Just realized I was booking flights all wrong for 2 years

I used to always pick the cheapest option on Skyscanner without checking the layover airport. Then last month in Bangkok, I sat next to a guy who travels for a living and he pointed out my 14 hour layover in Doha could've been a 3 hour one for $40 more. Turned out I was ignoring the 'airport quality' filter the entire time. Now I check if the layover city has lounge access and decent wifi before I click buy. Has anyone else had a dumb travel hack that took them way too long to figure out?

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the_hannah24d ago

The whole "airport quality" filter thing hit way too close to home. I spent a solid year bragging about my cheap flights to friends, only to realize I was essentially living in airport terminals for entire weekends. My personal dumb moment was booking a "red eye" flight thinking it meant the plane had cool neon lights, turns out it just means you arrive looking like a zombie and have to nap in a food court. I once picked a layover in a city where the only wifi was at a Starbucks that closed at 6pm, and I was stuck there for 9 hours with zero signal and a dead phone. Honestly, I've learned more about airport lounges from random Reddit threads than from any travel site. But hey, at least we're not the guy who pays $800 for a direct flight when a $200 one with a 4 hour layover in Singapore exists. That's still me, though.