TornCalfGuy

Hi. We live in the DC area (all 3 airports are 30-40 minutes from us) and we're planning a trip to France, and perhaps northern Spain (Basque Country or Barcelona).

I'm also considering the possibility of us trying to spend a half day or more in another connecting city on the way back, but I'm trying to figure out if that's possible within CO's rules and its flight schedules. So here are my scatterbrained thoughts/questions using the assumption that we start the return trip through Bilbao, Spain (near San Sebastian) and are using the cheapest type of RT Onepass travel:

Trip, I assume, must make sense. I'd love to go to Prague or Athens or Rome on the way back, but they're clearly backwards. I assume you can't make an illogical request to go through a city that is in the wrong direction from where you start.

Similarly, does trip have to follow the airline routes that come up when searching on CO's website? Lisbon and Frankfurt appear to be the routes back to the U.S. from Bilbao. Am I required to take one of these two routes? I'd like to visit Lisbon if possible. Of course, Dublin and London are generally in the correct direction too, and Barcelona is not far from Bilbao, but is there any flexibility in choosing your own path back?

If you can choose a path back, any suggestions on how to get the most time wherever you're going? I won't take the chance of being a no-show by intentionally missing a plane, but if I can arrange schedules that actually require me to spend an extra day somewhere, that would be great.

Finally, can I intnetionally look for planes without Onepass availability for the long segment on one specific day and ask (for example) to take the flight from Bilbao to Lisbon on one day and the flight back to the U.S. the next day? This would allow for at least a half day (and night) in Lisbon.

I hope this made sense. Thanks for your responses.