Quoting a380787 (Reply 26): Some are logical, but flying 3600mi longer with GYE-SCL-LHR is simply called too much time on their hands |
The longest back-track of which I have had personal experience was flown by my two neighbouring passengers on a Saturday morning BA IST-LHR (1,565 miles) flight. They were booked to fly LHR-CGK (7,284 miles) departing that evening.
Neither had ever been to London before. So where could they leave their luggage at LHR during their first brief visit to the UK capital city? What was the quickest way into central London?
Why not fly direct? No service back in those days.
Why not fly to SIN or some more easterly hub? Been there, seen it, done . And using London was no more costly than using an Asian hub, just longer.
So they back-tracked 2,981 miles.
Unusual? Highly.
Impossible? Obviously not. With more (or worse) to come:
Then there was the example of a father and daughter interviewed on UK TV news in May 2008. They wanted to support their team (Chelsea) in Moscow in a European Champions League football final against another English team (Manchester United). The best routing they could find with the heavy demand for flights between England and Russia created by an the English final was LHR-PEK-MOS. That's a back-track of just over 7,000 miles on a potential 1,586 mile flight!
Too much time on their hands? Certainly. But some sports fans are fanatical. Everything else is totally unimportant. So could it happen to BA's SCL flight? Yes. But will it happen? Very infrequently if at all.