Least Expensive Airfare to Four Continents

Least expensive air travel from Omaha to four continents - Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

Outline

  1. Ground rules
  2. Method
  3. Influence of travel dates
  4. Least expensive round-trip to Europe
  5. Least expensive round-trip to Asia
  6. Least expensive round-trip to South America
  7. Least expensive round-trip to Africa
  8. Sum total of all three airfares

Ground rules

This is somewhat of a competition. I give extra points for the person with the least total airfare to all of these continents. All airfares must be roundtrip from Omaha, and must for be a three-week period from now until Sept. 1. It can be two different airlines, in which case you would present two different graphic files. The timing must be such that you can make the connection. Provide at least 3 hours. If the connection has you spending the night at the airport, you must include the cost of a hotel.

Generally, the least expensive fares to these destinations are from coastal cities in the US, like LA and New York. In order to get the lowest fare, you need to find the least expensive coastal city and the least expensive flight from Omaha to that city. Sites like Kayak and Expedia won't do this automatically. There may be some ground transportation involved in transferring to a nearby airport. Include the ground transportation cost and associated graphics. Bigger cities have multiple airports so don't get confused. New York, for example, has five airports: JFK, LaGuardia, Newark, White Plains, and Newburgh. Only three offer international flights. The cheapest flights are often from the smaller airports that charge a lesser fee for landing.

You don't need to check luggage but you do need to include a carry-on bag.

Prices vary widely during this period. They also vary by day of the week. You must present screenshots of the airfare with sufficient detail to verify the dates, connections, and price - including taxes. Use only commercial airlines - you can't use military aircraft or family connections with commercial companies. The flight leaves from Omaha – you can't drive to another city.

Method

I used kayak.com, studentuniverse.com, skyscanner.com, skiplagged.com, greatescape.co, kiwi.com, expedia.com, Airbnb.com, rome2rio.com, google.com and maps.google.com in researching this assignment. I also compared last week’s flights to this week and found a 15.75$ price difference. I found my most valuable tool was the greatescape.co site. I also looked at foreign carriers and travel agencies (www.vayama.com was one I remember ) based in host countries to see if I could get lower flight prices, which I would for the most part, however the stateside flight accounted for the most expensive leg of the trip, averaging out to at least 100$ from coastal city to Omaha.

Influence of travel dates and cities

I Based on the research conducted during last week’s assignment, I had a better idea of dates and cities that would give me significantly lower cost. The following three-week periods from April 6th as late as May 27th yielded the most inexpensive travel expenditures. In South America, the most competitive flights were located in Columbian cities to include Medellin and Bogota, however the most inexpensive flight I found arrived at Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport located between Palmilla and Cali, Columbia. The flight cost me 465$, however this required me to attain a place to stay which cost 40$ and a transportation cost of 17$ amounting to a total of 522$. For the flight to Asia, I found the cheapest flights were to Shanghai and Beijing which in this case, Beijing was the flight of choice at 486$, and as our professor mentioned, these prices may be largely influenced by the COVID-19 outbreak. The flight from Omaha to Europe cost 505$, however with transportation at 11$ and an Airbnb for 40$, total costs came out to 567$. Once again, the flight to Africa was most expensive at 607$, however this inexpensive cost was due to an airport transfer that cost 28$ from one airport to the other costing a total of 635$.

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to Europe

A screenshot of a cell phone Description automatically generated

A screenshot of a cell phone Description automatically generated

 

 

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to Asia

A screenshot of a social media post Description automatically generated

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to South America

 

 

 

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to Africa

 

 

Sum total of all four airfares

Europe: 567.00$

Asia: 486.00$

South America: 522.00$

Africa: 636.00$

Total price: 2,211.00$

Submitted by Suzanne Lopez on Feb 21.