Well, without a node link to (next to) the target point the portals wouldn't be portals at all Of course they have them. And the child node would have its heuristic show as very optimistic.

[quote name='Hodgman' timestamp='1327379928' post='4905683']
A* will find the shortest path, assuming your heuristic is "admissible" (it never overestimates the minimal cost of reaching the goal).

Actually, I don't think it will: in a complex map where a direct portal (leading right next to the target point) lies just behind the starting point, no A* variant that I know of will ever knowingly move away from the target, unless it's stuck.[/quote]You missed the bold bit.

I would guess that a map problem which contains 'portals' would best be solved with a hierarchical AI where the portals (coarse level) search is based on a different distance system (and heuristic) and then with the fine level search being the more conventional cartesian heuristic.