Multi City: The Concept


Multi city tickets originally gained popularity to counter the limitations of RTW and point to point tickets. Essentially, a multi city or a multi stop itinerary is one that enables you to travel across countries, continents or even the world using one single air ticket and taking multiple stops along the way.

What makes it different is that it does not follow a standard round-trip pattern. You can fly from one point to another without the necessity of returning to your staring destination. There are many permutations and combinations that you can explore to suit your needs. The flexibility offered makes the multi city option ideal for those who wish to see a section or particular region of the world.

How Multi City Flights Work…

A Multi City flight has not set formula for how it works. It is up to you where you want to go and what you want to see. Keeping this in mind you can explore your options using the online tools available. Use the multi city search tool to explore the best options for you. Unlike point to point flights, multi city flights offer the option for stopovers; which are essentially layovers that last longer than 12 hours.

Based on your route, you can choose multiple stopovers and travel the world using one single ticket. To optimize further, always plan your itinerary carefully, if possible, choose to fly at night so that you can spend days sightseeing in all the exotic locations that you have always wanted to see.

Multi city flights don’t only offer tremendous flexibility about your route also something known as open-jaw flights. Open-Jaw flights are those where your destination or point of origin are completely different from one another. For example, you could be flying from London to Madrid but returning from Paris back to London. In this case you are free to choose your mode of transport between Madrid and Paris.

A Double Open Jaw flight on the other hand, has two entirely separate routes. You may be flying London to Paris one way and return from Madrid to Rome. These may be a little more expensive but give you the chance to explore further and experience more.

Is Multi City a Cheaper Option?

Multi City flights can often be a cheaper option, however just like with RTW tickets, a lot depends on your route, time of travel and level of flexibility. In most cases, a stopover in a city en route will be priced lower than booking point to point tickets.

To get the best value for your money, we do have a few recommendations:

  • Use the ‘Search Everywhere’ Tool

This tool enables you to enter the destination where you depart from and you can enter where you wish to go as ‘everywhere’. If you have no fixed ideas in mind, you can choose from the all cheapest flights taking off from your departure destination.

  • Browse by Month’ Tool

This tool enables you to look at airfares spread out over the time span of an entire month, so that you can choose a day of the week or time of the month that fits your budget.

  • ‘Price Alert’ Tool

Narrow down on where you go and leave the rest this tool.  Setting up a price alert on the routes chosen by you will help to stay tuned to all changes, making sure you can make the most of the deals available at any given point in time.

A Step by Step Guide to Using Multi City Flights.

Using Multi city Flights is not very different from booking a regular airline ticket. Instead of picking a round trip or one-way flight, all booking websites will have an option for multi-city flights. Here is a list of certain steps that you should follow when attempting to book a multi city itinerary.

  1. Have a look at any sample itineraries available if you want some ideas. It also makes sense to look at round trip flights on your chosen route and check for the layover/stopovers available.
  1. After you have got some idea of where you want to go and costs involved, look out for the multicity option and click on it.
  1. Enter in the departure destination with dates followed by the other destinations and dates that you have in mind. Your options will then be displayed and you can choose the ones that work best. Keep in mind that there may be restrictions on the number of destinations for one itinerary.
  1. If you find that one leg of your journey is unnecessarily expensive you can also consider a budget airline and book a one-way ticket to complete your multi city trip. And if you want to take a bus or a train between two of your destinations you can work out your itinerary accordingly.