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

NW is the leading U.S. airline to Asia, especially to Tokyo. Since NW now offers nonstop service to both LAX and SEA from Indy, I thought I'd do a little nonscientific experiment and see what this means for connections to NW's Tokyo flights out of those two cities, versus our previous option of connecting to Tokyo (NRT) via DTW and MSP.

Turns out the new IND-LAX service has resulted in a $29 savings in the IND-NRT fare. At least from July 23rd through Oct. 23rd, which is when I ran the search. Connecting to NRT via LAX both ways was $988, versus $1017 for the cheapest hub-hub routing, via DTW both ways.

Going via LAX one way and SEA the other priced at $992, a savings of $25 over the hub routing.

And going via SEA both ways priced at $1007, a paltry $10 savings versus DTW.

I presume these fares price out cheaper than the hub routing solely because of the promotional fares still available ex-IND. So in the end, these new routes haven't really given us much in terms of cost savings to Asia, but really have just given us two additional choices of routes and times for flights.