First, let me mention that I am not a fan of MR challenges/contests/etc.--- my impression is that many folks here may get satisfaction from helping others, but they don't do it for personal gain. Further, offering awards, etc. IMHO creates a competitive atmosphere of one-upsmanship that I don't think agrees with the underlying purpose of FT forums. But I digress.....


..... anyways, I took a special look primarily because DSM is an airport near and dear to my heart. As a 4 year Ames-based elite, I've planned many trips from there.

First, in concept, I suggest you look at routes that have low fare competition- most likely the best fares will be found on ATA routes where UA matches fares.

Second, to get that many segments, plan to transit multiple hubs. You must go DSM-hub A at least--- a trip from DSM -- Hub A -- Intermediate city -- Hub B -- Destination yields 4 easy segments. DSM is placed such that you can apply this strategy for travel east or west (using DEN-intermediate-LAX-destination to the west or ORD-intermediate-IAD-destination to the east). Let's look at eastern options.

CLT and PIT are the lowest deals I found that would allow a double hub connection, and both have W fares for $238+tax round trip with no day of travel restrictions and no min. stay. The intermediate city between ORD and IAD can be a choice of IND, PHL, RIC, CLE, or a good dozen others. I'll post routings below. Choose the intermediate city that works with the schedules and shows availability-- PHL will end up yielding a few extra miles over 2-500 mile segs., but the incremental mileage difference may not be worth extra time for the PHL transit compared to, say, CAK.

I'm not sure if you can do the full trip in a single day (saving hotel expense) so in the future you might opt to spend a few $$$ more on something to the west in order to return on a red-eye-- for now, though, the W+ fares are over $400 from DSM to the west coast.

Hope this helps. Full routing for the DSM-PIT fare is below; CLT is virtually the same:


FROM DSM-UA-CHI-
VIA UA-BUF-UA-ROC-
OR VIA UA-PHL-
OR VIA UA-ABE/HAR/ROA/SDF/RIC/CAK/
CRW/ORF-
OR VIA UA-CLT/CLE/DTT/DAY/CMH/IND/
RDU-
TO UA-WAS-UA-NYC-UA-BOS-UA-PIT*
OR TO UA-NYC/EWR-UA-WAS/BWI-UA-PIT*
OR TO UA-BWI/WAS-UA-NYC/EWR-UA-PIT*
OR TO UA-WAS-UA-PHL-UA-CLT-UA-PIT*