Crappy routing. Business travelers aren't going to fly from Salt Lake to London via LAX and EWR for example. Airlines will offer wacky routes at lower prices th

Crappy routing. Business travelers aren't going to fly from Salt Lake to London via LAX and EWR for example. Airlines will offer wacky routes at lower prices that obviously cost them more in terms of fuel and airframe time, because they know people who value their time (and aren't paying themselves) will not accept them. This is particularly prevalent with award travel. You can try to game their system though -- find a crazy route that you actually want to fly (12h stopover in some city you want to visit), but which the airline's algorithm sees as unappealing.