If there's a lesson to be learned from Atallah's Thailand-Australia-Hawaii trip, it's that sometimes you have to make your own itinerary, instead of letting an airline or booking site do it for you.
If you plug your eight desired destinations into Expedia, you might end up with a bargain, or you could wind up with an expensive flight with three stopovers. Instead, make the stopovers work for you by planning them yourself — that’s how Atallah was able to fit Australia into her itinerary.
“Most flights from Phuket to Honolulu had long layovers in other countries. So I decided to make my own layover,” Atallah said. That’s when she decided to add Sydney to the itinerary—between Phuket and Honolulu.
You should also consider capitalizing on local transport deals when traveling outside the US. Atallah’s flight from Bangkok to Phuket was $46 on Thai Smile Airline. (If you’re not sure where to find good flights while abroad, Atallah used Vayama. I’ve also had good luck finding local flights through Kayak.)
And these deals aren’t just for flights; Atallah booked a two-hour ferry ride from Phuket to Ko Phi Phi for $9.
Atallah was traveling with a close friend, who had similar travel goals and also needed to stick to a budget. Splitting their lodging equally helped lower costs and allowed them to splurge within their budget.
In Phuket, they stayed at the Wyndham Grand Kalim Bay for two nights in a suite, which came with a private infinity pool on the balcony. The total for two nights was $221, which they split.
This is an especially important lesson if you’re working with limited vacation days. Atallah had to be in Hawaii the morning of May 25. She took a non-stop flight out of Sydney at 4:25 p.m., but with the time difference, landed in Honolulu the same day at 6:00 a.m. If that’s not making the international date line work to your advantage, I don’t know what is.
Adding a pit-stop in a US destination you’ve never seen is an economical way to boost your itinerary. If you’re going west, San Francisco or Los Angeles can be seamless additions to a flight plan.
When traveling abroad, it's easy to forget that travelers come to the U.S. from all over the world for a reason. Atallah spent a day in Los Angeles when heading back to Atlanta from Hawaii, simply because it was a convenient way to break up the trip.
Atallah has cousins in Sydney, so they didn’t have to pay for lodging or even transportation from the airport while in Australia. Not only did this cut their spending, it also meant they had a built-in tour guide for Sydney. Hitting all the hot spots you've read about is a perfectly good way to see a city, but nothing beats a local showing you around.
Atallah was working with four destinations over the course of 10 days, so she wasn’t about to waste her sight-seeing time in transit. If you can sleep on planes, try to book all of your long flights overnight.
"All of our flights were red eyes, which allowed us to sleep on the flights rather than wasting day time flying. It also helped with jet lag, since we weren't sleepy when we landed," Atallah said.
Atallah says she uses her credit card for everything, which makes it easy to rack up points. She then uses those points to get to larger airports to fly out of the country, because the international flights out of Atlanta (her home airport) tend to be too expensive. Her direct flight from Atlanta to JFK for this trip was $98.
"I use points to fly to other popular but less expensive international airports in the states, and then buy my flights in and out of the country for almost a third of the price," Atallah said.
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