Earth Turns Slowly: There's more to travel than flying "The Big 3"

I've got A LOT more flying ahead of me
to make a dent in this list...

While I'm a believer in the old adage, "life is a journey, not a destination", that doesn't apply to airline travel. For me, flights are time in a big aluminum tube that I endure so that I can enjoy more significant adventures once I'm on solid ground.

What follows is a list of travel carriers I have used to save time and money while expanding the new destinations I'm able to visit. Hopefully it inspires readers to think "outside the box" when it comes to planning an adventure.

I'm aware that some people choose not to fly certain airlines, such as "ultra low-cost" carriers like Spirit Airlines or Allegiant Air. Most of the time the issue surrounds the fee structure, where the fare only appears low until additional charges are factored in.

However, I have learned how to travel with only a backpack-style carry-on travel pack, so I am able to take advantage of some really inexpensive airfares on these carriers. One-bagging it also allows me to quickly transfer from one airline to another at the airport, since I don't need to spend time retrieving checked luggage. For example, I might choose to fly from the U.S. to a European hub city for about $175 one-way, then hop on another airline to get to my desired location for just an extra 50 bucks.

Obviously, travel preferences vary from one person to another. That said, I'm all about the destination, and will put up with a few hours of no-frills service in a tight space as long as I can get where I want to go at the price I want to spend.

I focus on three things:

TIMING: Which airlines fly to the destination on the desired day of the week, and at convenient departure times? The right itinerary can mean a few extra hours of sightseeing at the origin or destination city, and it can impact things such as affordable airport shuttle service, or lodging check-in time policies, especially if one chooses to stay at someone's home, such as an Airbnb.
EFFICIENCY: Which airlines offer direct flights to my destination?
Layovers eat up valuable vacation time...unless one chooses to maximize them by leaving the airport for a short stay.
PRICE: Which airline gets me where I want to go for a low fare?

I thought it might be fun and insightful to list the various airlines that I've chosen throughout my travels abroad. I've also included a few alternative forms of transportation--including some rail carriers and a ferry--where flying didn't make sense.

* Because I'm a nerd for graphic design, the logos below are the ones used by their respective carriers at the time of travel.

2022: COPENHAGEN - TENERIFE - SEVILLE - GRANADA - MÁLAGA - SOFIA - PALMA

Lorum ipsum

*** under construction ***

[Sacramento to Copenhagen via Delta]

[Copenhagen to Tenerife South via Vueling]

[Los Cristianos to Santa Cruz via TITSA]

[Tenerife North to Seville via Vueling]

[Seville to Granada via Renfe]

[Granada to Málaga via Alsa]

[Málaga to Palma de Mallorca via Vueling]

[Palma to Madrid via Air Europa]

[Madrid to Sacramento via Delta]

2022: PARIS - LYON - GENEVA - NICE - MONTE CARLO - SOFIA - MADRID

After canceling another trip due to the pandemic, I had an airline credit to use. I decided to redeem it for the journey home (below), so I still needed an outbound flight for a last-minute booking. Knowing about low-cost carrier French Bee's service between Paris and San Francisco (and onward to Tahiti), I took the direct flight from SFO to Paris Orly, which is a little closer to the city center than Charles de Gaulle Airport.

After a night in Paris (I'd been there a couple times before), I walked from the hotel to a train station for a short 2-hour trip to Lyon on high-speed rail. I opted to take Ouigo, a subsidiary of the French national train service SNCF, since it was slightly cheaper (about $40) and indistinguishable from SNCF for this particular route (hat-tip to Seat61, who provides an excellent primer on Ouigo here.)

I strategically chose Lyon because of its proximity to the Switzerland border and Geneva. The train trip between the cities is a fixed price of about $30, and takes just 2 hours from city-center to city-center. Note: if you choose to do this, I recommend staying at a hotel near Lyon's original station, Parrache, since it is closer walking distance to Lyon's historic city center than the newer Part Dieu station, yet it still connects through to Part Dieu en route to Geneva.

After a couple days in beautiful Geneva, I flew back to France to spend some time in Nice and the French Riviera. It turns out that GVA is on the border, so one can pass through French immigration inside the terminal, and thus take a domestic flight within France despite having entered the airport via Switzerland. I chose U.K. low-cost carrier easyJet for a fairly cheap ($60) nonstop flight.

*** under construction ***

[Nice to Monte Carlo here via SNCF]

[Nice to Sofia via Wizz Air]

[Sofia to Madrid via Wizz Air]

[Madrid to SFO via TAP Portugal]

2021: PUERTO VALLARTA - GUADALAJARA

Since a couple foreign carriers offer direct service between Sacramento and a few Mexican cities, prices to go south of the border are pretty competitive. I chose American Airlines so that I could meet up with a friend at the carrier's hub in Phoenix en route to Puerto Vallarta.

Guadalajara is in the same state as Puerto Vallarta, and while I could have taken a bus in the same amount of time as a flight takes after including total travel time door-to-door, I wanted to avoid being in a bus that long during the pandemic. Aeromar's service was convenient and relatively inexpensive at about $75.

Flying home presented both a challenge and an opportunity. Not only was there a big question mark about the ability to return home during the pandemic, but I'd always wanted to try flying through Tijuana International Airport, which is literally on the U.S./Mexico border, making it easy to pass between the two countries in either direction via the Cross Border Xpress (CBX) skybridge for a small fee. Volaris offered several flights per day from GDL to TIJ, a good thing in order to have a "plan B" for catching the continuing flight home from San Diego.

After taking a cab from TIJ to San Diego for dinner (waiting for a rideshare was preferable, but we were on a tight schedule), I took the final leg home to Sacramento on Southwest Airlines, a flight I've taken so often I've lost count!

2019: BEIJING - KUALA LUMPUR - SYDNEY - MELBORNE

I'd been waiting on a low fare to Australia, and this was it. Air Canada placed Sydney and Melbourne on sale at the same time as they offered cheap flights to Beijing (matching Air China pricing), and since the two fares were "combinable" one could book an open-jaw ticket that flew into Beijing and returned from Melbourne for as low as $396. I waited a day before purchasing the ticket, so it cost me $460...a testament to how quickly the cheapest fare code seating can sell out.

Combining Australia with mainland China was no accident. In addition to regional flights within Southeast Asia, Malaysian-based low cost carrier AirAsia offered inexpensive options on longer routes up and down the Pacific...I'd had these routes in mind while patiently waiting on a combinable fare like Air Canada's.

AirAsia's routing options played a significant role in how I set up my itinerary. While the airline didn't offer free stopovers in their Kuala Lumpur hub, they had some long layover options that allowed for adding a destination in the itinerary. And playing with "Australia first, then China" versus "China, then Australia" revealed that the latter was the longer and better option: 14½ hours in KUL--arriving from Beijing at 9am and continuing on to Sydney at 11:30pm--for just $150. The high speed train service between the airport and the city center allowed me to spend 10 -11 hours in the city, a nice break in a 6,000 mile flight segment.

I knew that I wanted to visit both Sydney and Melbourne, and I'd considered taking the train, but Australia-based LCC Jetstar ended up making more sense for my itinerary. A one-way SYD-MEL ticket cost about $67.

2018/19: ALGIERS - CAPE TOWN - JOHANNESBURG - LIVINGSTONE - VICTORIA FALLS - MOMBASA - NAIROBI - ADDIS ABABA - TUNIS - PARIS

An overview*, with Excursionist segments
in blue (connections not shown).

This was my biggest trip to date, covering 30 days, 8 countries, and 10 cities. It was a combination of two key components: (i) a cheap ticket to & from North Africa, and (ii) the "Excursionist Perk" award of United's MileagePlus program.

When Air France put a few North African destinations on sale, I recognized it as the perfect start & end points for a major trip through Africa. I took advantage of a "combinable fare" policy, booking a flight into Algiers, and returning from Tunis, with an intentional 22 hour layover in Paris to recharge before heading home. Taking advantage of the ability to use Ultimate Rewards to pay for cash fares, I booked the ticket for a little under 37,000 points rather than the (very good) $550 ticket price.

The Excursionist Perk involved multiple United partners (it's worth noting that Star Alliance dominates Africa's largest airlines). In a nutshell, if one books award segments beginning and ending in one of the program's award regions (e.g. Northern Africa), the perk is a third segment within another region (in this case, Central/Southern Africa) for zero points. United prices N. Africa to C./S. Africa at 20,000 points each way, so I was able to book three long-haul legs of a major trip for just 40,000 points...that's the points equivalent of booking each leg for $200 cash each...an amazing value for travel in Africa.

The first award segment involved the largest number of air miles. It began with a flight on EgyptAir from Algiers to their Cairo hub, then an overnight flight to Johannesburg.

Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport is the hub for South African Airways' operations. The final stretch of the first award segment involved a short, two-hour domestic flight to Cape Town.

Having read about South Africa's train options, I chose to book an overnight sleeper on the Shosholoza Meyl train; a great value when comparing the $50 ticket price with what one would spend on a flight and a hotel night. I could have booked a second ticket to assure myself a private 2-person cabin, but I chose to engage with whomever the rail company assigned to the 4-person berth (I ended up with three different cabin mates during different stops along the way, so there were only three of us at any given time). The interactions were great, the countryside was beautiful, and the service was OK, but I was disappointed in the delays, arriving in Johannesburg about eight hours late. No regrets; I'm glad I did it once...but I'll fly next time.

To visit the beautiful Victoria Falls, I chose a "two countries for the price of one" strategy, flying into neighboring Zambia for a day trip excursion, then cross the border via taxi into the city of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. British Airways' distance-based awards redemptions offered a great value, flying from Johannesburg to Livingstone one-way for 4,000 miles. While the flight is under the BA brand, local franchisee Comair operates it.

The middle, free segment of the United award redemption involved flying from Victoria Falls to Mombasa, Kenya on Africa's largest carrier, Ethiopian Airlines. The flight had an overnight connection, arriving in their Addis Ababa hub in the evening and continuing on the next available flight the following morning. This made the flight eligible for a free hotel stay and a couple meal vouchers...a very nice program for immediate connecting passengers.

To get from Mombasa to the capital city of Nairobi, I chose to take the train. In 2017, Kenya Railways replaced the old line with an all new train system, dropping the travel time from overnight to about 4½ hours with the express option. The ticket was about $10 for a ticket, but had to be purchased locally; I just asked my hotel's staff to do it for me.

The next stop was Addis Ababa for the annual Timkat celebration. I purchased a ticket on Ethiopian Airlines for just under 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points in lieu of the $150 cash price.

The final segment of the United award back to Northern Africa involved two airlines, beginning on Ethiopian, with a layover in Frankfurt and a connecting flight on Lufthansa flight to Tunis. I chose this option because I liked the time of departure/arrival compared with what was available connecting through Cairo on EgyptAir, though I was a little disappointed that the layover wasn't long enough to spend a few hours in the city...when dealing with award seat availability, sometimes you just have to take what's available.

2018: BALI - HONG KONG - TAIPEI

Promoting new service out of San Francisco and Los Angeles, Hong Kong Airlines offered a promotion in May with flights to Bali as low as $485 round-trip. I added a stopover in their HKG hub for about $35 in taxes/fees.

British Airways' Avios rewards program prices direct flights under 650 miles at 4,500 points plus tax, making a round trip from Hong Kong to Taipei 9,000 points plus $49 on OneWorld alliance partner Cathay Pacific.

2017/18: AMSTERDAM - ANTWERP - BRUSSELS - DOHA - CHIANG MAI - BANGKOK - SIEM REAP - KUALA LUMPUR - KYOTO - OSAKA - HONOLULU

The deal introducing Oakland to Barcelona was so good that, in addition to the round-trip in November, I bought this one-way ticket to Europe in order to begin my second round-the-world (RTW) trip, beginning a couple days before Christmas, and lasting through the MLK Day holiday.

It made a lot of sense to choose a destination where businesses remain open during the holidays. It turns out that the museums and attractions in Amsterdam maintain normal business hours on Christmas Eve and Day, so it was a perfect fit, especially since I'd never been there before. Transavia is KLM's low cost subsidiary, so direct routes from Barcelona to AMS were frequent and inexpensive.

Brussels is not far from Amsterdam, with many departure times. One option is the high-speed Thalys service that arrives in less than 2 hours. However, I chose an InterCity option run by NS International. This allows one to stop off in Antwerp and/or Rotterdam at no additional cost, as long as they continue on to their ticketed destination on any subsequent train that day. I took a morning departure from Amsterdam Central, stopped off in Antwerp for several hours as a day trip, then continued on to Brussels that evening.

To connect Europe to Asia for the RTW itinerary, I looked for a deal. Qatar Airways had a one-way from Amsterdam to Chiang Mai, Thailand for under $300 (or 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points), and the airline offers a free stopover in Doha, their hub city. Having never visited Qatar or northern Thailand, this was perfect. I chose to do a 20-hour layover in Doha before catching my connecting flight.

There are many airlines connecting Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Everything that I read said that Bangkok Airways and Thai Airlines were more pleasant experiences that serve Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) but at a higher price, while low cost carriers AirAsia, Nok Air, and Thai Lion serve Don Mueang Airport (DMK). Flight times were my biggest concern, so I chose Bangkok Airways. The experience was better than the LCC's, but honestly, it really doesn't make much of a difference on a one hour flight; the main differences were a lounge area at CNX, and checked baggage included in the fare (that, as a member of #teamcarryon, I had no use for.)

After a few days in Bangkok, it was time to *finally* visit Angkor Wat ruins in Siem Reap...every previous time I'd been in the region, an excursion to Cambodia never seemed to work out. I flew direct from DMK to REP on AirAsia, where I spent a couple days before continuing on to Malaysia.

As AirAsia's main hub, Kuala Lumpur is a nice, inexpensive option for making a transition. A couple years ago, they introduced a long-haul service, AirAsia X, flying direct from KUL to Osaka, Japan (KIX), and from that LCC-centric airport to Honolulu (HNL). This RTW trip was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of their low fares, which ended up being just over $100 US for each flight. I split a couple days of my time between Kyoto and Osaka before continuing on to Hawaii.

To get back to Northern California after a few beautiful days in Honolulu, I hopped a flight on Hawaiian Airlines for under $180 (or 12,000 Ultimate Rewards points).

2017: BARCELONA - DAKAR - LISBON - VIENNA - KRAKÓW

In March, IAG (parent of British Airways and Iberia), introduced Level--a Barcelona-based budget airline with direct service to Oakland and Los Angeles. To promote the new carrier, flights were placed on sale for $150 outbound and $100 for the return. My thoughts: I'll have two, please! After reading about how IAG configured the aircraft--new Airbus A330's--with particularly tight seat pitch, it was a no-brainer upgrading to a bulkhead seat for an additional €15 ($18) each way. While the services were à la carte and no-frills, the flights were convenient and on-time.

While looking for deals from Spain, I ran across Lisbon-based TAP Portugal. Not only do they fly several routes to destinations in northern and western Africa, but they offer up to five days free stopover in their Lisbon and/or Porto hubs--one of my favorite ways to see multiple cities for the same airfare. Additionally, they had a fare system where I could price out an open-jaw for the same rate as a round-trip, and depending on the cities of origin and destination, they were offering some amazing fares. I booked Barcelona to Dakar, and Dakar to Vienna with a multi-day stopover in Lisbon for $302...and used Ultimate Rewards instead of cash to pay for it...an amazing redemption.

Kraków, a city that had been on my radar for a while, is under 300 miles from Vienna. After checking Seat61 for always-excellent rail advice, I elected to book an overnight sleeper with the entire compartment to myself for only $95 (booking early and off-season has its benefits). The train departed at 11 pm and arrived at 7 am--not only an efficient use of my time, but also saving a hotel night stay.

When it comes to cheap, direct European flights, it's hard to ignore Ryanair; even with their negative no-frills image, the truth is that they have offer a lot of flights that are on-time and on budget. The trip from Kraków to Barcelona was just 44 bucks for the 2 hour 45 minute flight.

2017: HAVANA

With a summer conference in Orlando, it seemed as good a time as any to take advantage of new flight service between the United States and Cuba. I booked a flight to Havana from San Francisco on American Airlines, with a layover at their Charlotte hub where the airline verified that passengers had the appropriate visas.

I booked a jetBlue flight to Orlando to attend my conference. After four days in Cuba without any potatoes (not sure why they're not available there), I thought I might buy a bag of chips on the plane, but the flight was so short--about 90 minutes--that they didn't offer a food services.

To return home, I flew Virgin America. This was my first flight on the airline...as well as the last, since Alaska acquired the airline after I bought my ticket, then announced that it would retire the brand.

2017: HONG KONG (& EXCURSION IN SEOUL)

This was about as simple as it gets: $420 round-trip to Hong Kong? Yes please, I'll take two! I'd been looking for an opportunity for my nephew to experience China; this fit the bill. It included a long layover in Incheon Airport, which was a bonus since the Korean government offers super-cheap tours of Seoul for passengers in transit. For $10 each, we received a 5-hour tour that included a visit to Gyeongbokgung Palace, plus lunch and shopping in the Insadong neighborhood.

2017: HO CHI MINH CITY - HOI AN - HANOI - MANILA

I've learned to take the time to play around with alternative itineraries before booking a flight. This trip involved combining two United sales--one to Saigon and the other to Manila--into a single, open-jaw itinerary--doing so made it cheaper to visit two countries than just one.

The fare sale included some of United's Star Alliance partners, so the legs between United's Tokyo hub (NRT) and the jaw cities were flown on ANA (All Nippon Airways). That's a good thing, as I've found the Japanese carriers to be more customer-focused than our domestic airlines--especially in the modern era of cost-cutting.

To complete the jaw, I chose an itinerary that crawled north through Vietnam, including stops in Hoi An and Hanoi. I'd heard a lot of complaints about the timeliness of a couple Vietnamese airlines, so I chose Jetstar Pacific, hoping that their partial ownership by Australia's Quantas group might mean more prompt service. It was still a little chaotic at the airport, but the service was comparable to our domestic low-cost airlines, and the price couldn't be beat ($28 for flights that would cost about $70 one-way back home...and that included upgraded legroom for about five bucks!)

2016: SANTIAGO - BUENOS AIRES - MONTEVIDEO - PANAMA CITY

I booked an open-jaw award with United before they ended their policy of allowing stopovers outside of a single zone. The flight took me from Sacramento to Santiago after a layover in Houston.

Valparaíso and Viña del Mar are popular excursions from Santiago. I purchased a ticket on a very comfortable Turbus coach to Viña del Mar for $5 US each way, then took the metro that runs between the two towns for a scenic, ocean-side approach into Valparaíso.

The jaw between Santiago and Montevideo was ideal for a cheap flight to Buenos Aires. I chose one of Chile's low-cost carriers, Sky Airline, to make the two-hour flight.

Argentina is separated by a river from Uruguay. I took a high-speed Buquebus ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia del Sacramento, a beautiful world heritage site that serves as both a romantic getaway as well as a port of entry into the country.

From the port in Colonia, the capitol city of Montevideo is just over a two hour drive away. After seeing the sites, I purchased an express bus ticket via Turil to make the trip.

The flight to Panama City, as well as the one from there to Mexico City (layover only) on the way home, was made on Copa Airlines, which is based in Panama's capitol. Once in Mexico, the final leg to San Francisco was aboard United.

2016: SHANGHAI - SEOUL

Layovers can expand the globe. I jumped on a last-minute sale from China Eastern, traveling from San Francisco to Shanghai via Pudong International, and spending nearly 24 hours there before continuing on to Seoul from the city's other airport, Hongqiao International.

2015/16: LONDON - PARIS - CAIRO - ISTANBUL - STOCKHOLM

This was my last 20,000 mile one-way AAdvantage award redemption to Europe.😢 Despite limited availability, I found a flight leaving Christmas Day from San Francisco to London, with a layover in Los Angeles that allowed for a holiday meal with my sister and nephew.

Sometimes the train is faster and cheaper than flying. I avoided the wasted hours of airport logistics by taking Eurostar through the Chunnel, arriving in Paris about two and a half hours after I showed up at the train station in London.

It pays to leverage stopover polices, especially at airport hub cities. By booking flights on EgyptAir from Paris to Istanbul with a multi-day stopover in Cairo, I paid about $30 more than if I had only booked Paris to Cairo...MUCH cheaper than buying an additional ticket to Istanbul.

Pegasus Airlines is a low-cost Turkish carrier based out of Istanbul's "other" airport on the Asian side of the city, Sabiha Gökçen International. Transit from downtown is less convenient than traveling to Atatürk Airport, but the savings can be significant...I spent about $80 for the 1,400 mile flight to Stockholm--about the same distance as Sacramento to Dallas.

I chose to travel to Stockholm just to try Norwegian Airline's super-cheap, direct flight from Stockholm to Oakland. The price was so low that it didn't make sense to burn a valuable award redemption during a non-peak travel period...and I got to visit a great city too.

2015: SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Because of a flight credit received a year earlier, this trip from Sacramento to Puerto Rico only cost $150 out of pocket. But I had to fly through Houston and Newark on the outbound, and Newark plus Denver on the return. Most likely, starting and ending my itinerary in the Bay Area would have cut my connections down to one in each direction.

2014: BUDAPEST - PISA - FLORENCE - ROME - BERLIN - PRAGUE - TOKYO

This was a "RTW" (round-the-world) trip that I booked after Air France-KLM published an error fare that priced a one-way, "open-jaw" trip from Los Angeles to Eastern Europe (or the Middle East) and on to Asia for less than $300.

The deal required departure from LAX, so I booked a one-way from Sacramento to Los Angeles on Southwest.

Los Angeles to Budapest required three legs totaling 22 hours (including layover time). The first two involved short stops in Paris and Rome, both on Air France.

The final leg of the first day of flying involved an Alitalia flight from Rome to Budapest. A long day of flying, to be sure, but I quickly forgot about it after viewing the Chain Bridge and Castle Hill at night.

Pisa International is the main airport in Tuscany; a direct flight there from Budapest on Ryanair allowed me to view the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Piazza dei Miracoli before continuing on to Florence.

Tuscany is central to Italy; thus, domestic travel by air doesn't make much sense. For $10, I took a Trenitalia local from Pisa to Florence (after a wait due to striking train workers). After a night and a day there, I hopped back on for a $50, 90-minute trip to Rome.

Another country, another discount airline. This time, I flew Germanwings direct from Rome Fiumicino Airport to Berlin Tegel Airport for about $75.

Berlin to Prague via train takes 4 1/2 hours, which is about the same as flying when you consider the extra time required for airport check-ins. With Deutsche Bahn schedules leaving every couple of hours, I chose a train at the last minute, paying more than I should have. Had I purchased a ticket in advance, I could have spent as little as $35. Still, it's about the same time and price as flying, yet much more scenic and comfortable.

After time in Prauge, it was time to continue on the original Air France-KLM deal's itinerary. I flew KLM Royal Dutch Airlines from Prague to Tokyo with a short layover in KLM's Amsterdam hub.

To get home after the super-cheap trip two-thirds of the way around the world, I cashed in some United MileagePlus points for a direct flight from Tokyo to San Francisco.

2013: BARCELONA - MARSEILLES - MARRAKESH - MADRID

With no AA award availability out of NorCal, I used Delta Airlines SkyMiles for the "positioning flights" to get me between San Francisco and the award ticket's start & end point: New York City.

I flew American Airlines for the transatlantic flights between New York City and Europe (to Barcelona and from Madrid), using an award redemption (40,000 miles round trip).

Alitalia offered the best option for the trip from Barcelona to Marseilles, with a transfer in Rome. Paid cash.

Aix-en-Provence is a beautiful, fountain and tree-lined town just 20 miles north of Marseilles. Getting there was easy using France's national rail service, SNCF.

While the flight from Rome to Marseilles was coded on Alitalia, the flight was on Air France metal.

Purchased tickets on Royal Air Maroc from Marseilles to Marrakesh, with a transfer in Casablanca.

Ryanair for the flight from Marrakesh to Madrid. Paid a ridiculously low amount of cash.

2009: SINGAPORE - BANGKOK - HONG KONG

This was my first big trip using airline miles earned through a credit card signup bonus. I used American's AAdvantage miles to travel the front half of the trans-Pacific portion of the trip on partner Japan Airlines, flying from San Francisco to Singapore via Tokyo.

From Singapore, I took advantage of AirAsia's dominance in Southeast Asia--their version of Southwest Airlines--to travel from Singapore to Bangkok, and several days later, from Bangkok to Hong Kong.

I had to visit the casinos in Macau, just across the bay from Hong Kong (about the same distance as Vallejo to San Francisco). A trip on a high-speed TurboJET ferry takes just under an hour for about $20 each way, and they leave Hong Kong every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day.

The other half of my trans-Pacific award redemption was flown on American's partner, Cathay Pacific--a direct flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco.

2008: VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Pulling up the details of this trip, I was reminded me that I've been "travel hacking" for a long time.

Flights to Vancouver were more expensive than I wanted to pay, so I booked a cheap round-trip between Sacramento and Seattle...

...then booked the Quick Shuttle bus service to go from SeaTac Airport to downtown Vancouver for about $85 round-trip.

2005: PUERTO AVENTURAS, MEXICO

I owe my love for travel--and my first passport--to a friend who graciously made me her "plus one" at a beautiful wedding held at a resort on the shores of the Caribbean. Looking back, this might be the least complicated international itinerary I've done--a simple round-trip from San Francisco to Cancun, with a short Miami layover in each direction.

Hopefully this inspires some creative itinerary planning; make the most of your vacation days!

Note: I plan to edit this post as my list gets longer; there's really no need to create an additional article on the topic.

Earth Turns Slowly

Sunday, June 5, 2016

There's more to travel than flying "The Big 3"

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