salvadors

I recently flew MAD–TLL one way, and the cheapest route was via HEL and BMA (yes, in that order!)

This is presumably a weirdness introduced by FlyBe, but with status being available by the number of legs flown, not just distance, I wondered what other weird options might be available, and did a little playing on ITA with extended routing codes.

I can find quite a few 4 flight options within Europe without an overnight layover (e.g. TLL–BMA–OSL-HEL-*, TLL–HEL–TXL–NUE–HAM, TLL–HEL–GVA–MAD–BRU).

Just to see what the outside limits might be, I also played with TLL–SYD. I can get a 5 flight version of TLL–BMA–OSL–HEL–BKK–SYD, but I also note that I can get a different 5 flight version from VNO of VNO–HEL–BKK–USM–HKG–SYD. That would imply the 7 flight version of TLL–BMA–OSL–HEL–BKK–USM–HKG–SYD would theoretically be possible, but I can't get ITA to return that!

I'm unlikely to do anything quite that crazy, and I've never been one for mileage runs/segment runs, but if I've to fly within Europe anyway, then turning it into an 8 flight return trip could work quite nicely if it appeared at a reasonable price. Or are these always going to be more expensive than the more direct route? (With the ones I've looked at it always is, but then I wouldn't have expected the original MAD–HEL–BMA–TLL route to be cheapest...)

WilcoRoger

I was even offered by the booking engine TLL-OUL-HEL which, for some strange reason I did NOT take

ffay005

I wonder how many transit passengers they have at OUL... But wouldn't you be excited to see their new terminal, with jetbridges and all.

How was this priced, a lot more expensive than a direct flight?

kauppias

for instance tallinna helsinki via bromma was only 9€ more expensive

WilcoRoger

Same price to the cent