Airport Crawl B2B Challenge
 

In thinking about dos, and Andy Warhol's famously misquoted "In the future, everyone will go to Jersey for 15 minutes" remark, an odd challenge emplanted itself in my head.

Viz: "how many airports would be it possible to squeeze in in 24 hours?". Rules of the game: Any start point, must be BA or oneworld, must go to mostly different airports (i.e. no bouncing back and forwards to Jersey all day), multiple tickets allowed, must have reasonable connection times and expense no object.

My starter for one is:

LHR->AMS 0640-0905
AMS->LGW 1055-1110
LGW-JER 1215-1315
JER-LGW 1355-1455
LGW-MAD 2000ish

Looks a little pathetic, who can do better? Would think that reversing it might be possible to gain an extra hour, and ending up a LHR might enable one further flight.

What fun! I shall get my thinking cap on

Just for clarification, is that a strict 24 hours elapsed from departure or can we start at 0700, throw in some time zone changes and finish at 0700 "a day later"?

I think that if we keep the 24 hour limit in mind, going west may be worth the hassle just to be able to fly a few more segments. I'd put my money on 8 segments being possible :)

Well, LCY-EDI-DUS might be a good start if they can remove the 2 hour wait at EDI ��

Suppose the other fun would be how many different oneworld lounges you could have a drink in, in the 24 hours. A routing through T3 would certainly help

Are BA non-OW codeshares acceptable? What about EZ?

Winner would surely be on AA starting at DFW?

Any start point? So that includes non-UK? So I could start my day in Las Vegas, or somewhere else in the US?

My first European attempt - in which I flagrantly cheat, using local times xx:yy on day 1 to xx:yy on day 2 to create a 26hr itinerary with no repeated airports let alone back to backs

Tampere (TMP) to Helsinki (HEL) — Tue, Apr 16
Dep: 10:25 pm Arr: 11:00 pm
Helsinki (HEL) to Frankfurt (FRA) — Wed, Apr 17
Dep: 7:40 am Arr: 9:20 am
Layover in FRA 2h 50m
Frankfurt (FRA) to Madrid (MAD) — Wed, Apr 17
Dep: 12:10 pm Arr: 3:00 pm
Layover in MAD 0h 45m
Madrid (MAD) to Barcelona (BCN) — Wed, Apr 17
Dep: 3:45 pm Arr: 5:05 pm
Layover in BCN 1h 20m
Barcelona (BCN) to London (LHR) — Wed, Apr 17
Dep: 6:25 pm Arr: 7:45 pm
Layover in LHR 1h 20m
London (LHR) to Edinburgh (EDI) — Wed, Apr 17
Dep: 9:05 pm Arr: 10:25 pm

I'm reminded of a previous attempt of mine to create an exactly 24hr itinerary from my flat to Tulsa.

Partially related, last year I needed to fly from CPT to HYD within a day due to an urgent situation, during school holidays on CPT.

The only option was 3 separate tickets with technical or pick-up stops which ended up being: CPT-JNB-LUN-KGL-EBB-BOM-HYD. First and last segment on separate tickets, and LUN and EBB were tech or pick-up stops where I stayed onboard which for this challenge I'd not count, which sucks for me. EBB was just refuelling due to strong winds as KGL-BOM was operated a B738 and blocked at 7hrs or so (I was in J, cheaper than any Y ticket I could find on any other airline. WB was sold out in Y).

CPT and BOM are both BA destinations so it counts :D (just boarded and now sitting onboard at gate an EK 77W parked next to a BA 744 at CPT)

Oh and the above itinerary took more or less exactly 24hrs

Well common sense would say start in Saudi and end in NY (you'll need the drinking options!)

BA 262 RUHLHR 0105 0525

BA 183 LHR JFK 1925 2315

And then just fit a gazillion flights in between. Bonus points if you get MAN-CBG-GOT in!

There's also opportunities from the just after midnight far eastern flights that get you in around 5.30 am. I think we can definitely allow use of timezones to extend the day.

Though also a flyable intracontinental (not inter) would be interesting.

If we allow timezones, then does crossing the date line give an extra 24 hours? :D

Here's another suggestion, all BA flights on one date, tried three random dates in April and May:

1. LHR-AMS BA428 06.40-09.05
2. AMS-LCY BA8496 09.55-10.00
3. LCY-DUS BA 3273 11.00-13.15
4. DUS-LHR BA939 14.00-14.30
5. LHR-EDI BA1448 15.30-16.55
6. EDI-LHR BA1463 19.25-20.50
7. LHR-ABV BA083 22.35-04.50

The itinerary is not overly attractive, but rules said nothing of "need to fly" to prove. No margins for weather irrops but maybe the last two flights. No extra time zone bonus used. No success in trying to fit LGW in, but six airports ticked off despite that.