very indignant and said: "Excuse me, I'm an Air Force officer, I know which way the world is shaped". I had to turn away from him because I was laughing so hard. I asked to see their tickets. As was typical of Indian issued tickets in the 80s, it was a book of conjunction tickets all stapled together as thick as Dostoevsky's WAR AND PEACE. The tickets had been reissued dozens of times. It seems he simply wanted to go to Brussels, but was not being allowed to re-route the ticket. He had to fly as issued. Instead of simply ditching the CDG-JFK-BRU legs and jump on the train for a 3 hour ride, he subjected his kids and his elderly mother to two back-to-back six hour flights. I don't remember how much a train ticket between Paris and Brussels was back in 1982, but it couldn't have been more than $35-40 per person. In the end, I simply shook my head and re-tagged his backs as requested.

Several years ago, I needed to travel roundtrip from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Jacksonville, Florida (JAX).

The routing on United was certainly "out of the way," and much longer travel time, but the fare was far lower than any nonstop flight I could find on American at the time.

The outbound routing was:
Dallas/Fort Worth - Washington (IAD) - Jacksonville.

Return routing was:
Jacksonville - Chicago (ORD) - Dallas/Fort Worth.

e38

In the case of avgeeks... pretty far. A few years ago, I flew LHR-IST-BOS simply because I wanted to fly on a TK Airbus A340-300 before they were retired. Fare was also the cheapest, but only ~$100 less than the next alternative.

I don't care solely about the fare, but also about time and comfort. I have made a few weird and longer connections mainly for the latter reasons.

Just a month or so ago I flew NRT-PDX-DTW-JFK on Delta. Not "out of the way" per se but there are a lot of non-stop flights on the JFK-NRT route, and even more one-stop options. I got bumped off my original non-stop round trip on ANA because of a weather cancellation on the outbound leg, then lost my one-stop replacement inbound flight on Delta because of... reasons, I guess. Delta never told me why it was canceled. (Very infuriating!) None of the remaining single-stop flights that same day had anything but middle seats available. I took the two-stop option I did because the flights all had preferred seats that I could buy, and I used miles for first class on the final leg. The only alternative, as I saw it, was flying the next day. But my wife had already left on another flight (long story; basically she had gone there ahead of me so had a different round trip that didn't get canceled), so I didn't want to stay an extra day by myself, and pay for a hotel.

That was a grueling trip, though, let me tell you. Almost 24 hours if I remember right.

On the same NRT-JFK route I once did NRT-PEK-JFK. That definitely is almost going backwards before you go forwards, and it adds about 6 hours to the total trip. I think it was about 18 hours and 40 minutes total. I did it because that's what was available for a business class award ticket. Otherwise I could have flown economy non-stop but I decided it'd be an adventure and I'd get to fly business class on a new airline (China Airlines). I also got to fly the 747-8, which I wasn't sure about ahead of time but I was hoping would be the case. In international business class, I really don't mind flying extra anyway. I'm usually kind of sad when the flight's over.

As for saving money... if it's a couple hundred dollars, then sure, I might take a one-stop over a non-stop, or fly a couple hundred miles out of the way if I'm considering one connection vs. another. I know I have done stuff like JFK-SFO-PDX instead of just going JFK-PDX or something like JFK-ORD-PDX, and it was probably because it was significantly cheaper. But I weigh everything together - the length of the flights (and what class I'm in), whether I can get good seats, what time the flights get to the destination (I'd rather get there early enough to have time to do stuff), and yes, price.

There are occasions myself as well as other individuals have hopped over to fly out of DUB. We’ve done this both on a confirmed ticket or a non-rev/staff ticket. Why? Because departure tax is lower!! Despite sometimes having to pay for the flight itself to DUB or booking a night in a hotel there, it still works out cheaper.

It’s okay if you’re flying a carrier or on an itinerary that does not connect in LHR on the way back, as you have the urge to terminate your trip once you are at LHR. Make sense if you live in LHR or whatever.

I remember the last time I did this (on a confirmed ticket) I had to beg the BA agent on the way back from The States to short-check my bag. Out came my badge though and it was all good

There are two schools of thought here ...

The Aviation Enthusiasts like us, who would welcome a long "diversion" just for adventure or to snag a new type or airline. Or ..

The average passenger who really just wants to save a buck and will serverely inconvience himself to do it.

I met the latter a few days ago, when my cousin booked her daughter YYZ-IST-LHR-IST-LHR. It was about $50 cheaper than TS/RV/WS, YYZ-LGW and about $200 cheaper than AC/BA, YYZ-LHR. I even offered to make up the difference, as it just looked "painful". But, alas, the flights were already booked. But it did remind me that to the average uninformed passenger, fare really is the first consideration.

I don't mind a certain amount of backtracking; I've done a few TATL itineraries going PIT-ORD-whatever to save a few hundred dollars. I think the worst was PIT-IAH-LHR and back that saved $500, but I'm not sure it was worth it.

Perhaps the silliest route I've done was PIT-EWR-MCI which I think I did because of schedule. We literally flew over my house on the EWR-MCI leg.

SEA-LAX-CDG-HEL, HEL-AMS-BOS-ATL-SEA back in 2007 on DL miles (with AS, AF, AY, KL, NW and DL) for a last minute trip. First stretch saw every flight upgauged, which was pretty cool (B738 to B739, B772 to B77W, A320 to A321). Probably won't have that happen again.

The most I did was DCA-DAL-DFW-MCO, on Virgin America A319 and Spirit A320. I drove down to DCA from South Jersey because I wanted to log the VX A319, and booked it using my VX miles, while the Spirit flight cost only $60. The rest of my family flew ACY-MCO nonstop for $70 and got there before us.

DalRiada wrote:

Someone posted a few months ago about their friends who travelled from Belfast to Istanbul then backtracked to Havana.

Denver keeps pushing for Turkish.

If it ever happens and the price was right, I might consider DEN-IST-MAN.

When I was a kid I flew:

Heathrow-Moscow-Bombay-Singapore

Certainly increased the distance but was significantly cheaper than a more direct route.

Also quite the experience as a 14 year old to connect in the former USSR.

I took WS from YLW to YEG via YYZ two years ago. It only cost my $99 which was half the price vs the direct flight or going thru the usual connection points YYC or YVR. Figured it was a good way to spend the day.

My first trip to London in 2013, using miles on AA and wanting to try the new business class on the 77W, I flew from Hartford, CT BDL-ORD-DFW-LHR, and then LHR-DFW-BDL (returned on the 77E in F). People thought I was crazy, but I spent my day flying and not sitting around waiting for an evening flight and didn't have to drive to and back home from BOS or JFK.

This isn't as far out of the way as others, but I know quite a few people, I myself have done it multiple times, from BOS will backtrack to YYZ, NYC, YUL to get to a destination in Europe not served from BOS. This allows the people to arrive at their final destination in the morning, instead of landing in the first European airport in the morning, then waiting for a few hours and reaching the final destination by midday or later. This summer I am flying from BOS to ZAG through YYZ because only YYZ and YUL had flights to ZAG from N. America.

I've flown PHL-DTW-BOS on DL before.
The price was ($5?) cheaper than AA/B6 non-stops, plus who can say no to MD-88/B717s?

Nothing outrageous but I've done Manchester- Oslo - Brussels; Manchester- Zurich - Brussels as they had better deals than the many non-stop options. Usually thanks to the luggage price on LCC and I was relocating from the UK so had a lot of baggage.

My PDX-ICN last year ended up taking me PDX-SEA-DFW-ICN. It was quite a bit out of the way.
I’ve also flown OKC-ATL-PDX.

Flew KBP-AMS-SIN and back once; had a chance to experience a 744 combi.
On the way back, the SIN-AMS leg was right over KBP. Wanted to ask to stop for a minute, and let me out, but had a feeling they wouldn't accomodate

GCT64 wrote:

I've seen retired English couples at BOS taking BOS-IST-MAN rather than a direct flight to the UK (!). This is over 100% further, but probably much cheaper knowing TK's pricing.

I worked for TK in IAH. I can attest that TK is very popular for Americans heading to western Europe. It was extremely common to see routings like IAH-IST-CDG/MAD/LHR/FRA etc...

Then i moved to LH and a friend of mine checked in a guy doing IAH-FRA-EZE.

This thread is giving me the idea to do IAH-ATL-HOU on DL or DEN-ORD-COS on UA.

I've done LAX-MEL-AKL and back a couple of times. Saved a lot of money in business class. Didn't mind because I could sleep a bit longer. MEL is an easy transit airport. Thats about a 1500 mile backtrack.

MCO-DFW-BDL on AA
BDL-MSP-MCO on DL

Both were with reward tickets. Got the MD83 on AA and the 767-300 (non-ER) on DL so I'd call it a win.

I've flown between Toronto and Seoul via Hong Kong four times, on CX.
Also flew Dusseldorf-Abu Dhabi-Seoul-Abu Dhabi-Frankfurt instead of connecting through an European hub which would have saved some time.

I know people who've flown BOM-DXB-MEL instead of BOM-SIN-SYD. While there isn't direct connections from BOM to SYD, the one via DEL on AI is actually much longer in nm than BOM-SIN-SYD...

I once flew IAD-DTW-EWR-MSP-IAD over President’s Day weekend for a round trip economy fare of USD $99.00 all-in.

Another great deal was a mistake fare in First Class for around $185 r/t SAV-EWR-TPA & v.v. on Continental.

Also, flown IAD-SEA via EWR, CLE, and IAH. The CLE stop was an overnight due to a misconnect at EWR. (CO)

Missed a nonstop ICN-LAX, so I flew ICN-DTW-LAX on DL.

People will go crazily far out of the way if the fare is the cheapest. I know plenty of people who will fly 4 stops Australia to Europe over 3 days to save $50.

Geographically I don't have a limit, but as soon as I have to book a hotel for a layover, I will opt for a direct flight. I would have happily flown LIS-IST-NKC but the layover in Turkey is too long so I opt to fly LIS-CMN-NKC or LIS-LPA-NKC (still have to overnight in LPA, but the flights can be so significantly cheaper it's still worth it).

I flew bos-atl-ewr simply because I was more interested in flying a delta 767 and 757 than a 737 straight to ewr

I've done BOS-DTW-DCA and returned DCA-CVG-BOS instead of just going nonstop for fun, not really price.
+160.1% and +191.5% respectively.

I did fly BOS-LAX-SEA-SFO-BOS instead of BOS-SEA because it was about $200 less.

I redeemed some QF Frequent Flyer miles for a trip to Japan several years ago and was routed MEL-PER-NRT. The return flight was the usual NRT-CNS-MEL. DIdn't mind at all as I hadn't been to Perth or Cairns before and with a 4-5 hour layover in each got to see a bit of both.

Back in the late 90's my somewhat stingy employer's travel agent decided to save a few $'s by routing me MEL-DPS-SIN-DMK-CPH-ARN via QF and SK. Luckily for me (but not so much for several of my fellow passengers) there was a strike in Denmark that day so we were diverted to ARN. Fortunately the return flight was a more sensible ARN-LHR-HKG-MEL.

Lufthansa wrote:

As for CX about... Yes they're allowed to sell that because that will be a half return ex JFK to HKG, HKG being the breakpoint and then HKG -LAX being the return.

But the point was it was JFK-YVR-HKG-LAX RT (round trip, or at least that is what RT usually means in this context.) So the breakpoint was not HKG it was LAX. What you describe above is an open-jaw fare...you are probably aware of that. At least that is how I'm interpreting that original statement about CX.

My max is probably MEL>HKG>LAX>SAN rather than the more direct with Hong Kong excluded. This reduced my fare considerably -- circa $7,000 if I recall. I couldn't justify, even on an expense account, the $15,000 fare from Qantas on the more direct routing. So I did CX and spent a couple hours at the Long Bar.

I've done several ATL-west coast flights on DL, originating from XNA. It's what I get for being a DL fanboy.

HOU-ATL-NRT-ATL-HOU
IAH-MEX-CDG-MEX-IAH

Are two that immediately come to mind in my flight history.

As far as I possibly can if it is an airline/type I want to fly. A few years ago I flew PTY-EWR-LAX when I could have flown direct and I flew LAX-NRT-SIN-AKL instead of LAX-AKL direct.

I was just putting some feelers out for prices from anywhere west coast USA to EZE early next year. Cheapest fare by a large margin is on DY, flying LAX-LGW-EZE. That connection is well out of the way.
Also looking later this year to book CDG-RIX-OSL instead of the direct, so I can geek out and fly the BT CS300 twice.

I flew from Gatwick - Stavanger - Manchester because it was cheaper than the train (£67 flight or £105 train)