TrayflowInUK

Funny... I'm a long-time frequent flyer and I've been around the patch here on FT, but I don't even know the technical term for an extra leg tagged on to the end of a long-haul flight. Example: KL flies AMS-BKK, and the plane continues onto TPE. I'm calling the BKK-TPE a "tag leg".

Oh, and for some pedantic reason I don't count legs like AM's MEX-TIJ enroute to NRT and CO's IAH-EWR enroute to AMS; I'm more interested in tag legs occuring "far away from home" for the airline. Maybe because it's a chance to try an airline outside it's home area?

I also don't consider flights like MH's JNB-CPT-EZE legs to be tag legs. I can't put any logic to why now though.

Okay, so why am I bringing this up?

On our Christmas Trip 2006-7, Mrs. TrayflowinUK and I flew MAN-CDG-SCL-PUQ-SCL-MEX-JFK/EWR-DTW-IAH-YVR-LAX-AMS-MAN. When we were in SCL the second time, I checked our EWR-DTW-IAH-YVR flights and found out that, even as platinums booked in "H", the 2nd highest economy class on CO, we had not been upgraded for any of the legs.

In a fit of self-pity I decided I couldn't possible endure economy flying around the US for 12 hrs. Boy how I have become spoiled!

So I started looking on ITA and Expedia for alternative flights to get me to YVR in a more expeditious fashion. Given that I was expecting the normal run-of-the-mill North American carriers to come up, I was quite surprised to find that JL flies MEX-YVR and the CX flies JFK-YVR. Given that I was searching 1-2 days before departure, I was surprised to find that both offered fairly competitive business class fares on their routes, at ~$800 and ~$1200 respectively. I was quite tempted to take the CX option and try six hours of transcontinental business class on a proper airline!

Although I've never flown a tag-leg myself, I have priced them out over the years and found them to often be quite competitive.

Ones that come to my mind:

AF BKK-SGN
AF EZE-SCL
CX YVR-JFK
JL YVR-MEX
KL BKK-TPE
KL KUL-CGK
LA AKL-SYD
QF LAX-JFK

So, I wonder... is there a master database of tag legs somewhere?

And what's the technical term for them? 5th freedom flights?

And can anyone explain why I'm fascinated by them, despite the reports of some who've said service is often not up to par on these flights?

Anybody know of any that stand out as particularly good deals?

turing

If I understand correctly, then there's a bunch of them from US airlines in Asia. In particular:

UA flies from several US cities to both NRT and HKG, and then on to other places like SIN, SGN, BKK, TPE, ICN. They also fly LAX-SYD-MEL.

NW flies from NRT on to GUM, HKG, ICN, MNL, PEK, PUS, PVG, SIN, and SPN.

stut

RG CDG-AMS used to be a notoriously good deal, but that has now gone.

The BA BAH-DOH and AUH-MCT legs are known as lucrative TP runs.

A load of airlines do the BKK-HKG run: GF, AI, UL, ET, AY, CI... Loads of cheap fares there.

NRT-HKG also attracts a few: UA and NW are two. UA have some very good deals on that route - a lot of package deals involve that flight.

LA MAD-FRA seems to be surprisingly expensive.

FlyingOnceMore

'Unorthodox *A Routes' thread below will be interest, although many may not be current or have 5th freedom sales.

One I noticed lately was LH SIN-CGK rtn for SGD183 or GBP60 eco, SGD513 or GBP170 biz

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=184471

Kiwi Flyer

There are lots and many change over time. They have varying degrees of freedom. Off the top of my head plenty in Australia/NZ, south pacific, asia, africa, south america, europe, and even some in north america.

Fraser

Other BA ones:

SIN-SYD (perhaps too long for a 'tag leg')
NAS-GCM
NAS-PLS
ANU-UVF

jimbo99

AF BKK-SGN

Now this was an interesting one. A couple of years back I looked at booking LHR/SGN.

On the AF website, LHR/SGN (via Paris) was rather expensive. You'd change flights at Paris and then get the direct flight to SGN, albeit with a stop in BKK.

I think the reason for this is that there's not a lot of choice for LHR/SGN.

BUT, if you booked LHR/BKK with AF, the ticket was heavily discounted. Presumably because there are so many direct flights LHR/BKK. With the stop in Paris, AF is not an attractive option.

So you could book LHR/BKK and BKK/SGN separately for much less than LHR/SGN. You'd have the strange situation of changing PNRs mid-flight as it stops in BKK.

In the end, I didn't go with AF. I suppose you might have problems getting your luggage checked all the way through - and the stopover in BKK would not be long enough to collect your luggage and check back in again. But it should work with hand luggage, especially with online check-in.

Raffles

Planning to do Kuala Lumpur to Singapore next month on LH