Public Service Announcement

Tonight my roommate and I set out on a quest, a quest to determine "What are the two cities in America that are the hardest to fly between?" This question came up after I found that if I wanted to travel from Baltimore, MD to Liberal, KS (don't ask why I'd want to do this) I could do it in 3 stops (Detroit, Kansas City, and Great Bend) for only $316 one-way.

So then we tossed out city pairs that we thought would be difficult to travel between. I suggested Worland, WY to Bangor, ME (you can do it in 3 stops, Laramie, Denver, and Cincinnati). My roommate suggested Salisbury, MD to Nome, AK (you can do that in 3 stops, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Anchorage). Now, Kayak.com lets you sort by number of stops, and you can certainly find stupid, stupid itineraries (for example, 5 stops from Worland to Bangor and Salisbury to Maine).

So the real question is, can you find a city pair with 4 as the minimum number of stops? To do this we actually consulted the Alaska Airlines route map. It can be very difficult to get to Wrangell, AK, but I felt like that was kind of cheating. We only picked Wrangell because it looks hard to get to on the Alaska Airlines route map. Who cares if they are one of the oldest non-native settlements in Alaska? I've never heard of them before today.

We tried a lot of other Salisbury, MD combinations. Salisbury, MD to Vladivostok, Russia (3 stops - Philadelphia, Toronto, Moscow). Salisbury, MD to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia (3 stops - Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Sidney).

Finally, we struck gold by going back to Alaska. Salisbury, MD to Barrow, AK will take you a minimum of 4 stops and 17h, 46m. The 4 stops are Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. That's the best you can do.

The worst you can do from Salisbury to Barrow is 6 stops and 32h, 50m (Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Prudhoe Bay). Can you imagine stopping three times in Alaska before you reached your final destination?

So now I think the challenge is to find the city pair (extra credit if it involves Salisbury, MD) that takes 4 stops minimum AND is located in the lower 48. Worland, WY to Salisbury, MD won't do it (3 stops). Dodge City, KS to Salisbury, MD won't work either (Kansas City, Indianapolis, Charlotte). Bozeman, MT to Salisbury, MD in 2 stops! (Seatle and Philadelphia). As you can see, this is quite a challenge.

Another fun question is "If there are city pairs in the lower 48 that requires 4 stops to fly between, which city pair has the minimum distance between them?"

So you might wonder why I titled this post "Public Service Announcement." It's because this is a public service, people need to know the answers to these questions. We've just answered the question of whether or not you can find two cities that take a minimum of 4 stops to fly between. Trust me, you would have asked that question eventually.


PS - In case you're curious, on the other end of the spectrum, it's impossible to find an itinerary from Baltimore to Chicago with more than 1 stop. (A partial answer to "What is the easiest city to travel to from Baltimore?")