My top websites for cheap(ish) airfare.

Yes yes yes... there are few things that I love more than looking up cheap airfare online (ie. grown adults with the hiccups and kitten videos).  I've recently received a few e-mails and comments asking me what my exact procedure is and what sites I frequent the most.  I figured it would be more beneficial to everyone if I just made a post about it.  Without further ado...

I start out with an open mind.  I don't want to limit myself by specific airlines or even modes of transportation.  I'll take a plane, train, ferry, or even a scooter if it'll take me to a desired location.  That being said, I usually start with airfare since it's the fastest and usually the easiest to find.

I start my search on either expedia.com or kayak.com.  I prefer Expedia since they always include the taxes and other fees.  I absolutely hate finding airfare that's I think is a steal to then realize it's actually $300 more with taxis included.  Expedia doesn't play with my emotions and I like that about them.  

I use Kayak to find which airlines are the cheapest to a desired location.  I will then go directly that airline's website and search for an actual ticket there.  It'll either be the same price that Kayak quotes or even cheaper.

When it comes to airfare within a desired region I'll usually do a quick google search of which airlines are the cheapest and the most used.  For example, In Europe it's highly recommended to find flights to other European countries on Easy Jet or Ryan Air.  Both companies offer discounted prices all the time.  It's especially great for the boy and I since we'll be able to benefit off of last minute deals thanks to our flexible time line. 

It's very important to try different options.  If you plan on visiting multiple destinations make sure you incorporate that in your search.  Expedia gives you the option of flying to multiple destinations and I often find that flights are a lot cheaper when booking this way.  For example, yesterday I was looking up flights to Aleppo, Syria on our way to Delhi, India (from Europe).  My first search looked like this:

Milan, Italy -> Aleppo, Syria (connection in Cairo, Egypt) = $399.50/person
Aleppo, Syria -> Delhi, India (connection in Doha, Qatar) = $382.20/person

grand total: $781.70

Using the multi-destination option I found these tickets for nearly $100 less:

Milan, Italy -> Aleppo, Syria (connect in Amman, Jordan)
Aleppo, Syria -> Delhi, India (connect in Amman, Jordan)

Total for both flights together : $690.60

I had tried flying out of various cities in Europe.  Milan has been the cheapest thus far but I still have a few more airports that I'm looking into.  I'm telling ya, I could spend hours doing this stuff. 

Also, I had sworn myself against travel agents- mostly because I thoroughly enjoy doing the work on my own and paying someone to do what I love would just be dumb.  However, most travel agents have partnerships with certain airlines and can often get you discounted airfare that you won't find on their websites.  For example, Kangsan Travel based in South Korea will often find me great prices on trips to Thailand and other areas around Southeast Asia.  They also have a neat feature on their website that allows you to look up your own airfare.  Only downside is that you don't get the taxes added on until you check out.

Here's a little cheat sheet that I've made just for you:

Flights to or around Europe:

• www.ryanair.com

• www.easyjet.com

• www.wegolo.com

• www.europebyair.com

Flights from Korea:

• www.kangsantravel.com

• www.whypaymore.co.kr (You'll need someone who reads Korean to help you)

Flights to or around Southeast Asia:

• www.thaiair.com

• www.airasia.com

• www.tigerairways.com

• www.bangkokair.com

Flights to India:

• www.ticketstoindia.co.uk

Now don't forget, I'm still learning.   There are so many other tricks of the trade and I'll be more than happy to share them with you as soon as they're revealed.  Until then, I hope this helps.  Feel free to offer an advice that you have to share!

Your Daily Gem.

There are an overwhelming amount of young boys at our school with the name Jack.  I know it's a catchy name and it's probably one of the most popular when it comes to movies and folk tales.

We've got Jack in the Box, Jack and the beanstalk, Jack (and Jill), that nimble Jack with the candlesticks, Jack the ripper, Jack Frost, Jack Dawson from Titanic, Captain Jack Sparrow, Jack Kerouac, Jack Johnson, Jack Black, Jack Bauer, even Jack Russell terriors...

Jack can also be found in various compound words and phrases.  Jackknife, Jackpot, Jackhammer, Jack-O-Lantern, hiJACK.  The list goes on and on.  It's no wonder our Korean co-teacher had to make up nicknames for the 3 Jacks in her class.

There's Jack K1 and Jack K2- aptly named because both of them have Kim as their surname.  She also exclaimed, "I call the other one Jack S!"  The teacher's room immediately fell silent and I think someone dropped their chopsticks. 

We slowly looked at Anna and I carefully asked the obvious question.  "Anna, do you really call him jackass?"

Wandering Wednesdays.

 

Christmas Eve 2009.  Desert of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

As you may know, I love looking up cheap airfare to anywhere in the world.  If I'd have to guess, I probably do it at least 6 days out of the week.  I'm an addict.  In the fall of 2009 I had decided, on a whim, to look up airfare to the Middle East.  I started in Yemen since it's a place I've always wanted to go and ended my search with Dubai.  The tickets were ridiculously cheap from Korea and I figured it would be an amazing way to spend our Christmas vacation.

The boy and I, along with our good friends Sarah Willy and Ed, packed up our travel bags and headed to Dubai on December 23rd.  The picture above was taken on Christmas Eve, the day we arrived.  We spent the day wandering around the Mall of Dubai and craning our necks at the Burj Kalifa.  We then road out into the desert where we spent the night camping out under the stars.  Alone.   It was my best Christmas away from home to date.

Your Daily Gem.

Much to my dismay I no longer teach Andy, Isaac and Jenny.  Their absence is a direct correlation to my lack of recent daily gems.  Luckily my co-teacher Claire has been picking up the slack.  She recently gave us this gem.

While sitting in class. 

Andy:  Teacher, I have a great idea.

Claire:  What's your idea Andy?

Andy:  Umm... I don't have leprosy. 

He then looks at the other student in class and says, "Don't worry Isaac.  You don't have leprosy either." 

Whoop Whoop!

Alright everyone.  Good news!  Take a look at this little airfare recipe that I mixed up for ourselves.  This is just after a few hours of searching online.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to find even better deals within the next few weeks.

Keep in mind that we were quoted $3523 for a RTW ticket that looked like this:

Seattle, USA -> New York, USA -> Guayaquil, Ecuador -> London, England -> Delhi, India -> Bangkok, Thailand -> Hong Kong -> Seattle, USA

Thanks to my mad (and compulsive) internet searching skills, I've come up with this bad boy. 

Seattle, USA -> New York, USA -> Panama City, Panama -> New York, USA -> Paris, France (connection in Reykjavic, Iceland) -> overland to London, England -> Delhi, India -> Bangkok, Thailand -> Vancouver, Canada -> overland back to Seattle, USA

The grand total for the trip above including taxes and fees comes to $3089.22.  We'll have to find our way to Ecuador, but we've read that there are boats and ships that leave daily to the Galapagos from Panama.  We might be able to weasel our way onto one of those if we're lucky enough.   We'll also have to make our way to England to leave for Delhi, but we figure that we'll be doing a lot of overland travel within Europe and it shouldn't be too challenging. 

I'll keep you updated.  We still don't know the finer details of where we're going which may end up to purchasing a lot of last minute tickets.  I can only pray the prices remain the same- if not cheaper! 

Steppin' Out Saturday

The weekend was beautiful here in Pohang, Korea.  Well, Saturday was actually pretty cold and overcast, but today (Sunday) was in the high 50's and sunny and bright.  So yes, if you haven't already figured it out, this is a "Steppin' Out Sunday" post but I figure since Korea is so far in the future, it'll still be Saturday back in the States.  I think we call it "bi-winning".

Top: Style Lab, South Korea

Tank top: Style Lab, South Korea

Leggings: Forever 21, South Korea

Shoes you can't see: Gmarket, South Korea

New Shades: The "Everything Store", South Korea

Oh and the boy and I have been pretty sick the past week so we've barely left the house.  I was able to finally get around to learning how to fishtail brain my hair and I'm pretty excited. 

Yes please.

Don't worry mom and dad, I'll return... at least to visit.

Airfare Wars

I've been a madwoman lately when it comes to looking up airfare.  To be fair, looking up and booking plane tickets is one of my favorite things to do in the whole wide world.  I like it more than sneezing, unicorns (gasp!), pain au chocolats, and mayyybe even slightly more than Anderson Cooper. maybe.

When the boy and I decided to start researching airfare for our RTW expedition we immediately jumped to the conclusion that we'd be purchasing an around the world ticket.  We knew that it'd be cheaper and that we'd probably get more bang for our buck.

I started with Airtreks, Star Alliance, One World, and Sky Team.   I made a sample itinerary and sent it out to each air service to get our starting quotes.   Our sample itinerary looked a little something like this:

Seattle -> New York -> Guayaquil, Ecuador -> London -> Delhi, India -> Bangkok -> Seattle

This way, after our stop in Ecuador, we could hit the major hubs around the world and then travel overland from there.  We know that Europe should be relatively easy to traverse using the train system or airlines like Ryanair or Easyjet.   Easy peasy, right?

Wrong.  Turns out that our cheapest quote (by far) was $3,523/person.  Ouch.  It still wasn't as bad as another quote we received that put our estimated cost at $7,500/person.  My bank account is dry heaving with me just having to type it out.

Okay, so technically $3,523 isn't too bad.  I mean, you are paying to travel across the entire world but we had expected it to be a little cheaper.  We're also traveling during peak holiday season which I'm sure didn't help us out fiscally.

While RTW tickets are good in a lot of aspects, we decided to exhaust every other option we had in order to save money.  We've looked into taking a transatlantic cruise from South America to Europe.  We actually found one that left from Panama City and arrived in Spain (with a stop in Curacao, no less) that was only $450/person.  We found a few other inexpensive transatlantic cruises as well.  Only problem is that most of them end in April and won't start up again until September.  We need to depart in June or else we'll just waste our time and money while waiting to leave the States.

The boy also discovered that some cargo vessels will often take on passengers, much like cruise ships but minus the extreme thrills.  It's an alternate way to travel and would be an amazing story.  Chris sent out a few e-mails and we're waiting to hear back from most of them.  One cargo vessel offered to take us on board but it was for an exorbitant amount of money and we respectfully declined.

As of now, I think we're going to forgo purchasing an around the world ticket.  It makes more sense for our unique expedition.  We won't even really know where we're headed until we collect the letters in the Galapagos.  We might need to take the Trans Siberian, hitch hike the western coast of Africa, jump on board someones yacht, or maybe even catch a cross country train in China.  I'm actually more excited now that we won't have deadlines or specific times that we'll have to reach a certain country. 

We're pretty happy with our decision and hope that we'll be able to offer more tips and tricks as we approach our official booking time.

Here's what our extremely tentative schedule looks like:

• June 16/17: Depart for NYC
• June 18: Attend the Nomading Film Festival (NoFF)
• June 20: Fly out of NYC to Panama or Ecuador (which ever is cheaper)
• June 21-?: Retrieve letters from the Galapagos and deliver any addressed within Central and South America.
• July sometime: Fly or sail to Europe.

From Europe we have an open slate.  It'll be my first time in Europe and I want to see as much of it as possible.  We're hoping that we have a good amount of letters scattered throughout the continent and that we'll be able to find low cost ways to travel.  We'll also attempt to make our way to India at some point, and also end up in Thailand.  We'll make our way home from there.  maybe. 

There you have it.  Our weeks of research summed up in a wee blog post.  It's going to be an interesting ride and we're thrilled that you're coming along with us!