In May of this year, I managed to fly from Rome to Los Angeles, via Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and Tokyo, then back to Europe again for $593. I didn’t use credit card points, didn’t use mileage credit, and didn’t score some kind of deal that isn’t readily available to the public. You can get this kind of deal, too.
Here’s how:
Sign up for the right newsletters:
It was a dark and cold December in Berlin and I laid in bed scrolling through my emails. I’d been attached to my computer all day. I go through periods of work and play – opening my computer when I wake up and working, sometimes six days per week for 16 hours, until closing it and going to sleep. This makes those times I take off for a month in Africa to sleep in a tent possible.
Given the deep relationship my computer and I were carrying out those days (Oh my God I just realized my longest and most dedicated relationship is with a computer named Simon), I was checking every email, which meant I saw the Mighty Travels news right when it came in:
‘Mistake fare’ from Rome to Los Angeles via Singapore for $397.
The timing was perfect. My sister was due to have her baby right around then and I would be at my home base in Europe anyways so a jaunt over to Rome would be cheap and easy. Besides, I need very few reasons to go and eat gelato and after visiting nearly every other country in Southeast Asia, it was high time to visit Singapore .
I sprang for it and booked a flight with a 6-day layover in Singapore departing May 1, then posted the news to my Facebook fan page. Several months later when I landed, a reader who attended my Singapore meetup told me she’d booked the very same flight after seeing my post. We ate stingray and danced the night away together.
Next was sorting out my flight back from LAX to Europe. That fortuitous email came through a few days later when Norwegian Airlines released a series of sales for their direct flights from LA to Copenhagen. I scored one for a mere $196.
Yes, a direct flight. From Los Angeles, to Copenhagen. I still can’t believe it’s that cheap.
This isn’t a one-off situation, either. Norwegian also released fares for under $300 from Stockholm to Bangkok in June and regularly has dirt cheap options between major airports.
Flexible? Search Broadly
There are a couple of reasons why I flew so cheap: I was able to jump on the deals quickly, booked five months prior to the travel dates, and I magically needed the exact dates that had availability. Basically, the stars aligned. Then a unicorn rode by. With a rainbow sparkly tail.
Barring that kind of dedication to airline newsletters and perfect timing, there are other easy ways to get good deals, which recently became much easier thanks to the Kayak.com/explore function. Simply input your home airport and select a region of the world, as specific as a certain city or as broad as the entire world map, and watch it come back with deals for your selected date range, which can also be very broad or specific:
It’s fun to play around with, just to see how cheap a vacation to a place you may not have considered before can be.
Book from Another Location
For my trip to Johannesburg from Berlin in January, I used a flight search tool called Adioso, which works under a similar pretense. I had to be a bit more specific for this trip in order to fit my needs, choosing South Africa in January, though my exact dates and specific location in SA were flexible.
The flight ended up costing me €400 one-way, but only if I booked it through the German version of Expedia, which Adioso re-routed me to. Once I switched over to English and USD, the price shot up considerably. Using a combination of words I knew through context and Google Translate, I booked the ticket on the German site.
When flying into or out of a country abroad, consider checking the price in the local currency as well as whatever your home currency is, and chances are the price will be different.
The Reality of Flying that Much
Now for the reality check: The deal was a good one. That much is undeniable. But the travel days were very long and my body was in a state of perpetual jet-lag for over two weeks when I took my RTW trip.
The flights from the mistake fare were all with Etihad Airways, or their partner airlines (key wording there). The flight from Rome to Abu Dhabi was operated by Alitalia, which is in the running for worst airline ever in my book. There was no inflight entertainment system and my chair was broken. It wouldn’t stay up and kept sliding back into a reclined position.
It was really fun when the guy behind me didn’t believe me and kept pushing my chair back up as a form of protest. I’ve never come so close to slapping someone on a flight as I did that day.
From there, the layover in Abu Dhabi was a full 5 hours. The flight on Etihad to Singapore was glorious since they might be the best airline ever with plenty of amenities, great entertainment, and nice food, but I had 24 hours of traveling before I got to Singapore and passed out. Six days later, I repeated with a long layover in Tokyo en route to LA. Six days after that, I did 14 hours to fly back to Europe.
The flight from Berlin to Johannesburg was a similar story, on a mediocre airline, Ethiopian, and with two layovers. A word to the wise: Don’t layover in Addis Ababa if you can avoid it.
Cheap fares are not always convenient. That said, I got a bunch of mileage for not a lot of money, which is always helpful when you fly as much as I do!
Have you ever scored a super cheap international flight? Leave your tips below!
David says
Good article. Thanks. Thank god for unicorns with rainbow tails!
Kristin says
How boring would life be without rainbow unicorns?!
Nina - Where in the World is Nina? says
Yes! I’m so signed up for that newsletter, it’s amazing. I have yet to score a deal on it though. I hate planning ahead. haha. I’m more of a, “hey, let’s buy a plane ticket for next week” kinda person. But yeah- I still always check it, because you never know!
Also- Lay over in Addis Aba…OMG! WORST EVER! I was flying from Bangkok to Johannesburg with a layover there (Ethiopian Airlines as well). Long story short- They MADE me get a yellow fever vaccination 1 hour prior to my flight bc my layover (LAYOVER being the keyword) was in Ethiopia. The most ridiculous thing I’v ever heard. It was terrible.
Kristin says
I am, too. I would so rather book everything last minute! I get the anxiety shakes every time I book in advance because I’m always changing my mind. I tend to pay more for it because I like the flexibility of booking later. As my friend put it, we’re paying for the flexibility by paying more for a ticket by buying last-minute. Is what it is!
And yeah, NOT a good airport for a layover. They didn’t even let us into the terminal to buy things like food and water. Just funneled right from one gate to another. I didn’t have to get yellow fever going from Addis to Joburg though I feared that might happen. I have it now due to Zanzibar but didn’t at the time!
Dave says
I bet he was as close to slapping you on that flight! 😛
Kristin says
He was, and we definitely had words.
But really, can I help a defective seat? Nope, sure can’t.
Dave Anderson says
Great post! I’ll definitely be using some of these tips here for booking my next flights. I’ve also thought of myself as a pretty savvy flight finder, but I didn’t know about a couple of these. Thanks!
Kristin says
A few of them are relatively new and I found out by word of mouth, and have been better off for it for sure!
Katie @ Katie Wanders says
Great article! I use kayak price alerts but I have to check out your other explore option!
Kristin says
It’s addictive! Fair warning.
Jenia from HTL says
I go through periods of signing up for every deal newsletter out there and then unsubscribing from them all. I basically can’t decide if a great deal (which when it actually works is so awesome sauce) is worht the daily grind of the email box. I already get so many emails, that sometimes even clicking delete is too much hassle. Gah! I guess for everything great there must be drawbacks 🙂
Kristin says
This is true. I only subscribe to a few that have been useful in the past, and liking and subscribing to Facebook updates for the others is good too. Then I can electively check rather than battling an inbox.
Vourneen @ Words About Travel says
I am in full time work so often not able to avail of these super cheap flights but sign up for the newsletters just to torture myself with wanderlust I guess. A great one I love is holidaypirates.com or just searching for the cheapest flights I can on Skyscanner by choosing ‘everywhere’ as a destination. PS Do you find Berlin is a good base to travel from ?
Kristin says
Berlin wouldn’t be as good as Frankfurt or Dusseldorf. It’s kind of annoying to fly out of, actually. There isn’t one main airport and the two that do exist aren’t that great. London and Amsterdam would be excellent bases for the purpose of flying but I’m in Berlin for the purpose of living 😉
Donovan says
hello, I’m from Singapore! glad that you made a stopover in my country and hope you enjoyed your stay here. I’m also always on the lookout for cheap fares. Last month, I did a flight from Stockholm to Singapore (one-way) via London and Hong Kong for $350. But your mistake fare is even more worth it! I’m currently looking out for cheap fares from Singapore to South America for my end of year trip and signed up with the newsletter that you recommended. 🙂
Kristin says
That’s pretty good to get from London to Singapore for that cheap. I love the availability of such flights more these days thanks to the cheaper airlines doing longer routes and the mistake fares. The consumer wins that way! Would love to return to Singapore and spend another 6 days.
Sarah says
Also… If you know a travel agent, it helps tremendously. Flew from Boston to Istanbul for only $300 and Istanbul to Melbourne, Australia for $600 and from Melbourne to LA for $387. I can usually find cheap airfare myself and ask her to book it so if I need to change anything it’s easier and cheaper through her.
Kristin says
Never thought of that but it’s a good idea!
Izy berry says
Great post thanks for sharing with us this excellent tips
Jenny @ Till the Money Runs Out says
I am slightly obsessive about scoring travel deals. There are few things that make me happier. We use matrix.itasoftware.com which is the “back-end” of kayak. You cannot buy tickets through the site, just find them, but the search parameters are the most flexible we’ve ever found. We have found $180(!) tickets from LA to Cartagena Colombia using that site and tickets from Austria to Bulgaria for less than $50. I will definitely be checking out some of the newsletter sign-ups you mentioned.
Kristin says
Thanks for letting me know about that! $180 is insanely cheap! I love scoring travel deals too, especially since my biggest costs are flights.
Christal says
I’m from Malaysia.
Booking Air Asia is like a hobby.
I plan my schedule around my flight tickets.
I managed to booked a return flight from KUL to BKK for < US$ 10.
Kristin says
Totally! Did the same when I was spending so much time in SE Asia. KL to KK for $18 I was so proud of myself.
Shanarah says
Definitely agree about checking flights in the local language of the airline! I booked flights from Stockholm -Barcelona-Helsinki earlier this year through Norwegian Air and checked the website in English, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian (once I looked in English I knew what boxes were for what and what to click on) and found that some of the flights weren’t even offered through the English version of the site and different languages had different flights/prices! I thought I was doing something wrong, but obviously it is an actual thing! 🙂
Kristin says
How crazy! Goes to show what spending a bit more time and research can earn you.