Booking Flights for a Multi-Leg Journey: Open Jaws, Connections and Seat Strategy

The most common flight mistake on a grand journey is booking a round trip to the first city and back from the last one when a better structure exists. A long journey that begins in Madrid, threads through three or four countries, and ends in Cape Town is not a round trip — it is an open-jaw: fly out to one city, fly home from a completely different one. The open-jaw is usually no more expensive than a return, and it eliminates the dead flying — the backtrack to a city you have already left — that a rigid return ticket would force on you.

Understanding a few basic principles of multi-leg flight booking puts you in control of both the cost and the experience: not just the price of the ticket but the seat, the luggage policy, the connection time and the flexibility if something changes. Our office helps every traveller coordinate flights that work with the journey, but the traveller who understands the framework arrives at that conversation better prepared.

Open jaws, and why they suit grand journeys

An open-jaw ticket is one where the departure and arrival airports are different: you fly outbound to City A and return home from City B. The middle segment — the journey between A and B — is the overland or sea portion of your trip, which you are doing anyway. You pay for two one-way flights rather than a round trip, and the combined price is almost always comparable to a standard return, sometimes cheaper.

For our journeys this structure is nearly always the right one. Andes to Antarctica, for instance, makes no sense as a Madrid-to-Madrid return: the journey begins in Madrid, crosses to South America, and ends at Ushuaia, then flies home. An open-jaw out of Madrid and back from Buenos Aires (the nearest practical hub) saves days of backtracking and is the natural shape of the journey. The same logic applies to any route that ends in a different country from where it begins.

Connection times, and getting them right

The minimum connection time posted on a booking engine is the airline's legal floor, not a traveller's comfort margin. On a long journey with significant luggage, connecting between terminals or between airports that require a transfer, or passing through a country you have not visited before and must clear customs in, a tight connection is a genuine risk. A missed connection at the start of a grand journey is the worst possible beginning.

For international connections, budget at least two hours in hub airports you know, and three or more in airports where you are transiting for the first time, clearing security and customs, or transferring between terminals. For domestic connections within a journey — the flight from a hub to a remote trailhead — follow the specific guidance in your itinerary, as bush-plane departure times are less flexible than commercial schedules and factor in local variables. When in doubt, err on the generous side; a longer layover at a major airport is far less costly than a missed flight.

Seat selection and long-haul comfort

On flights of seven hours or more, the seat you choose matters as much as the airline. An aisle seat on the preferred side of a long-haul aircraft — typically the two-seat side on a widebody — gives access to the aisle without disturbing a neighbour, essential for the bathroom visits that a well-hydrated long-haul traveller requires. Emergency-exit rows and bulkheads give legroom but often have fixed armrests and no under-seat storage.

Book seats as soon as you can after ticketing, as the best seats fill quickly. On older aircraft without in-seat charging, carry a fully charged battery pack; on overnight flights, a neck pillow and earplugs are the difference between arriving rested and arriving depleted. Many experienced travellers on long journeys treat the overnight flight as an extension of the sleep schedule — the correct layering, a blanket and a dark eye mask turn a plane into a functional bedroom.

Luggage policies across multiple airlines

A multi-leg journey that uses more than one airline, or books via different ticketing systems, can produce mismatched luggage allowances — and the strictest segment sets the practical limit. If the longest flight allows 23 kilograms per bag but the regional hop to a remote airstrip allows only 15, packing to 23 for the whole journey will cause a problem and a fee. The rule is simple: find the most restrictive luggage allowance on any flight in your itinerary and pack to that.

Our itineraries flag any leg with a firm luggage limit — typically light-aircraft segments — and specify whether soft or hard cases are required. Rigid suitcases cannot fit in the holds of small aircraft by rule, and overweight charges on international long-haul are among the travel world's least pleasant surprises. Sort this before you pack: weigh your bag at home, know the limits on every flight in the journey, and you never have to repack at an airport counter.

Flexible fares, and when they are worth it

Grand journeys sometimes have immovable fixed dates — a ship departure, a timed permit, a festival — and sometimes have a degree of flexibility. For fixed-date travel, fully flexible fares are rarely worth the premium: you are committed regardless, and the fare upgrade buys cover you will not use. For the flights on either side of a long journey, however, a refundable or changeable fare can be very useful.

The start flight is the critical one: if you miss it for any reason — illness, a delayed connecting flight, a document problem — a changeable fare turns a catastrophe into a rebooking. On open-jaw itineraries, this is especially worth considering for the outbound leg. The return is often less critical, since a grand journey has already built time buffers into its structure, but any leg where a delay has cascading consequences downstream is a candidate for a slightly more flexible ticket.

The carry-on that never leaves you

Everything that cannot be replaced or cannot wait travels in your carry-on, not in checked luggage. That means your medications, your passport and documents, your travel insurance policy, your electronics, your camera and any expensive equipment, and at least one complete change of clothing. This is not pessimism — airlines do occasionally misplace luggage, and even a twenty-four-hour wait for a bag at the start of a journey in hot or cold conditions is a significant inconvenience.

A daypack of twenty-five to thirty litres is ideal as the carry-on on complex itineraries: it slides under the seat in small aircraft where overhead bins are minimal, fits over your main bag on a Land Cruiser and can become your day bag for the first city of the journey while the main luggage travels in the vehicle. Think of your carry-on not as a flight necessity but as the permanent home of the things you need at any moment of the journey, airborne or on the ground.