Kentucky to Korea, on the cheap!
September 15, 2011 7:27 AM Subscribe
Help me fly from Kentucky, to California, to Korea, back to Kentucky! It'll be fun!!
I want to go visit my friend in Korea in the Spring or Summer of 2012. Ideally, I will fly from Kentucky (home) to LA to visit a friend for a couple days, and then on to Korea. Return flight will just be the simplest way to get from Korea back to KY.
So, I'm looking for the most affordable way to do this, if there is one. Any suggestions for booking strategies? Suggestions for websites or other services to help me get a cheap flight? Anything that might help?
I'm a very relaxed traveler, and after this December I will have literally nothing on my schedule until Fall 2012. As a result, crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, standby type travel is welcomed if it saves me a few bucks. Also, the LA stopover is nonessential, so if you happen to know of a cheap route that does not involve LA, let me hear it. For that matter, I don't even necessarily have to fly into Korea; if there is a cheaper Asian country that I could fly into, and then fly to Korea from, I'd be fine with that. Basically, I want to get to Korea for as cheap as possible.
I am also curious as to how long I should expect rates to stay approximately the same. Example: if I see a $1500 flight from KY to Korea for Summer, is it reasonable to expect that price to be roughly the same if I book it in December? (Obviously, I know that flight costs are determined by many unforeseeable factors like fuel cost, I am just looking for a general idea of predictability here.)
Thanks hive!
I want to go visit my friend in Korea in the Spring or Summer of 2012. Ideally, I will fly from Kentucky (home) to LA to visit a friend for a couple days, and then on to Korea. Return flight will just be the simplest way to get from Korea back to KY.
So, I'm looking for the most affordable way to do this, if there is one. Any suggestions for booking strategies? Suggestions for websites or other services to help me get a cheap flight? Anything that might help?
I'm a very relaxed traveler, and after this December I will have literally nothing on my schedule until Fall 2012. As a result, crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, standby type travel is welcomed if it saves me a few bucks. Also, the LA stopover is nonessential, so if you happen to know of a cheap route that does not involve LA, let me hear it. For that matter, I don't even necessarily have to fly into Korea; if there is a cheaper Asian country that I could fly into, and then fly to Korea from, I'd be fine with that. Basically, I want to get to Korea for as cheap as possible.
I am also curious as to how long I should expect rates to stay approximately the same. Example: if I see a $1500 flight from KY to Korea for Summer, is it reasonable to expect that price to be roughly the same if I book it in December? (Obviously, I know that flight costs are determined by many unforeseeable factors like fuel cost, I am just looking for a general idea of predictability here.)
Thanks hive!
My holiday itineraries are normally multi leg trips of some description and no matter how often I search for individual flight connections for the various elements the total of these individual ticket prices tends to be higher than searching for one multi-leg booking for all components. It could be that I run out of patience too soon but that's my experience anyway. You might want to call a travel agent, too, and ask them for a quote. The more long winded your travel plans the more useful their knowledge of ticket combinations and prices in the market can be.
posted by koahiatamadl at 7:58 AM on September 15, 2011
posted by koahiatamadl at 7:58 AM on September 15, 2011
You don't have to go to a single airline's site to price out a multi-leg trip, check expedia, kayak, hipmunk and any other aggregated site. Check them often so you know when a good deal shows up. Be flexible with your dates, and most sites will let you search 3 days on either side of single day. Be sure to check southwest.com for the KY to LA route, since they are not available on the aggregated sites.
If you fly into another country, be sure to include the cost of getting to Korea to make sure you are actually getting a deal.
posted by soelo at 8:50 AM on September 15, 2011
If you fly into another country, be sure to include the cost of getting to Korea to make sure you are actually getting a deal.
posted by soelo at 8:50 AM on September 15, 2011
Generally for international flights to/from the US it will be significantly cheaper if you buy the flights in and out of the foreign country together. If you're ending up in a different place than where you started, you can get the round-trip discount by purchasing an open jaw ticket. You just search in the "multiple flights" option of your favorite flight search engine, and enter the flights (lax-icn, icn-ky) into the search boxes. Try adding a ky-lax flight and see if that is cheaper, or if you're better off buying that leg separately and/or from some other low cost carrier.
When I was looking into flying to and from Japan, Korea was almost always a cheaper choice, so I think Korea is one of the better Asian countries to fly to. Also Incheon airport is nice. I would guess that it is still a little early for buying tickets, but since you're looking into visiting in the summer, tickets may be generally more expensive. I would strongly recommend that you go in spring rather than summer to avoid the gross sticky summer weather.
posted by that girl at 8:59 AM on September 15, 2011
When I was looking into flying to and from Japan, Korea was almost always a cheaper choice, so I think Korea is one of the better Asian countries to fly to. Also Incheon airport is nice. I would guess that it is still a little early for buying tickets, but since you're looking into visiting in the summer, tickets may be generally more expensive. I would strongly recommend that you go in spring rather than summer to avoid the gross sticky summer weather.
posted by that girl at 8:59 AM on September 15, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Next month, I'm doing London -> San Francisco -> San Diego -> London. After trying various combinations of things like RT LHR-SFO with a RT SFO-SAN in between, in the end the multiple leg options were the cheapest.
Regarding when you should buy for the best fares, this recent Ask Metafilter comment is quite good in that regard.
posted by vacapinta at 7:46 AM on September 15, 2011