Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The Bored at Work Challenge #1: Expedia


It's no secret that we get bored at work, and it's not a secret that we fill countless hours finding novel ways to occupy our time so as to avoid both work and the inevitable boredom both work and not doing work create.

Sometimes I go onto Expedia and just check out how much flights to London, or Barcelona, or Shanghai, or Tokyo, or Santiago, or Johannesburg cost just to give myself a little thrill. Out of this little exercise, I created a fun game. Please interpret "fun" loosely here.


THE EXPEDIA CHALLENGE

If you want to kill some time, I challenge YOU, the reader, to find the longest travel time for a one-way trip you can on Expedia. We'll have a few basic guidelines:

1. The trip must originate from Dulles Airport (IAD)

2. You must use Expedia. This is to account for possible discrepancies across websites.

3. Layovers are allowed, but stopovers are not. That is, you cannot make the trip go from IAD -> DEN on May 15 and then DEN -> SFO on Sept 20. That's stupid.

4. You must post your itinerary in the Comments section with some basic info, e.g. March 28, IAD -> FRA -> GVA (8 h 43 m)

5. Multiple entries are allowed.

Other than that, you're free to roam.


The winner of the competition gets a free case of beer. I'm going to check your work, so don't cheat.

I'll start off the competition, and I'm also going to participate. Check the comments section to see who the current leader is.

CURRENT LEADER: Brice Lord, IAD -> ORD -> LHR -> ISB (48 h 30 m with connections)

9 comments:

chuck zoi said...

Does this work:

Traveling to Dhaka
flight Fri 23-Mar-07
Washington DC (IAD)

Depart 12:20 pm to Tokyo (NRT)
Arrive 3:25 pm +1 day
Terminal 1
6,763 mi
(10,884 km)
Duration: 14hr 5mn
UA United

Flight: 9681
flight Sat 24-Mar-07
Tokyo (NRT)
Depart 5:30 pm
Terminal 1 to Singapore (SIN)
Arrive 11:59 pm
Terminal 1
3,311 mi
(5,329 km)
Duration: 7hr 29mn
UA United
Flight: 803
3Economy/Coach Class, Dinner, Boeing 777
flight Sun 25-Mar-07
Singapore (SIN)
Depart 8:30 pm
Terminal 2 to Dhaka (DAC)
Arrive 10:30 pm
1,796 mi
(2,890 km)
Duration: 4hr 0mn
SQ Singapore Airlines
Flight: 436
3Economy/Coach Class, Meal, 772 - BOEING 777/200
Total distance: 11,870 mi (19,103 km)
Total duration: 25hr 34mn (48hr 10mn with connections)


That massive Sunday stop really adds to the total time.

The Monitors said...

Could you boil all that down to a one-liner so I see what the low-down is? Like IAD -> NRT -> ... (duration)

chuck zoi said...

(IAD)
(NRT)
(SIN)
(DAC)
Total distance: 11,870 mi (19,103 km)
Total duration: 25hr 34mn (48hr 10mn with connections)

is the total duration or total w/connections the money line?

The Monitors said...

Thanks for summarizing that, appreciate it.

The total with connections is the money line. That nearly 24-hour layover is kinda bullshit though, you didn't single that layover out, right? It just came up as an option?

If so, the current one to beat is a hellish 48 hours and 10 minutes.

chuck zoi said...

There were 3 options from IAD to Dhaka leaving that date, and I just picked the longest total time. So I didn't do anything funny with the search to get the long layover.

Yzerfontein said...

Longest commercial non-stop is New York - Johannesburg flight.

The Monitors said...

Holy crap yzerfontein, that nonstop flight to Johannesburg looks hellish. That may win the nonstop contest, but this one's just about finding the longest trip you can within the rules I outlined. Layovers are okay. Anyway, that kinda takes some air out of my idea of going to the next World Cup in 2010. If I was stuck in a plane for 18 hours I would crack. The batteries in my PSP definitely wouldn't make it.

Anonymous said...

In case AdSpar's is thrown out:

1:30 pm Depart Washington DC (IAD)
Arrive Chengdu (CTU) 11:55 pm +2 days Thu 29-Mar
Duration: 46hr 25mn Korean Air 94
China Eastern Airlines 5052 / 5411
Connect in Seoul (ICN), Shanghai (PVG)

Brice Lord said...

And I thought Adspar couldn't be beat!

Departing on Thursday, April 5, arriving Saturday, April 7.

IAD -> ORD -> LHR -> IWB
48 h 30 min with connections

All for a reasonable $4,679.78.