Originally Posted by
kerbo
That's impressive. Is there some easy way to figure these trips out? I can't imagine sitting at DL.com and trying every possible combination of trips to get 6200 miles for $435.
yes it's easy to spend HOURS doing this, and I freely admit that I've done so ... but some of it, I think, just comes from familiarity with the big picture
OP said DTW-based; I know from 6+ years on this board (and many more than that of just being an airline/air-travel geek) that a lot of not-too-distant cities have much better fares than the hub; I know that OP needs ~6000 miles which is ~3000 miles each way (or a 2000-mile trip where a reasonable G/A/P fare might be available) ... FNT-ATL is ~600 miles, ATL-LAX is ~1900 miles, LAX-SAN/LAS/PHX/OAK/SJC/SMF gets the 500-mile minimum ... so doing a search with Flexible Dates (and again knowing that Tues & Wed are typically the best options) and a bit of scrolling thru the options I had that answer in less than 10 min