Originally Posted by
FlyingHoustonian
I see these options frequently on my searches, especially for mileage redemptions. I get a lot of domestic options show up IAH-XXX-IAD, especially through Nashville and Huntsville as I presume they are routing 175s via those locations to other hubs and I get mainline options via Florida airports for IAH-EWR often. The overseas options are hilarious; I get mileage options to spend the night at an outstation, then connect to another hub and some times another connection in Europe. Travel time of 32+ hours with multiple stops but the economy redemption will be a few thousand points cheaper. I can do a simple IAH-FRA or MUC to CTA yet I get IAH-MSY-EWR-MUC-CTA with an overnight in MSY for example. Ridiculous and I never ended up taking any but maybe if I was good at the YouTube videos I could post flight reviews LOL
Ditto this when searching for awards in the past. Instead of DEN-ORD-XXX, I would see the cheapest (or only) routings as DEN-OMA-ORD-XXX, or DEN-DSM-ORD-XXX (and MSP, among others) Pretty much any place between DEN and ORD with flights to both would show up in the routings. I don't recall seeing these on revenue tickets, but that could be because I almost always search by schedule and limit connections in the search criteria.