Austin787

DFW - I frequently connect there but have never left the airport. IAH is a close second. I have visited Dallas and Houston, but not by flying there.

mecabq

I have transited DXB without leaving the airport 71 times, transited but left the airport (for a meal, drink, shisha) 10 times, and stayed in the UAE for at least one night 88 times.

Have had 28 transits and 30 stays at IST, 18 transits and 9 stays at BKK. Dozens of transits but only a few stays at FRA.

Edited to add: There is no airport that I have passed through and not also visited the city at least once. I did stop on the ground in TIP en route to CMN, but didn't leave the plane, and never have been to Libya otherwise.

Edited again: Actually, there are three, ESB, TPE, LIS. Transited twice, once, and once respectively and never been.

Big4Flyer

DEN for me, every time I fly in and pass over the Rockies I think to myself that I need to go visit sometime, but I never have.

beachmouse

Same here. I guess more Southeastern USA folks aren't reading this thread because it seems like it should be a more common airport than people have mentioned so far.

CMK10

Until recently it was DFW: 132 flights through it without ever visiting Dallas but I finally went last month.

Now it would be SLC probably but that's only about 30 or so flights.

dylanks

So it looks like for the majority it is hubs:

* OW: DFW, PHL, ORD, CLT, PHX, LHR, LAX, HKG
* *A: NRT, ORD, DEN
* ST: ATL, DTW, MSP
* Others: DXB, etc.

The transit through HNL seems like the outlier.

One of the original ideas behind this thread was to see if people who do back-to-back flights to position a cheaper trip do this frequently from the same city without visiting. For example, for BA, it's fairly popular to do an ex-EU from DUB, OSL, ARN, CPH, SVG, BGO, SNN, ORK, but it seems like most have visited the cities before they start doing travel hacks like these.

goldencondor

Dublin and Jersey. Never been outside Dublin before. More connections through Jersey but have ventured out.

IAD_flyer

For me MSP by far. I do not fly DL much, but that is the only hub I fly thru once every few years that I have never visited. I hope next I connect there I can schedule a long connection time.

MissJ

SLC for sure. I've been to the actual city many times by car, but have never flown in or out of it despite knowing the airport quite well.

nkedel

For me it would be DTW; flew through several times back in college and right after on Northwest, but never left the airport. Don't think I've got any US airport/cities where I've gone through more than twice without having visited; I've been through Atlanta without stopping exactly twice (on the same round trip, back in 1988, also the last time I flew DL.)

There are one or two others that I've only been through outside the airport to get a rental car and get out of town, or driven through on my own car on a long road trip; DEN, DFW, PDX and PHX all qualify there.

Internationally, that would have been Narita for quite a few years -- between 2001-2008 I flew through there once-twice a year but I've since actually visited Tokyo. (Still never actually visited Narita town, but I assume that Tokyo itself counts.).

I don't think I have any international stops left where I haven't left the airport to see things, although KUL was definitely a case of "well, since I have a connection, might as well go into town for one night.)

I've also had two cities which I had tickets to connect through and never got to fly through due to irrops, those being MIA (rerouted through DFW) and BRU (rerouted through LHR.)

diburning

For me, it's IAD and NRT. I've visited Washington DC before on numerous occasions, but never because I was flying into IAD. NRT because I did many trips on Northwest back in the days before Russia allowed polar routes to overfly, so to get from BOS to HKG, the only reasonable option on NW was BOS-DTW-NRT-HKG

TOMFORD

Ord, nrt, pvg.

JayhawkCO

ATL and SFO. 8 connections each but never visited the cities.

Also 10 connections in EWR but I've never set foot outside the airport, but I have been to NYC so I won't count that.

Chris

jrl767

flew into and out of DTW twice to visit a friend at University of Michigan while in college; per my logbook, I have transited the airport 62 times since (feels like more ...)

one departure from CLE after driving an FAA vehicle from DC to NASA Glenn Research Center, and one college visit to a friend and her family; 46 subsequent connections

tng11

FRA by far. Only been in the city once, but have connected through there 20 times since 2013.