Found a way to sometimes get cheaper flights by booking past your destination

I’ve been testing different ways to find cheaper flights and came across something that actually works in certain cases:

It can be cheaper to book a flight beyond your destination (with a layover) than to fly directly there.

Example I found recently:
Direct flight to City B = ~$300
Flight to City C with a layover in City B = ~$180

Same airline, same first leg — just priced differently.

From what I understand, it’s because airlines price routes based on demand and competition rather than distance.

A couple things to keep in mind if you try it:

• Don’t check a bag (it’ll go to the final destination)
• Works best for one-way flights
• There is some risk (airlines don’t love this behavior)

I got tired of trying to find these manually, so I built a small tool that surfaces these kinds of routes faster while testing this idea:
https://findaflight.site?utm_source=reddit_cheapflights&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=launch_test&utm_content=post