The Expert’s Guide to Booking Cheap Multi-City Flights

Do you dream of one day traveling around the world?  If you do, then you’ve got a lot of company. But while aspiring world travelers are legion, actual world travelers are harder to find.  That’s because if you really want to see and experience different cultures, you need to be an expert travel planner, with enough money saved to book flights in multiple cities.  So how do you master the art of booking cheap multi-city flights?

How to Book Flights With Multiple Cities

Booking a complex itinerary is easier than most people realize, thanks to the Internet. It’s usually as simple as finding the “multi-city” option on your favorite travel website and following the simple instructions. You will enter the destinations and dates for your travels, and then select the best option for you.

Before you book, make sure you’re creating the best combinations of flights possible, and book far enough in advance to get the cheapest flights.

What is a multi-city flight?

A multi-city itinerary combines flights between several cities into one single reservation. This saves you a lot of time when you’re booking because you’re no longer searching for separate, one way tickets between each individual city. If the airlines include layovers along your flight routes, you might even be able to get a cheaper ticket.

There are four common types of multi-city flights: Open Jaw, Round-Robin, Surface, and Around the World.

• Open Jaw: An Open Jaw multi-city flight is named as such because that’s what your flight path will look like on a map — a wide open mouth. You simply fly non-stop to one city, then fly to another one on the way home. What makes an Open Jaw route unique is that you find alternative travel arrangements on your final trip home. Let’s say you need to find cheap flights from New York City to Austin, and you plan to stay in Texas for a few days. However, you need to stop in Chicago on your way home, and from there you plan to get a rental car to get you from the Windy City to your front door. That’s an Open Jaw, multi-city flight.
• Round-robin: This Round-Robin flight gets its name from the “round-the-world” pattern you make when you fly. In this flight pattern, you fly from your arrival city to your first destination, then to a different city, then back home. Unlike Open Jaw routes, you fly to each destination. You might live in New York City and have a wedding in Atlanta and a business meeting in San Francisco a few days after the wedding. Instead of flying to each destination and back home, you can fly to Atlanta and stay a few days, then fly to San Francisco from Atlanta, then back home from the business meeting. You’re making a complete circle, or a Round-Robin.
• Surface: A surface trip is an odd one because you have two disconnected flight legs, but it still counts as a multi-city flight. It’s called a Surface flight because a leg of your journey will be over land. You will fly from home to a new city, then drive to a different one, and finally fly home again. Say you live in Nashville and you have a bridal shower to attend in Orlando. Then, you want to drive to New Orleans to see friends after the bridal shower. After spending a few exciting days exploring Bourbon Street and the bayou, you want to fly home. You just completed a Surface multi-city trip.
• Around the World: This type of travel itinerary is similar to the round robin, but it involves international travel and light time travel. In an around the world route, you might book flights from New York City to London. From London, you take a quick flight to Paris. From la Ville des Lumières, you book another international flight to Hong Kong. And, finally, you travel from Hong Kong back to New York City, possibly with a layover in Los Angeles or Seattle. You’ve just completed a complete circumnavigation of the globe, skipping across time zones like an expert international traveler.

Some of these trips may seem complicated, but they can all save you quite a bit of money if you know how to book flights with multiple cities. If you were to try to fly back and forth between home and your destinations, you would be dishing out a lot more dough. Not only do these trips save you money, but they also allow you to spend more time in a new city, too.

Step-by-step: Here’s how to book flights with multiple cities

Alright, now that you have a better understanding of what multi-city flights are, let’s talk about what you have to do to book them like a globetrotting travel pro.

If you are unfamiliar with booking online airline tickets in general, this process may be out of your comfort zone, but that’s okay. This step-by-step guide will help you out. For reference, you can test this technique using CheapOair’s online booking tool, which allows you to search flights and ticket deals from 450 airlines.

1. The first thing you need to do is select the “multi-city” option at the top of the search panel. This option will be right next to the “one-way” and “round trip” options.
2. Now that the system knows you are looking to spread your wings in multiple cities, you can select up to six legs of your journey. You will need to select the initial departure airport, your first destination, travel dates, number of passengers, and which cabin class you would like for each of the legs of your journey.
3. Add the second and third destinations and travel dates. If you need to book more than three flights, look for an “Add Flights” button. Repeat this step as needed.
4. After you have all the essential information listed above, you can click on the “Search Now” button. Keep in mind that it may take a few moments for the flight information to load. Once it does, you can filter the results according to price, times, airlines, and more.
5. Now, you’re going to look through all of your options and select the best itinerary for you. Then, you can complete the booking process.

Pro tips for booking flights with multiple cities

Okay, so now that you understand the general process, we have some more advanced tips.

Find stopovers: A stopover is a layover that lasts for more than 12 hours, which gives you the opportunity to get out and explore the city while you’re waiting for your next flight.  Many airlines offer stopovers in the capitals of their country of origin. For example, if you’re flying with Air France from Washington, D.C. to Tokyo, you might be able to stop in Paris on your way. Stopovers usually don’t cost you anything extra, and you might even be able to get a package deal with your hotels. You will most likely need to call the airline because these options aren’t always available online.

Start with single stops: Using a stopover is a great way to save money while adding another destination in your journey.  Single stop flights are an even better way to find deals and open up your travel options. First, you want to start with a regular round-trip search and record the amount of money it will cost you for that trip. Then, you can take note of any stops and cities that your layovers will be in.

Hack the route: Now that you have an idea of what the trip is going to cost you, and you have a ballpark idea of the timeframe for the trip, you can start hacking the route. Here are some great tips on booking multi-city routes, courtesy of Life Hacker:

1. Like you normally would, you can start looking for a single route using the multi-city option. Search for cities that are generally on the way to your final destination that don’t cross oceans or backtrack through different continents.
2. Now, you want to start keeping your eyes peeled for stops that cost less than half of your original round trip ticket price. A flight to a popular European destination from North America is often significantly cheaper if you stop somewhere like Guatemala City or Buenos Aires on the way instead of booking a regular round-trip flight.
3. Let your creative side show when booking these cheap flights. You can look at pretty much any major city that comes to mind or visit a place you’ve always dreamed of seeing. It’s not unusual for two seemingly unrelated places to be located on important routes for airlines, making the seats on those flights cheaper than normal.
4. Finally, you need to be flexible when looking for multi-city flights. If you can, play around with travel dates and start your search with a Wednesday departure date. You can also play around with the airports you’re flying to and from if there are multiple in the same region. You can think of this step almost like a game with a simple goal: to find the cheapest airfare possible.

Second Leg: After you find an incredibly cheap one-way ticket from your desired city to a stop along the way, you can start searching for the second leg of the trip. You basically want to repeat the hacking process to find another flight that is as cheap as your first leg. As you’re playing around with routes, try changing the dates so you can get the lowest fares possible. You can always add another stop if you don’t mind the extra travel, or you can use some frequent flyer miles to cover some of the expenses of your trip.

How to master the art of travel planning

It may take a little practice to perfect the art of booking multi-city flights. No one is great at something when they first start doing it, and that’s perfectly okay. Here are a few tips to get you started on a process that will change the way you fly.

Research: Do your research before you book anything. First, you need to research prices for the flights you’re booking. It doesn’t hurt to check multiple airlines to make sure you’re getting the lower price. Then, you want to research the destinations you’re choosing to visit along the way. It might be cheap to stop in Albuquerque on your way to Los Angeles, but you might not be able to find any affordable hotels. Dropping an unnecessary amount of money on lodging just might offset what you’re saving by making the extra stop. You also want to make sure the city you’re stopping at piques your interest at least a little. Research what kind of sights you can see and things you can do in your stopover city so you know it’s worth the stop.

Choose destinations: Once you finish your research, you can pick your destinations. Discover new places, meet new people, and experience new cultures. You want to find out what kind of places will suit your personality, desires, and thirst for adventure, and then you can book them as little stopping points on your journey to your final destination. You should keep an open mind when you’re searching, as you never know what kind of experience and adventure a new place can bring you.

Book in the off season: One of the best things about multi-city flights is that they are saving you a ton of money. The saving doesn’t have to stop there, though. There are ways to increase the value of your flights even more. You should plan to travel during off-seasons when you can. This means you aren’t flying during peak travel time for other flyers. You won’t be competing with other flyers who are paying top dollar to get their tickets. During peak travel times, it’s harder to find economical seating and flights can be completely sold out months in advance. Try and book shortly before and shortly after the peak season; travel agents call this the “shoulder seasons.”

Even if you are traveling during the busy season, you can still use this trick to your advantage. If you can find layovers and routes that pass through popular tourist destinations experiencing their local slow season, you can often snag cheaper flights.

Book in advance: When you’ve decided when you want to take this multi-city trip, you want to book the flights as soon as you possibly can. This will ensure that you will get the seats that you need. If you have any level of flexibility, use flexible dates; this will give you the option of much better prices. The closer you get to your departure date, the harder it will be to find economy fares for your flights. Even if you’re planning on flying during the peak seasons, you can still save a lot of  money when you book the flights ahead of time.

Be careful: For the traveler that’s looking to save money and see the world, learning how to book flights with multiple cities is an essential skill. However, it can also be really complicated. Make sure that you are paying close attention when booking your cheap flights. Look carefully when you’re booking airports to ensure that you aren’t flying to the wrong one.

This is especially important when you’re flying to Europe because there are a lot of different airports in the same general region. Certain airlines might use an inconveniently located airport, which could put a rather large monkey wrench in your trip. You also need to keep in mind that you’re most likely traveling on different airlines, and you will probably need to check your bag, transfer luggage, go through customs, and get through security at each of your stops. Be prepared and organized so this goes off without a hitch.

Now, the fun part: where do you want to go?

You can book a multi-city flight to almost anywhere in the world and still get great airfare. There are some areas of the globe that are more cost-effective than others, though. Some regions have capitals and airlines hubs located close together, lowering the prices you pay and decreasing the jet lag you’re probably going to experience.

If you want vacation in Europe for a while, then making a stopover In London while going through Gatwick or Heathrow can save you a lot of money. You can then spend a week in France by taking advantage of airline deals from London to Paris, and another week in Spain staying in Madrid. Next, you can fly through Frankfurt or Munich to stay in Germany and end the trip in Italy by stopping in Florence or Rome. This can get you through all the major countries in Europe without breaking the bank.

Let’s say you want to go to East Asia instead. You can book a multi-city flight stopping in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand before you go to Malaysia. On the way, you can also stop at Jakarta, Bangkok, and Hanoi for a few days before you land in Kuala Lumpur to end the trip.

You can even go to countries that are known to be more expensive, like those in South America. You can easily and inexpensively loop through the continent, stopping in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima, and Medellín in a huge circle before flying back to your own abode.

Stopping at popular cities and hubs on your way through a country is a great way to save some money and see a new destination at the same time. A particular city might be incredibly expensive to visit on it’s own, but adding several stop for a few days can bring down the cost of the vacation to a comfortably affordable price while letting you see more.

Multi-city tickets allow you to see the world without emptying your bank account. So whether you’re trying to plan a trip for business, leisure, or adventure, you need to know how to book flights with multiple cities. With these tips in mind, you can plan your itinerary like a seasoned travel expert.