Alright, let me tell you how I tracked down decent flight deals for this upcoming long haul trip to Asia. My eyes were burning from staring at too many websites yesterday.
Starting From Scratch
So this month I had to plan this big trip overseas. My dates? Super flexible. Basically anytime next month would work. First thing I did was open up that one big international search site everyone talks about for flights, Skyscanner.
I typed in my starting airport and just put “Asia” as the destination since I hadn’t nailed down exactly where yet. Pretty cool trick that. It spat out prices to tons of places. Saw Bangkok jumped out as way cheaper than Tokyo, so Thailand it is!
Playing the Date Game
Since I could move my dates around, I fiddled with their “Whole Month” view. This thing shows prices for every single day in a month. Found out flying out on a Tuesday instead of Friday could save me nearly $150. Tuesday it is, even if it means dealing with jet lag on a weekday.
Then I tried another well-known site used a lot in the US, Kayak, doing pretty much the same search just to double-check. Prices were mostly similar, maybe $10-$20 difference here and there. Not bad.
Figuring Out the Stops
Looking closer, those cheap tickets usually meant a long layover somewhere. I was stressing about a 9-hour wait in Qatar. Who wants that? So I started filtering the results:
- Max stops: Tried keeping it to just one stop only.
- Layover Time: Made sure stops weren’t ridiculous, aiming for 2-4 hours.
- Airline: Avoided the airlines I’d heard nightmares about.
Found a couple of options with decent 3-hour layovers. Sure, it cost $50 more than the nightmare stop, but worth every penny for my sanity.
Keeping My Eyes Peeled for Changes
Wasn’t ready to pull the trigger right then. Set up that price alert thing on both sites. Got an email two days later saying the flight I liked jumped up $80! That sucked. But then the next morning, boom, another email – price had come back down again. Snapped it up fast.
Trying One More Tool
Before I booked, I remembered another site focused on finding hidden deals, Momondo. Plugged in my dates and route. It basically showed me the same airlines but surfaced this weird combo: one airline to Japan, then a separate cheap Asian airline to Bangkok. Total was slightly less than the options I found before. But honestly? The thought of managing two separate tickets, especially if the first flight got delayed, felt like inviting trouble. I decided sticking with one airline on a single ticket was safer for a trip this long.
Finally Hitting Buy
After all that clicking, comparing, and stressing over stops, I went back to that original site and booked the flight with the okay layover I found earlier. Price wasn’t the absolute rock-bottom cheapest possible, but it felt solid and manageable. Hitting that purchase button was a relief!
So yeah, it came down to this: started super broad on a site that lets you search everywhere, played with the flexible dates hard, got brutal about the stopovers, watched the prices like a hawk with alerts, double-checked with another tool, and then just made the call before prices danced away again. If you’re flying long, play that date game, filter the stops aggressively, and set those alerts!
