I've got a trip in two weeks that takes me through Atlanta (fly in and leave the same day), D.C., and eventually a conference in upstate New York (60 miles north of Albany). I normally prefer to fly Continental, as I'm busily accumulating miles there on my path to global domination.

Anyway, when I asked Continental.com to find me a fare for that whole itinerary, it blew as gasket. It offered to sell me a one-way flight to Altanta for almost $500 without any other legs. Wonderful.

I decided to give American Express (itn.net) a try. I've never used them before, and anything in the world must be better than Orbitz. I was almost impressed. None of the pre-baked low-cost itineraries were sensible. I'd be doing two stops on most flights, and I wouldn't have enough time to be in Atlanta for that afternoon that I can't miss. When I did the piece-it-together-yourself, I was able to get a silly itinerary for just under $1000 that has two legs on Continental, one on United, and the last on Southwest Airlines. I'd pay pretty much that same $1000 for any permutation I tried. The only way I could do better was to drop the Atlanta leg and go with a pure Southwest fare. That would come to just under $500 round trip.

I'm not sure what the moral of the story is here, except to say that airlines and airline web sites suck.