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 the trial and error method in choosing my flights. I used google flights for this assignment and just looked all over each continent for the cheapest round-trip flights. I also based the price into where I was landing, that way I can plan what I want to do when I do land in these cities. After comparing the dates google flights offered with the prices of other airline services, I was able to choose the cheapest rates to get my price down.

Influence of travel dates and cities

For finding the cheapest flights to Europe, I chose Northern Europe because in google flights, it was the cheapest route to go. I then scrolled through the various cities and looked at dates from now until late August to find the cheapest rates. Manchester would be a sweet city to visit, especially being in the United Kingdom, I could do some travelling to parts around. I did the same method for finding my flights to and from Asia but had to dial into the continent of Asia a little more. I thought that the bigger, more touristy cities would be cheaper. This was wrong considering they were more expensive. I also have an overnight layover in Denver on my trip back from Asia, but it is only 3 hours so I will not need a hotel room. I have no knowledge of Chengdu so I will need to do lots of research on what is near and things to do, that way the money I saved on the flight can be used for activities/stay.

            As far as flying to-and-from South America, I had some other factors play into this. If I ever do get the chance to go to South America, I would love to see the Andes mountain range and in going through Lima this would be possible. I did keep the same system of trial and error on some of the bigger cities and just choosing the dates based off price. The final information was the hardest to find because flying into Africa is expensive. After looking into many major cities, I decided to fly into Nigeria because it had the cheapest options by hundreds of dollars. Again, like Chengdu, I have never thought about going to Africa so I will need to do research on what I can do in Nigeria.

            After I went back in to edit my flight information, I stopped looking at the where and looked for just the price. I looked for the cheapest flights to each continent on multiple services. The dates are varied and chose from whichever had the best rates. I do have an overnight layover to and from Asia which will make me need to book a hotel that night, but otherwise this was the cheapest route. I was able to cut out $1,000 off of my original total to be just above $2,000 for all four trips.

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to Europe

This is the flight to Europe. This image shows the price as well as flight from Omaha to Chicago.

 

 

This is the flight to Europe. This image shows the travel from Chicago to Madrid as well as return flights from Madrid to Charlotte and then to Omaha.

 

 

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to Asia

This flight is to Asia. This image shows the price, as well the flight from Omaha to Seattle and the overnight layover.

 

 

This flight to is Asia. This image shows after the layover in Seattle, flight from Seattle to Beijing, and flight from Beijing to Shanghai. It also shows the first part of my return flight from Shanghai to Seattle.

 

 

This flight is to Asia. This image shows the flight information from Shanghai to Seattle, the overnight layover, and flight from Seattle to Omaha.

 

 

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to South America

 This flight is to South America. This image shows the total cost as well as the flight from Omaha to Dallas and the layover.

 

 

This flight is to South America. This image shows after my layover in Dallas and the return home information from San Jose.

 

 

Least expensive round-trip from Omaha to Africa

This flight is to Africa. This image shows the cost from Madrid to Morocco and back.

 

 

This flight is to Africa. This image shows the cost from Omaha to Madrid, as well as part one of my trip and the layover in Chicago.



This flight is to Africa. This image shows after my layover in Chicago, the flight to Madrid, and my return flight from Madrid to Charlotte to Omaha.

 

 

Sum total of all four airfares

Europe: __$468.25_________

Asia: __$601.73_________

South America: __$434.69_________

Africa: __$570.09_________

Total price: $2,074.76

Submitted by Trey Mumma on 2/7/2019