What are the "rules" for multi-city flights?
As I understand things, airlines generally give discounts for round-trips that consist of a flight from A to B followed by a flight from B to A. How does this logic work for multi-city flights? As an example (but don't focus strictly on this example), what about a flight from A to B followed by a flight from C back to A? What logic is applied to determine whether to charge as separate one-way trips or as a discounted multi-city trip? Is the important part that the trip begin and end in the same space, or does there need to be an unbroken cycle?
I know I can prod travel search engines for specific examples, but if I understand the rules it can help in my search. Is this airline dependent? Does it matter whether the flights are domestic or international (I'm only concerned here about domestic)?
Best Answer
Actually, these days a return (a to b, and later b to a) ticket most often just costs the total of the two one-ways. Discounts for return trips are rare, though some discount codes or special offers are valid only if you book both ways. What some people have discovered is that c to a to b, and later b to a to c, can be cheaper than a to b and back, even when the a to b legs are on the exact same flights. (This is most common when a and c are on different sides of the Canadian border - YYZ-YVR-SEA and back is cheaper than YYZ-YVR a lot of the time.) So you get yourself to c somehow, and then start your trip. If it's a trip you make often, you can arrange for the final a to c leg to be a long time later (technically you're having a long stopver in a, where you probably live) thus solving the "get yourself to c" problem.
What you describe, a to b followed by c to a, is called an open jaw. It matters on reward tickets but not so much on a revenue (ordinary) ticket. I have done it on all kinds of flights and never noticed a significant price difference, even transatlantically.
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Is it cheaper to do multi city flights?
Booking a multi-city flight may seem like it would be more expensive than a roundtrip flight, but it's typically not. In fact, booking a multi-city itinerary is often much more affordable than booking two one-way flights.What is multi city itinerary?
A multi-city flight is an itinerary that doesn't follow a typical there-and-back pattern, but instead goes from Point A to Point B and on to Point C (and possibly Point D, etc).How many destinations can be included in a multi city flight search?
Log on to the Skyscanner homepage and select 'Multi-city' towards the top left of the search panel. You can enter up to six legs of your multiple destination journey and select your departure airport, destination, and dates from the drop-down menus.How do multiple flights work?
A multi-city flight combines flights between several cities into one reservation, saving you the time of booking several one-way tickets between each location. Often, it's a lot cheaper than booking a series of one-way tickets.Booking Connections \u0026 Stopovers | Use the 23:59 Rule to Visit More Places
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