I occasionally see people posting mileage/segment runs that include many more segments than are necessary to get from city A to city B. I was wondering how does a person actually go about booking these out-of-the-way routes while getting the normal fare? Currently I book all my flights on the airline web sites to get any online booking bonuses, but they (almost) always show the most direct routings. Is there a trick I'm missing or do I need to talk to a real, live human to accomplish this?