I have a degree in accounting and a CPA license. I consider myself to have a strong understanding of finance. I can manage my way around a profit and loss statement, both budgets and actuals. Then there’s airline ticket pricing which makes zero sense to me. Analysis has been performed that pinpoints exactly how many days in advance, on what day of the week, and what minute of the day a ticket should be purchased. I’m not sure how well any of the analysis works but I do know that around the world travel provides the best way to reduce airline costs: flexibility. Search flights in and out of several cities across every day of the week (versus watching dates and times). Then book the cheapest ticket.
Flight costs vary depending upon your departure city. Sometimes the price variation is due to competition, sometimes it’s taxes, sometimes it’s not explainable, but different cities, sometimes less than 100 miles apart may have radical price differences. Living in Philadelphia, I learned that international flights out of either John F. Kennedy or Newark International are as much as $500 cheaper than Philadelphia International. The reason is that there are more national carriers like Philippine Airlines, Aeroflot, etc. that fly out of the New York City market than Philadelphia. Those national carriers crush the American airlines on the cost of comparative flights. It’s worth the two-hour bus ride to save $500 on a flight. Opening your search to other airports may also provide more direct flights and better departure or arrival times that allows you to spend more time at your destination.
It’s tempting to start and end a trip around Christmas and New Year’s. Those are also some of the very expensive dates to fly. You will easily save $500 if you wait three weeks and depart in mid-January. If you don’t mind being away over the holidays, some of the cheapest international airfare from America is over the Thanksgiving weekend—apparently every American stays home to eat turkey.
Around the world travel provides the luxury of starting and ending your trip on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, days that tend to have cheaper flights because there’s less business travelers and less people flying for a weekend getaway. It’s key to search flights across multiple days of the week. Not all airlines operate at an airport every day of the week—an airline may fly out of Hong Kong on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and if you do not search on those days you may be missing the cheapest flight. One-way tickets are not cost prohibitive, so there is no reason to start and end your trip in the same city to save money on a round-trip ticket versus two, one-way fares.
In Europe and Asia there are many discount and low fare airlines that cannot be found via a flight search aggregator. To identify discount and low fare airlines I rely on Wikitravel which lists airlines that serve a city in their “Getting In” section. I also scan the departures and arrivals at a destination's airport website to find more airlines.
While traveling, you become aware of regional discount airlines and their hub/focus cities. There’s no cheaper way to fly around Asia than using Air Asia which has a major hub in Kuala Lumpur (KL). You could make KL your home base for a month or two and use the city to fly to Sri Lanka, back to KL; to the Maldives, back to KL; to Bangladesh, back to KL; to Myanmar, back to KL; to Kota Kinabalu and Brunei, back to KL; to Indonesia, back to KL. To save money, leave your large bag at a KL hostel to avoid Air Asia’s checked baggage fees. Pack a few clothes in a small carryon. You will save yourself time and money flying in and out of KL compared to flying between those countries on separate airlines.
For your final return to the U.S., find the cheapest departure flight, then back into the remainder of your travel schedule. On the return flight, play around with the departure cities. When I was returning to the U.S., LOT Airlines, Poland’s national carrier, had $400 flights from Budapest to New York City, with a layover in Warsaw. I thought about extending the trip another two weeks and fly out of Warsaw. The direct airfare to New York City from Warsaw was over $1,000. I flew out of Budapest. Find the $400 flights.
OTHER FLIGHT CONSIDERATIONS
There’s a siren song related to airline affiliated credit cards…all hail The Points Guy. My view: signup for a travel card prior to your travels if you travel frequently for work and use the same airline. Don’t sign up for a new credit card prior to beginning your travels. The problem with using affiliate credit cards for around the world travel is threefold: First, when you are traveling for work, it’s likely you’ll pay $300 more for a direct flight with the airline affiliated with your card because your company is covering the $300 and it’s reasonable to save a few hours on direct flights. With around the world travel, it’s your money and you aren’t likely to pay the premium price for the airline affiliated with your rewards card or a higher fee for a direct flight. If the flight with a three-hour layover is $300 cheaper, then you are booking the fight with the three-hour layover.
Second, there are more discount carriers around the world than in the U.S. It’s difficult to accumulate miles with a single airline, even a group of airlines in either the Oneworld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance partnerships. You will find yourself skipping around Asia on different discount airlines that are all cheaper than Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and other partnership airlines.
Third, when you are traveling countries end-to-end, you will be crossing borders and reaching the next destination more frequently via bus or train, not plane.
The travel cards also have two drawbacks—an annoying annual fee, sometimes over $100, and in a cruel coincidence several charge high international transaction fees. It’s better to stick with a basic rewards card with no annual fee and no international transaction fees during your travels. If you’ve built up airline miles pre-trip, use them for your departure and/or return flight.
Subscribe to airlines’ weekly special email distributions—you may be able to snag a cheap departing flight to start the adventures. The weekly email distributions may alert you to a limited time air-pass offer. I visited Australia in 2008 and at the time QANTAS had a program where after purchasing the international flights, each in-country flight add-on was only $100. I went all over Australia, including a side trip to Hobart, on $100 flights.
Your carry-on bag should contain sensitive information, like your passport and electronics, as well as travel comfort items like a fleece and a pillow. Be sure to have a pen on international flights to complete the arrival and immigration information before the plane lands. Sit near the front of the plane so you can be the first to exit and then be at the front of the immigration line.
A Round-The-World (RTW) ticket through Oneworld, SkyTeam, or Star Alliance sounds tempting and exotic—a true around the world flight itinerary. The RTW ticket is also extremely expensive and I believe anyone that can navigate a flight search engine (Kayak, Expedia, etc.) can prepare a cheaper flight itinerary.
A few more air travel related hassles: A few airports, like those in India, require you to have a printed itinerary to show security before you enter the airport. Major hassle. Certain airlines, like Air Asia, are sticklers about overweight bags and what qualifies as an international versus a regional flight. Certain airports have departure taxes…which is a major pain if you’ve spent the last of your local currency and need to take $20 out of the ATM for a $5 fee. Certain airports have arrival taxes. These are all part of the joy of air travel and make as much sense as airline ticket prices.
It’s tempting to start and end a trip around Christmas and New Year’s. Those are also some of the very expensive dates to fly. You will easily save $500 if you wait three weeks and depart in mid-January. If you don’t mind being away over the holidays, some of the cheapest international airfare from America is over the Thanksgiving weekend—apparently every American stays home to eat turkey.
Around the world travel provides the luxury of starting and ending your trip on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, days that tend to have cheaper flights because there’s less business travelers and less people flying for a weekend getaway. It’s key to search flights across multiple days of the week. Not all airlines operate at an airport every day of the week—an airline may fly out of Hong Kong on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and if you do not search on those days you may be missing the cheapest flight. One-way tickets are not cost prohibitive, so there is no reason to start and end your trip in the same city to save money on a round-trip ticket versus two, one-way fares.
In Europe and Asia there are many discount and low fare airlines that cannot be found via a flight search aggregator. To identify discount and low fare airlines I rely on Wikitravel which lists airlines that serve a city in their “Getting In” section. I also scan the departures and arrivals at a destination's airport website to find more airlines.
While traveling, you become aware of regional discount airlines and their hub/focus cities. There’s no cheaper way to fly around Asia than using Air Asia which has a major hub in Kuala Lumpur (KL). You could make KL your home base for a month or two and use the city to fly to Sri Lanka, back to KL; to the Maldives, back to KL; to Bangladesh, back to KL; to Myanmar, back to KL; to Kota Kinabalu and Brunei, back to KL; to Indonesia, back to KL. To save money, leave your large bag at a KL hostel to avoid Air Asia’s checked baggage fees. Pack a few clothes in a small carryon. You will save yourself time and money flying in and out of KL compared to flying between those countries on separate airlines.
For your final return to the U.S., find the cheapest departure flight, then back into the remainder of your travel schedule. On the return flight, play around with the departure cities. When I was returning to the U.S., LOT Airlines, Poland’s national carrier, had $400 flights from Budapest to New York City, with a layover in Warsaw. I thought about extending the trip another two weeks and fly out of Warsaw. The direct airfare to New York City from Warsaw was over $1,000. I flew out of Budapest. Find the $400 flights.
OTHER FLIGHT CONSIDERATIONS
There’s a siren song related to airline affiliated credit cards…all hail The Points Guy. My view: signup for a travel card prior to your travels if you travel frequently for work and use the same airline. Don’t sign up for a new credit card prior to beginning your travels. The problem with using affiliate credit cards for around the world travel is threefold: First, when you are traveling for work, it’s likely you’ll pay $300 more for a direct flight with the airline affiliated with your card because your company is covering the $300 and it’s reasonable to save a few hours on direct flights. With around the world travel, it’s your money and you aren’t likely to pay the premium price for the airline affiliated with your rewards card or a higher fee for a direct flight. If the flight with a three-hour layover is $300 cheaper, then you are booking the fight with the three-hour layover.
Second, there are more discount carriers around the world than in the U.S. It’s difficult to accumulate miles with a single airline, even a group of airlines in either the Oneworld, SkyTeam or Star Alliance partnerships. You will find yourself skipping around Asia on different discount airlines that are all cheaper than Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and other partnership airlines.
Third, when you are traveling countries end-to-end, you will be crossing borders and reaching the next destination more frequently via bus or train, not plane.
The travel cards also have two drawbacks—an annoying annual fee, sometimes over $100, and in a cruel coincidence several charge high international transaction fees. It’s better to stick with a basic rewards card with no annual fee and no international transaction fees during your travels. If you’ve built up airline miles pre-trip, use them for your departure and/or return flight.
Subscribe to airlines’ weekly special email distributions—you may be able to snag a cheap departing flight to start the adventures. The weekly email distributions may alert you to a limited time air-pass offer. I visited Australia in 2008 and at the time QANTAS had a program where after purchasing the international flights, each in-country flight add-on was only $100. I went all over Australia, including a side trip to Hobart, on $100 flights.
Your carry-on bag should contain sensitive information, like your passport and electronics, as well as travel comfort items like a fleece and a pillow. Be sure to have a pen on international flights to complete the arrival and immigration information before the plane lands. Sit near the front of the plane so you can be the first to exit and then be at the front of the immigration line.
A Round-The-World (RTW) ticket through Oneworld, SkyTeam, or Star Alliance sounds tempting and exotic—a true around the world flight itinerary. The RTW ticket is also extremely expensive and I believe anyone that can navigate a flight search engine (Kayak, Expedia, etc.) can prepare a cheaper flight itinerary.
A few more air travel related hassles: A few airports, like those in India, require you to have a printed itinerary to show security before you enter the airport. Major hassle. Certain airlines, like Air Asia, are sticklers about overweight bags and what qualifies as an international versus a regional flight. Certain airports have departure taxes…which is a major pain if you’ve spent the last of your local currency and need to take $20 out of the ATM for a $5 fee. Certain airports have arrival taxes. These are all part of the joy of air travel and make as much sense as airline ticket prices.