Originally Posted by
phol
Why would you pay the same price to fly a longer route with an extra stop? Its simply trying to tempt you away from a direct flight on another carrier.
The one that really gets me is why HKG-xxx-HKG is often so much more expensive than xxx-HKG-xxx.
Totally hear you on that one. It's because of a captive audience at the point of origin - if you're based in HKG, you're likely to fly CX. However, for a route like ORD-HKG-ORD, you're likely to be a UA passenger. Thus, for CX to attract passengers on the ORD-HKG-ORD leg, they have to offer a lower fare. On the other hand, UA probably offers a lower price on HKG-ORD-HKG than the opposite.