Maybe you have noticed that the travel industry has its own jargon, much like the computer industry, or any other industry. There are all sorts of terms thrown about and people using them assume that everyone else knows that they are and what they are talking about.

A good example of this was a recent article I read about the words kids use these days. The kids don't think adults know what the words are - like the kids were speaking a foreign language. One example was BFF. That stands for Best Friends Forever. Another one is the word crackberry. This is the addictive e-mail device that is called a Blackberry but because it is so addictive kids renamed it the crackberry.

Flying open jaw is a term used in the travel business and it means flying from location A into location B and flying out of location C back to location A. Let's say you were in Boston (location A) on Friday and flew down to DC (location B), did some sightseeing around Washington and drove up 95 to Baltimore to spend Saturday and Saturday night with friends and left Baltimore (location C) on Sunday to fly back to Boston (location A). That would be an example of flying open jaw.

It sounds like a good idea when taken in the context of Boston to DC to Baltimore and back to Boston. But a lot of times, people get stuck into the thought process that they have to fly out of the same place where they flew into. It really does not make a lot of sense when you are doing any sort of vacation or business travel. People who fly on business know about flying open jaw because it is the most efficient way to see as many people as you can and save money doing it.

It is a little tricky when trying to book airline flights online but I was able to get it done on Orbitz for a trip I took to Europe. I flew from Colorado to Munich, travelled around in Germany, then Austria, and on to Italy and flew out of Milan back to Colorado. It would have been pretty silly of me to get to Milan at the end of my trip and then travelled all the way back to Munich to fly home and would have taken an extra two days to boot.

Traveling around and flying open jaw will save you from having to back track from your end point back to the starting point just to be able to get a round trip with the same from to and to froms.

Give this a try the next time you are flying and let me know how you do.

Until next time, let me know what is on your mind, and how you are doing, O.K.?

You can send me your questions or comments on my bio page. My next article will be out shortly.

Jim Fortune - the BellaOnline Budget Travel Guy

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