Planning a group trip when everyone flies from a different city

When the whole group is flying in from different cities, choosing the destination is half the trip. Get it wrong and a few people spend a day connecting through three airports while others stroll off a nonstop.

Think in flight time, not miles

Air travel scrambles the usual map intuition. A city that looks far can be a quick nonstop, while a “closer” one needs two connections. Compare options by realistic door-to-door time for each person, not by distance.

Hubs beat geographic centers

A major airline hub is often the fairest destination even when it isn’t the geographic middle, because more of the group can reach it without a layover. One connection can cost more time than a few hundred extra miles of nonstop flight.

Don’t forget cost and dates

Fair isn’t only about time:

• Are flights affordable from everyone’s home city, or do a few people get gouged?
• Do nonstop options exist on your travel dates, or only midweek?
• Is the airport close to where you’ll actually be staying?

Decide together

List two or three reachable, affordable options, show the group the trade-offs, and vote. People are far happier with a longer trip they chose than a shorter one handed to them.

MidRally finds destinations that are fair for a whole group to reach — using each person’s home metro, never their street address — and runs the vote for you. Just need the midpoint between two cities? The meet-halfway pages have you covered.