FCF’s favorite strategy puts three continents and big savings in your pocket
One thing that still surprises me in these truly “unsurprisable” times is that our Leg Stretch Strategy is still working its magic for many FCF airficionados.It’s a bit like a video game. Players find a way to hack the game, so the game makers shut down their tactics with a newer version. Honestly, I’m surprised the airlines haven’t eliminated this loophole by now.
But our Leg Stretch Strategy is still racking up big savings for FCF readers, many years after we first reported it.
FCF: Proudly Stretching Legs Since 2017
If you know what the Leg Stretch Strategy is, you can skip this section. If not, get ready to enjoy the beauty of ingenious travel savings.The Leg Stretch got its name because it drastically stretches the value of trips by connecting the legs together in a clever way, when ordinarily you’d buy separate tickets. This method of connecting flight legs is a kind of loophole that airlines offer inadvertently. In a nutshell, it makes use of round-trip itineraries between two continents that include free stopovers each way — on a third continent.
This stopover continent is the “connecting continent” between the other two. In all our examples, the third continent is the U.S. — where you live. So you get to “stop over” at home for free as part of a bigger trip. But really you’re just going home. When you’re in the U.S., the airline considers you on the stopover, so you do need to complete the trip.
Two Tickets for Less Than the Price of One
Take our latest example below. If you intend to go to two continents in a 12-month period — or would like to if the price was ridiculously cheap — like the Middle East and South America, you can use the Leg Stretch Strategy to fly in Business Class.For instance, if you fly from Washington, DC, to Istanbul in Business Class round-trip, the cost is $3,658 on Star Alliance carriers United and Lufthansa. But when you book with the LSS, the fare is just $2,955, and you end up getting Rio de Janeiro for free.
One of our readers does exactly this with his business trips to Germany and a visit to his mom in Brazil. Wunderbar! And he saves an Amazonian amount of money in the process.
Leg Stretching the Middle East and South America
This new example works if you live in the U.S. and plan to visit the Middle East and South America in a 12-month period. Don’t buy these trips separately, but rather connect them with the Leg Stretch Strategy and save. It’s important to note that the Leg Stretch doesn’t start in the U.S., so you need to get to the start city first and return from it at the end. But the savings are so great with the LSS, that you’ll more than outpace the cost of those extra flights.So let’s say you’ve got your cousin’s wedding in Tel Aviv, and want to attend the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix in São Paulo (November 4-7). If you were to do these trips separately as return airfares in Business Class on Delta, it would cost…
New York-Tel Aviv round-trip: $3,692 New York-São Paulo round-trip: $2,464 Total: $6,156

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More on the intricacies of working the LSS here, including getting one-way tickets to start your LSS, and whether or not to start the process again, returning to the U.S. as leg one of your next Leg Stretch Strategy ticket.