Site Admin

Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

OK. I've often argued that I didn't think the IND NW flights were set up for much connecting. But I officially stand corrected. On my way to MSP on Sunday, I sat next to a guy that was flying BOS-MSP by connecting at IND. And tonight on the way home from KC, I sat across from a couple who were going from MCI to BDL (Hartford) by connecting at IND. Actually, flight 2169 continued on to BDL, but they had to get off the plane and re-board again. So it appears that at least some people are choosing to connect at IND. The BOS-MSP guy was in paid first class, which according to my cursory search, is about half the price connecting in IND versus flying nonstop to MSP. Clever.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

There are alot of connecting opportunities here.

Member

Joined: 27 Jun 2005
Posts: 333
Location: St. Louis, MO

I think sometimes the "cheapest fares" pop up by availability in the Northwest system when viewing on the online reservation screen. You can connect a lot going from St. Louis to Miami via Atlanta or Raleigh/Durham. I have a feeling that sometimes a lot of people are forced or willingly make these type of connections because the STL - MIA morning flight is always sold out and sometimes it saves you $30 or $40 to fly through one of these other cities. I almost did it once...took the 738 to ATL to try it out but wound up with the option of going 777 into DFW instead.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

Do you remember the promotion NW ran just over a year ago for World Perks called "Save Miles - Fly through Indianapolis"

It was a hard thing to find on Google just now. Since NW doesn't archive these kind of promotions the best I could do was the Google cache of the NW page.

Google Cache

Here is the interesting quote from the article under the rules...

"Routing: Travel must originate in US48, Alaska or Canada and include Indianapolis as an origin, destination or connecting point."

They actively promoted connections at IND for a while. They also offer it when possible when booking online.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

The last time I checked on NW connection opportunities at IND there were 34. Those opportunities were connections in IND each way in a round trip and only 1 connection each way. I just ran the new schedule and used Jan 4th and 11th as my dates and now have 61 combinations. Thats a big jump.

Site Admin

Joined: 15 Jun 2005
Posts: 2316
Location: Indianapolis, IN

I've updated the connection opportunities page. Hopefully when AirTran gets more routes from here I'll be able to add some of their flights. This page shows options where a single connection round trip was available with connections both ways in IND.

http://www.indairport.org/connections.php