34 hours in coach? One way? Sure!

I've been toying with the idea of a trip to visit my friends in Asia this spring. It isn't hard for me to find a reasonable flight from Seattle to Singapore (under $900, stopping in Tokyo each way). Shanghai, it would seem, is nearly impossible to get to from Singapore for under $1000. I don't mind search engines returning expensive flights, since sometimes that is all that is available.

Kayak has managed to break all the records for "least reasonable flight suggested, ever." How unreasonable? Try this:

Leave – Wed 27 Feb 2008
This flight leaves and arrives on different dates.
	American Airlines Flight 5832 Operated by Japan Airlines	Departs: 11:30p Changi (SIN)		Arrives: 7:10a Narita (NRT)
	Coach | Aircraft: 744 | 6h 40m
	[ Layover in Tokyo, Japan (NRT) for 4h 50m ]
	American Airlines Flight 5822 Operated by Japan Airlines	Departs: 12:00p Narita (NRT)		Arrives: 8:20a O'Hare Inter­national (ORD)
	Coach | Aircraft: 744 | 11h 20m
	[ Layover in Chicago, IL (ORD) for 2h 35m ]
	American Airlines Flight 289	Departs: 10:55a O'Hare Inter­national (ORD)		Arrives: 3:25p Pu Dong (PVG)
	Coach | Aircraft: 777 | 14h 30m

Return – Sun 2 Mar 2008
This flight leaves and arrives on different dates.
	American Airlines Flight 288	Departs: 6:00p Pu Dong (PVG)		Arrives: 5:20p O'Hare Inter­national (ORD)
	Coach | Aircraft: 777 | 13h 20m
	[ Layover in Chicago, IL (ORD) for 17h 45m ]
	American Airlines Flight 153	Departs: 11:05a O'Hare Inter­national (ORD)		Arrives: 3:15p Narita (NRT)
	Coach | Aircraft: 777 | 13h 10m
	[ Layover in Tokyo, Japan (NRT) for 2h 35m ]
	American Airlines Flight 5836 Operated by Japan Airlines	Departs: 5:50p Narita (NRT)		Arrives: 12:30a Changi (SIN)
	Coach | Aircraft: 777 | 7h 40m

Yeah. That's right. Singapore -> Tokyo -> Chicago -> Shanghai. The Great Circle right my a**. Go find a globe. Trace that out. You'll find that a straight shot is 2300 miles, or about 5 hours on a modern jet airliner. American Airlines, in their infinite wisdom, would suggest you take a trip that is 34 hours (going) and 54 hours (returning), where you cross the International dateline TWICE on each leg, and cover approximately 33,308 miles. For those of you keeping track at home the circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles. It's almost a bargain at $7,238.

You'll notice that the itinerary doesn't tell you what date you land. I'm not sure I could even do the math and figure it out.