Do You Fly Direct or Have Stops and/or Drive Elsewhere to Save?

[Lois R]

I haven't posted on the AIR forum in a long, long time.....but was just

perusing today.......maybe I am not getting it:confused:....but I would think most

people would love to fly direct:D...wouldn't they? Get on the plane,

get to the destination in one swoop and get off the plane. But

depending on where you live and where you are going, direct flights

are not possible....so I go with the next best thing for me, 1 stop.:)

[cruiserdru]

Was looking at this as two independent flight bookings instead of using multiple destinations, so United was giving me way high economy fares with my restriction of 1-stop flights (and yes, it was for two tickets in both cases).

 

Thank you so much for the gentle "kick in the pants" that made me look harder. My life will be so much simpler without the train rides. :)

 

Now, we shall see if AMA Waterways will be able to beat what I can do for myself - but that will have to wait for the 331 day point. It will need to be a lot for me to give up the extra miles I get from buying direct.

[buggins0402]

Hmmm...thanks for starting this thread. My second airport that I use to look at was YQG. Doing a quick test it might now work again...perhaps the weaker loonie?

[FlyerTalker]

Thank you so much for the gentle "kick in the pants" that made me look harder. My life will be so much simpler without the train rides. :)

No problem. Reality checks are the order of the day here at CruiseAir.

Now, we shall see if AMA Waterways will be able to beat what I can do for myself - but that will have to wait for the 331 day point. It will need to be a lot for me to give up the extra miles I get from buying direct.

It's not so much the FF miles that you need to worry about as all the other caveats in purchasing cruiseline provided air. Can the AMA ticket be endorsed, rerouted and the like.

[Algebralovr]

Those of you along the East Coast, if you can take an extra day or two at either end might check Amtrak as well as the airlines. From Charleston, SC to MIA, it is about a 14 hr train ride, but it is much lower stress IMHO. If bought ahead of time, you can get round trip for about $160 per person. You just have to deal with getting on the train about 4:30 AM and getting to MIA about 6:30 PM.

 

Pack a lunch, take along a few snacks, and enjoy the scenery. The scary thing is that if you have to be at the airport at 4 AM and change planes a time or two, you might spend almost as much time traveling via air!

[kenish]

I haven't posted on the AIR forum in a long, long time.....but was just

perusing today.......maybe I am not getting it:confused:....but I would think most

people would love to fly direct:D...wouldn't they? Get on the plane,

get to the destination in one swoop and get off the plane.

 

You're confused. :)

 

A nonstop flight has no intermediate stops going from A to B. Direct flights get from A to B with the same flight number. However there may be 1 or more stops enroute, or even a change of aircraft. An example is farther up this thread.

 

Hence, all nonstop flights are "direct", but not all direct flights "get to the destination in one swoop". Southwest has many direct flights that make 7-8 stops enroute, hopscotching around the country.

Edited April 21, 2015 by kenish

[Lois R]

You're confused. :)

 

A nonstop flight has no intermediate stops going from A to B. Direct flights get from A to B with the same flight number. However there may be 1 or more stops enroute, or even a change of aircraft. An example is farther up this thread.

 

Hence, all nonstop flights are "direct", but not all direct flights "get to the destination in one swoop". Southwest has many direct flights that make 7-8 stops enroute, hopscotching around the country.

 

I am confused?:confused:...nothing new there:rolleyes:....well..............

I know what I meant to say and you are saying I am didn't post it right.

OK...I am flying from Jacksonville, FL to Seattle, Washington.....there

are no direct flights.....I am going from Jax to Denver....Denver to Seatac.

If I could fly direct? In one swoop;)...I would love it but it is not

possible.

I just meant I think one plane change is better than 2....and no

plane change is better than 1:p

Edited April 21, 2015 by Lois R

[Zach1213]

I am confused?:confused:...nothing new there:rolleyes:....well..............

 

I know what I meant to say and you are saying I am didn't post it right.

 

OK...I am flying from Jacksonville, FL to Seattle, Washington.....there

 

are no direct flights.....I am going from Jax to Denver....Denver to Seatac.

 

If I could fly direct? In one swoop;)...I would love it but it is not

 

possible.

 

I just meant I think one plane change is better than 2....and no

 

plane change is better than 1:p

 

 

You're still missing it though. A direct flight could have, say, three stops between Jax and Seattle, but the same flight number. So it could be, for example, Southwest flight 1234 from Jacksonville to Houston to Denver to Sacramento to Seattle. But it's a direct flight. However, although your butt may never leave the seat between Jax and Seattle, you have many stops.

 

In some cases, a direct flight may even change aircraft but keep the same flight number. Let's says it's United 1234 from Houston to Washington Dulles to Rome. It's a 737-900 from Houston to Dulles and a 767-400 from Dulles to Rome. But you need to change planes in Dulles...but since it remains the same flight number, it's a direct flight.

 

Nonstop is just that - zero stops at all.

 

There is a big difference between direct and nonstop.

[Lois R]

Thank you both for the explanations...I do get it. I guess I just have

issues with posting it correctly:rolleyes::eek::confused:

 

I should have originally said, non-stop would be the best:)...there you go.

 

I will now take my leave of this thread...seems my posts were not very helpful........

Edited April 21, 2015 by Lois R

[Zach1213]

Thank you both for the explanations...I do get it. I guess I just have

 

issues with posting it correctly:rolleyes::eek::confused:

 

 

 

I should have originally said, non-stop would be the best:)...there you go.

 

 

 

I will now take my leave of this thread...seems my posts were not very helpful........

 

 

That's not the case at all. But seemingly daily, people on the board use direct and nonstop interchangeably. Just want to make sure others reading understand the big differences

[FlyerTalker]

I will now take my leave of this thread...seems my posts were not very helpful........

Au Contraire!!

 

You were able to learn something yourself and, in the process, perhaps helped others to learn something about airline terminology.

 

Like so many specialized industries in the world, the airline business has specific "terms of art" that mean something very specific, and words the "commoner" uses may mean something entirely different.

 

Direct and nonstop are terms that most people think are the same thing. But in the world of travel, they aren't. And, if you don't know the difference, you might get burned. (or at least slightly singed).

 

Your message was quite valid...I think I can speak for others that we were trying to make sure the vocabulary was correct.

 

We're about education here. At least I am. And I think the same for Greatam, Zach, Kenish, fbgd, 6rugrats, Gardyloo and others. I'd bet that the "regulars" here have at least 15 million miles in the air -- and they love sharing their hard-earned knowledge.

 

So please don't feel you were not appreciated.

[Lois R]

Thanks for the reply.....I wasn't going to check back in here but am

glad I did.:)

[Piggeldy]

Just wondering if others fly directly to the city of their cruise port?

Or do you book flights with say 1 or 2 stops to save money?

Or do you fly out of, or to, an airprot nearby?

 

We are lucky in that we have quite a few international airports in a 150 mile radius, including two major hubs. As long as we can reach an airport within three to four hours by train (preferably direct) we are open to flying to/from there, which leaves us with at least six airports (including FRA and AMS). Our local airport is small and the destinations we can fly to from there don't usually suite our needs, also if flights get cancelled it's likely that there is no plan B (or plan B would be to catch a bus back to town and take a train to another airport if we don't want to wait for next week's flight). If we book from here we usually need to connect through FRA or MUC and often taking a train to get to FRA/MUC takes the same amount of time (and ends up being cheaper).

 

What we try to avoid is changing airports in Paris or London unless we can buy two seperate tickets and spend at least one night there.

We try to fly in at least a day early. For our TA out of Southampton we spent a night at our departure airport of choice due to an early flight to London, picked a late transfer from London to Southampton and spent a night in Southampton before the cruise - there were at least a dozen flights that could have taken us to our final destination on time for embarkation (no convienent connections to Southampton by plane though).

And we prefer to arrive at our destination of choice instead of driving a long way after arrival, we'd rather get the 'complicated' travel over with while in our home country. Meaning, we'd rather fly FRA/AMS - MCO for a cruise out of Port Canaveral and have a four hour train ride from home to the airport instead of flying from our usual airport of choice to MIA (non-stop) with a 200 mile trip to the port on the other end. However, if AMS - MCO (1 stop) costs half of what it costs to fly FRA - MCO (non-stop) we'd fly from AMS. And if regular airport to MIA is half that price... we'd really consider it if we could spend at least two days in Florida before the departure of our cruise.

 

For us it's a mix of convenient flight times, departure airport, season (weather) and price when we chose a flight.

[6rugrats]

Thanks for the reply.....I wasn't going to check back in here but am

glad I did.:)

 

I always enjoy your posts Lois!

[kenish]

Thanks for the reply.....I wasn't going to check back in here but am

glad I did.:)

 

I was the first response to your post....I thought you might be genuinely unsure, and tried to explain it along with others. The intent was educational and helpful (hence the smiley) and not critical or snarky. Keep on posting, and everyone agrees the fewer the stops the better in most cases*.

 

*There's situations where fares, departure/arrival time, availability of premium cabins, availability of options if something goes amok, or maximizing flight miles to cross a threshold in a mileage program could make a direct flight with stops or connecting flights more advantageous than a nonstop.

[waterbug123]

 

*There's situations where...availability of premium cabins... could make.... connecting flights more advantageous than a nonstop.

 

So true. We are flying to Istanbul in July. We could have flown nonstop from Atlanta, but there was no upgrade availability (we have certificates to upgrade to biz class for free). However, by connecting in Amsterdam we can fly business class on the ATL-AMS leg. It's worth it to me to add the connection, (and to fly coach on the AMS-IST connecting flight) if it means a business class lie-flat seat (where I can actually sleep!) on the overnight leg, ATL-AMS.