Around the world for ~$2k
Been playing with travel sites all day, (Kayak FTW!) and I discovered several interesting anomalies with which I plan to tour the world for some $2k in air travel. Flight arbitrage, if you will.
(p)Guadalajara ↔ Toronto ↔ London ↔ Tokyo ((at least!)
You see:
- Travel within Europe is really, really cheap. As in “
€30: £5 London – Madrid round trip. So Europe can be thought of as one point: London, by far the cheapest hub. - Round trips are a considerably better deal than one-ways. I understand they are the industry’s version of wholesaling but a 40% difference seems too much ”p">(a one-way can be 140% the price of either round trip leg)%.
- Travel order is everything. Mexico-Tokyo, one way is some $900. Tokyo-Mexico, one-way too, no less than $2,000! That’s right, the exact same distance can cost you over twice as much depending on where you start!
Putting it all together, my plan is to buy the following round trips: Guadalajara-Toronto, Toronto-London, London-Tokyo. I travel from Guadalajara to Toronto, then to London, then to Tokyo, where I stay 3 months. Then I return to London, where I stay some 6 months (to travel cheaply around Europe), then I return to Toronto and stay some 3 months, and only then do I return to Guadalajara.
All this for some $2k!
It’s a tad complicated and wasteful, and I need to plan far ahead, but the price’s pretty good, right?
Can you think of something else? Know any other anomalies? Youth discounts? Passes? Got any tips?
I haven’t bought yet but I think I will soon!