---
title: "What is Positioning flight? | Benefit Systems"
description: "A positioning flight is a separately booked flight to the airport where the real trip starts, often because that is where award space was found."
source: "aus dem gebauten HTML abgeleitet"
---
# What is Positioning flight?

A positioning flight is a separately booked flight to the airport where the real trip starts, often because that is where award space was found.

Also called: Positioning trip.

## How it works #

A positioning flight sits on its own ticket and is legally disconnected from the main journey. If it runs late, nobody is responsible for the missed onward flight: the main booking simply goes unused and that airline can apply its own cancellation terms. Planning this way means leaving a large buffer, ideally an overnight stay, and treating the two parts as independent trips.

## Not to be confused with #

A positioning flight is not the same as a feeder flight inside the same ticket: a ticketed feeder is part of the contract of carriage, a positioning flight sits outside it.

## In German #

The German term is Positionierungsflug. [German version of this term](/de/glossar/positionierungsflug)

## Related terms #

- [Separate tickets](/en/glossary/separate-tickets): Separate tickets are two independent bookings covering one journey with a connection, where no airline is responsible for the transfer between them.
- [Minimum connection time](/en/glossary/minimum-connection-time): Minimum connection time is the shortest connection a reservation system will sell at a given airport between two flights.
- [Open jaw](/en/glossary/open-jaw): An open jaw is a round trip on one ticket where the return airport differs from the outbound destination, with the gap covered some other way.

## Articles that use this term #

- [Why booking separate tickets can cost you](/en/knowledge/separate-tickets)
- [How much connection time do you actually need?](/en/knowledge/connection-time)
- [How does a round-the-world ticket work?](/en/knowledge/round-the-world-tickets)
- [When is a positioning flight worth it?](/en/knowledge/positioning-flight)