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Are there any flight search engines for planning a group get-together with the cheapest flight costs?

For instance, suppose a small company gathering (much like the one I'm currently planning!), with employees in the following cities:

  • Wichita, KS
  • San Francisco, CA
  • Seattle, WA
  • Chicago, IL

We want a single city (likely one of the four on the list, but it wouldn't have to be), with the cheapest combined round-trip air fare for a 3-4 day gathering.

Are there any tools (free, or otherwise) to do this sort of search?

Flimzy
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    See http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/34372/cheapest-way-to-meet – Relaxed Feb 03 '15 at 15:47
  • @Relaxed, the question you linked was closed as off-topic. This one asks something very similar, should it be closed too? – gmauch Feb 03 '15 at 17:51
  • @gmauch: The linked question was closed as off-topic because it was about price shopping for a specific flight. This one is asking for a resource. They are fundamentally different, with a slight overlap in scope. – Flimzy Feb 03 '15 at 17:53
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    @Flimzy, well not for a specific flight, the other question says "We don't need to meet in China, just anywhere in the world", just as this one mentions a single, not-specific city. Both questions want the cheapest combined-cost and want a tool for that. YMMV, but they look very similar to me. – gmauch Feb 03 '15 at 18:02
  • @gmauch Not sure, I can see some slight differences but I was never convinced by the justification provided to close the earlier question in the first place. Personally, I think the best solution would have been to interpret the other one a bit more charitably and to keep it open but that ship has sailed. So I am just providing a link in the hope it could be useful to someone. – Relaxed Feb 03 '15 at 18:16
  • @gmauch: But it's asking for the cheapest destination city with flights from city X and Y. That's very specific, and very unlikely to be valuable to future site visitors. A general question (like this one) will be useful to anyone (including the OP of the other question). – Flimzy Feb 03 '15 at 18:17
  • @Flimzy Does it? It reads “I've been having a hard time finding services that don't require a predetermined city to travel to. The best I've found so far is Google Flight Maps, but even that has limitations. Does anyone know of something better?” If you want to blame Matthew for providing a back-story that mention the US and China (how narrow is this really?), what about your four cities? It seems a bit silly that the words “For instance” would make or break a question… – Relaxed Feb 03 '15 at 18:27
  • @Relaxed That I agree with you. I don't think the other question should be closed as off-topic. Can it be reopened? My opinion is that both questions are similar, but I don't think the other one should have been closed, so I got me thinking whether this one should also be closed, even though I don't agree with it. It's hard, I'm starting to disagree with myself... – gmauch Feb 03 '15 at 18:31
  • @gmauch Since the solution I offered was far from ideal, we can also just let it be and see if this one elicits a better answer. – Relaxed Feb 03 '15 at 18:33
  • @Relaxed: I didn't VtC the other question, and probably wouldn't have. I think it could have been a reasonable question, although perhaps with some slight editing to make it more general. My comments were not meant particularly to justify the closure of the other one, but to point out why I believe a case can be made that they are different. – Flimzy Feb 03 '15 at 18:51
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    @Flimzy Fair enough, let's hope we can get some good answers this time! – Relaxed Feb 03 '15 at 18:57

1 Answers1

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I don't think so.

Any search engine is only going to as good as the code that it runs, and not many companies would be willing to spend time and money coding something not very many people would use.

My advice: Contact a travel agent and ask them about this. Travel agents are still helpful as they are people, and can figure out workarounds.

QuyNguyen2013
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