Neither Paris nor Madrid: where to meet when you live in both

When a couple, siblings or two old friends end up one in Paris and one in Madrid, the default is taking turns: one flies this month, the other next month. On paper that's fair. In practice it rarely works out that way. One has more days off, the other gets worse flight times, and before long the same person is always the one on the plane. Nobody keeps score of those visits, but everyone feels them.

Meeting in a third city changes the split. You both travel, you both get somewhere new and neither of you is playing at home. The fare each of you pays to a place in between can also come in under flying all the way from one capital to the other, especially when low-cost routes serve each city but don't link the two directly. The number that matters is both tickets added together, not one on its own.

For weekend breaks, look at the return too: Sunday night is when it shows who gets home late. You can switch the search to return trip to see the full price, and if the result works, share it with a link before one of you jumps in and books. The figures in the table come from other travellers' searches over the past few days, so treat them as a guide and confirm them live before paying.