also called posh flight (slang) · positioning · repositioning flight
An extra flight taken to reach the airport where your real deal or award flight departs.
An extra flight you take purely to reach the airport where your real, cheaper flight or award departs. It unlocks a better fare from a different city, but because it is a separate ticket, a delay on it can make you miss the main flight with no protection. An open-jaw is a different routing trick, flying into one city and out of another on the same ticket.
Someone finds a great business-class award leaving from another country and books a cheap positioning flight to get there. When that first flight is delayed, the airline for the main flight owes them nothing, because the two bookings are unconnected, and they risk watching the award depart without them.
It unlocks a cheaper fare from a different city, but risks a missed connection since it's a separate ticket.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These are ways to build a trip that is not a simple there-and-back.
A multi-city ticket chains several flights on one booking, an open-jaw flies you into one city and home from another, and a round-the-world ticket circles the globe on one fare.
A positioning flight is an extra hop taken to reach the airport where a cheaper fare or award starts, and an ex-EU or ex-hub fare is the bargain that appears when a trip begins in a particular country.
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