Interesting Experiment

I was talking to my friend John yesterday before he left for his parents' house in Detroit, Michigan. He is connecting through Chicago first because although he can get a direct flight to Detroit from DFW, his sister who lives in Austin can't. So they are connecting together. This is when my mind starts formulating a hypothesis: people who live in major hub cities are at a disadvantage because of the prices of direct flights.

To test my theory, I began looking at fares on American Airlines. I set the date to depart on Dec. 27th and return on Dec. 29th. Here are 3 flights that I looked at:

DFW to Chicago (direct flight): $743

DFW to Detroit connecting in Chicago: $547

DFW to Milwaukee connecting in Chicago: $318

And the now for the REALLY amusing part - the "connecting flight" to chicago is the exact same flight that I chose for the "direct flight."

Moral of the story: If you're flying into a Chicago, save yourself $400 and buy a ticket to Milwaukee and just never get on your connecting flight. Show back up at the airport when your 2nd "connecting flight" is supposed to land. Of course, this would only work if you aren't checking luggage because they tend to check luggage all the way through to your final desination now....

Happy Traveling!