Quite often, people want to fly to a destination that is a "hidden city" for a particular airline flying to a bargain destination. Actually, a "hidden city" is a hub for a given airline.

Here's how it works: let's say that you want to go to Minneapolis in a couple of weeks. You find that the lowest one-way fare on either Delta or Northwest Airlines is $677. But there is a sale on tickets to Louisville - $106 round trip. Before you yell at me, "I DON'T WANT TO GO TO LOUISVILLE!" bear with me a minute. If you purchase a ticket to Louisville on Northwest, you will have to change planes in Minneapolis. Now, if instead of changing planes, you walked out the door of the airport with your carry-on luggage, you would save $566. If you want to go to Denver, you'd save $153 by buying your ticket to Louisville on United - which can be routed through their Denver hub. Your Louisville ticket will save a whopping $795 over a one-way ticket to Chicago on either an American or United routing - both have hubs in Chicago. And a one-way ticket to Dallas costs $800, but if you route your Louisville ticket on American through their Dallas hub, well, you get the picture. So, what do you do with the remainder of your ticket? You'll find a nice receptacle right next to the front door of DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth Airport). Ah, but how do you get back to Salt Lake City? Well, Salt Lake is the "hidden city" for Delta to almost any destination west of here. For example, if you're up there in Minneapolis, and you don't particularly want to pay $677 for a one-way ticket home on Northwest or Delta, Delta's one-way fare to Las Vegas from Minneapolis is only $99. Now, you WILL have to change planes in Salt Lake. Or, on the other hand, you could just walk out the front door of the airport and catch the shuttle to your car.

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