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| Peanuts? I like peanuts. |
I was all set to go to London and Paris this fall--a few months ago, I'd booked airfare using some frequent flier miles, identified which hotels were ideally located for short visits, and looked at what's involved to take the Chunnel between the two cities.
Then I ran across this*: Under $400: From Los Angeles – Visit Budapest / Prague then Tokyo, One way, including all taxes.
In a (pea)nutshell, as long as one could find a cheap (or free) way home from Asia, a person could book a flight from the United States to select European or Middle Eastern cities, then continue on to Asia...and all for as low as $130 from New York City, or $260 from Los Angeles.
Unlike a lot of deals, this one had all kinds of options...maybe too many for an analytical guy like me. Some of the stopover choices for the first leg included Budapest, Milan, Cairo, and Tel Aviv; and final destinations included Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul, and Ho Chi Mihn City. Pricing added to the chaos; identical itineraries showed up with widely varying costs depending on whether one searched using Google Flights, Orbitz, Priceline, or Hipmunk.
Still, I wasn't going to let a little "information overload" prevent me from snatching up an incredible deal. I felt like I needed to act fast; fares like this typically don't last long. But I also knew that the lack of a return to the US would cause many people to hesitate while they tried to find a way home that didn't eat up the deal's savings. (It turns out that many people on the East Coast planned to no-show for the second leg to Asia, instead treating the deal like a $130 one-way trip to Europe.)
Since I ran across the original FlyerTalk article within a couple hours of its posting, I knew that I had a little time to tinker around with some options. I spent all night searching for the lowest fares to cities I've never been to. After consulting with a trusted travel adviser, I ultimately booked LA to Budapest and Prague to Tokyo, with the thought that I'll use the open jaw as bookends to a longer European stay that includes major cities like Rome (better weather and more sunlight that time of year) and Berlin (only 4 hours via train to Prague.)
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| This is what 280 bucks got: Los Angeles to Budapest with plane changes in Paris and Rome, then from Prague to Tokyo through Amsterdam. The return to San Francisco (direct) wasn't included, but I used some frequent flier miles to book that leg for $43 in taxes. Winning! |
I strongly considered flying into Cairo instead of Budapest; it would have given me the opportunity to stay in Istanbul for a few days before making my way over to Prague and onward to Asia. But the connecting flights were more expensive and less frequent, and ultimately I needed to choose between Europe or the Middle East...not try to squeeze both into two weeks before continuing on to a third continent. There will be more opportunities to see the rest of the world.
All together, airfare and train expenses will add up to about $500. Now I'm working on a plan to book 16 hotel nights using rewards; travelisfree.com is going to get a lot of page visits in the coming weeks.
Sorry London & Paris; I'll call the airline to reschedule you for another time.
* Actually, I learned about this deal in a FlyerTalk miles run forum here, but TheFlightDeal article summarizes it in layman's terms; FlyerTalk is full of traveler nerdspeak.
