Triangle Trip

The Triangle Trip team wishes our global travelers a happy and prosperous Lunar New Year!

Below is a Honorary Post from a Friend of Triangle Trip… He’s a travel professional but has not signed up to be a full time Editor yet.

December 23rd the wife and I went to O’Hare to take a 6:40am flight to visit the in-laws in Birmingham, AL. We got there very early, but United only had half of their check-in desks open.  After a lengthy wait, we were told at check-in it was too late to check in with bags – even though we were more than 45 minutes early.  The next flight was around 3pm – and sold out.  They would not let us alternate route to Atlanta. I was all set to just drive, but after asking the check-in lady for options, she suggested that if we could ditch the suitcase and stuff our things into bags, we could try to carry them on.

So, she gave us to two clear plastic bags like they use to wrap car seats.The wife ditched her oversized toiletries, and crammed everything into those two clear bags, abandoning the suitcase by a trash can (after informing the nearby security agent what we were doing). Though we were looking pretty ghetto, they let us through security and were able to get the bags gate checked.  Crisis averted.

… Contributing Editor from ORD

Many of you are probably thinking:  What is Triangle Trip?

The standard definition of a triangle trip in the travel world is:  a round trip booking with a stop over that has a purpose.  Triangle trips allow travelers to avoid purchasing three one way tickets.  You will need to know each airline’s hubs to make your triangle trip pay off and minimize the costs and layovers.

For example, you live in New York and want to go to Seattle for a wedding.  At the same time, you would like to golf in Phoenix before the wedding.  You will need to book a triangle trip that has a connection in Phoenix to reduce the cost of your travel — otherwise you would have to buy three one way tickets.  To accomplish the triangle trip, you will have to make some sacrifices such as making a stop over on your return or outbound.  The proposed itinerary for what I described would be booking a US Airways triangle trip from JFK to PHX because most of west bound US Airways flights have a stop over in Phoenix and you’ll have the benefit of getting a non stop flight.  After spending a few days golfing in Phoenix, you can hop on a plane from PHX to SEA to attend your wedding.  Your return trip from SEA may not be a non stop flight but that’s the sacrafice. 

We want to wish our readers a happy new year — a prosperous 2009!