This past Christmas, Etihad Airlines mistakenly published cheap airfare from the United States to India, Africa, and the Middle East that made its way across the web like wildfire. Fares were as low as $178 round-trip. It was an incredible Christmas gift to many travelers, and I shared the deal on social media, hoping some of you could snatch some cheap flights. However, a few hours later, this comment appeared on Facebook:
(Note: I’ve blacked out the person’s name for privacy reasons.)
What I thought was a helpful tip sent this particular reader over the edge. While it seemed an overboard reaction, her underlying frustration that the United States seemingly gets all the best travel deals while everyone else gets screwed is one I understand. At least a dozen emails a day ask “I’m not American. Will this work for me? How do I travel cheap?”
The perceived notion that the US gets the best deals frustrates a lot of international travelers. Where are their mistake fares? But, in truth, you can find travel deals throughout the world — from cheap flights, to buses, to trains. It’s all out there if you know how to find it. Americans don’t have a monopoly on travel deals.
I write this blog with a global audience in mind. After all, we face the same expenses when we get to a destination. Getting there is one thing, but once we are in Tokyo, we all have to figure out how to eat, sleep, and sightsee without spending a lot of money. It’s not as if there is a US price and a price for the rest of the world (or separate lines for backpackers and vacationers).* All visitors face the same issues no matter where they are from.
But not all methods work for all people equally. Africa hardly ever sees flight deals, intra-South America airfare is stupidly expensive, and outside the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, travel hacking (getting large quantities of points and miles for free travel) is basically nonexistent, and non-fee bank cards, travel insurance, visa rules, and backpack costs vary widely by country.
It’s a big world and there is only so much that can be done.
When you only hear about US flight deals, it’s easy to get frustrated and think “those lucky bastards,” but every week I put together a weekly newsletter featuring deals from around the world. I know they exist, even if they aren’t as abundant as US deals:
- Middle Eastern airlines are starting to offer cheap airfare via their hubs to India and Africa.
- AirAsia offers incredible deals throughout Asia and Australia for as little as $100 per leg.
- Norwegian Airlines can get you from Asia to Europe for $500 round-trip.
- An expanding backpacker scene in South America has seen the rise of safe and cheap hop-on-hop-off buses like Peru Hop.
- LAN Airlines has many deals from South America to the United States.
There are few areas of the world that truly lack any deals (sorry, Central Asia!) and, while it’s impossible to have every deal, tip, or piece of advice work for everyone, there’s always something for someone.
What to use as a non-American
If you’re a non-American, what should you do? Where should you look? Here are the best places to find cheap flight and transportation options when you can’t find mistake fares:
- Air Asia – Offers cheap fares around Southeast Asia, China, Japan, South Korea, and Australia
- Tiger Airways – Offers cheap fares from Singapore and around Australia
- Holiday Pirates – Incredible flight and vacation package website that finds mistake fares and deals for Europe-based travelers. They have a German website too.
- Busbud — Finds cheap bus routes all over the world
- Rome2rio — An amazing website that shows you all your transportation options from A to B. This site is excellent for finding cheap routes to obscure destinations.
- Norwegian Air – Incredible flight deals to and from the United States and Europe with onward deals to Bangkok
- Momondo — One of the best flight search engines in the world for finding budget airline and cheap flights
Remember that you don’t always have to go from A directly to B. You can hop around. From Australia, take AirAsia to Bangkok then hop a cheap flight on Norwegian Air to Europe. Going direct may be quicker, but it’s not always the cheapest way.
I understand the frustration. There are few ”mistake” fares originating outside the US, but that doesn’t make it impossible to fly or get somewhere cheaply. There are options and, once we hit the ground, we are all on equal footing. Flights only represent a small fraction of the overall costs of your trip. Don’t get discouraged by a lack of deals, but instead do the best you can and look for ways to make up the costs on the ground. If you look at flights as an insurmountable obstacle that you can’t get past, you’ll never see that beyond them are plenty of ways to save, even out your costs, and travel more — no matter where you are from in the world.
*Note: I know plenty of countries have different local and foreigner pricing but I’m talking about just tourists here.
Katie
I do think that Europe and North America tend to get the better deals (with travel hacking too) but you are right that there are opportunities to save money on travel wherever you are from. Living in Australia, I have booked fares all over the country during sales with Tiger Air and have been over to NZ for only AUS$215 return including fees a couple of times now when JetStar has sales so the deals are definitely out there
Adam
Thanks for the tips Matt! Here in the UK I use Holiday Pirates and sky scanner the most. I tend to use Holiday Pirates for inspiration for short breaks away to somewhere new as they are pretty good at finding obscure places not everyone has heard of. Sky scanner is my other favourite for finding flights cheap quickly. The others on the list are new to me, so I’ll check them out. Thanks again!
Karen Shakespeare
Yeah l hear so many awesome fares in Europe & also across the Atlantic. But lm grateful for Air Asia here in Australia. I could never have travelled as far with other airlines. I was going to Kenya to volunteer & was told that the airfare was about $2500 return. So l flew from Queensland to Kuala Lumpur wt Air Asia then to Kochi, lndia. Then by Kenya Air to Nairobi. Shuffled around dates & came up with a $1150 return. I don’t mind changing planes & airports, it’s all a part of the adventure!
Klodzko
There are a lot of deals for people of all nations. But you have to be a deal hunter to get them. Otherwise is pretty difficult to match the need with the offer. When you build your travel plan with deals in mind it get easier to get them.
Renee
Jetstar is a great one for Australia, Japan & SE Asia. Sign up to their newsletter and you will get emails about any specials before they go online. Also in the past 12 months they have had a couple of times they have had sales with error fares e.g. $9 leg from Bali – Melbourne!!! Their website will often get overloaded and break down during these times but if you go to another booking site that shows Jetstar fares i.e. Webjet you can usually book them.
Katrina
I feel like American airfares are more expensive than a lot of other places in the world. There are so few budget airlines anymore. I guess if you live in a big hub city things might be different but from where I live it’s so expensive to go anywhere unless you get really lucky and get a deal. In Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia there seem to be a lot more budget airlines and you can country hop for next to nothing.
swanny
I must admit, deals from Aus to Europe are pretty hard to come by. Your almost always looking at least 1200 return to get to Europe
America does seem to have it a bit easier due to all the competition whereas Australia has less competition.
I think I am even more unlucky in that Perth is probably the hardest of cities in Oz to get deals for. The only place that is cheap to fly to is Bali!
I think that sounds like a good tip to book a budget airline like Jetstar or Scoot from Perth to Singapore then to Europe from there. I will try that, see what comes up?
Cheers.
Ale
I wish some venture capitalist would create a llow budget airline with extensive routes WITHIN Latin America! (between México hubs, Central, and S. America)
And also from Mexico hubs to Asia hubs! I’m dreaming of this
We only make a small portion of the ssalaries that EEuropeans or especially Americans get.. It’s very needed
NomadicMatt
Hey everyone! Due to the age of this post and the difficulty in moderating thousands of posts for spam, comments for this post have been turned off. If you would like to continue the discussion, head over to the forums at http://forums.nomadicmatt.com and chat there! I frequently post and reply to threads over there! Thanks! – Matt