I don’t travel too much, but my Dad does for a living. Frequent flyer to HK, Shanghai, Dubai, Mumbai, etc. Was talking on the phone with him yesterday and this subject came up. He says he can save $6-8K+ by simply adding a stop, LA, Tokyo (where he was actually stuck during the earthquake flying back from China…). It’s mainly due to the massive competition from the West coast. Flights out of MSP direct are quite expensive comparatively.