Today’s Tuesday Travel Tip is expanding on the Buy as you Go option of flying for a  RTW trip.  While a lot of people really seem to like this idea, you do have to realize what you’re getting into.

We obviously chose this way of traveling for our trip, and we were happy we did.  It allowed us a ton of flexibility.  But it also required a lot of time researching.  We did a bunch of that research when we hunkered down in Buenos Aires for a month.

Research is a Necessity

When we rented an apartment in Buenos Aires, we spent much of our down time doing flight research.  At that point, many things were up in the air for our trip.  As you know from reading my post, RTW vs. Buy as you go, we decided to buy our airline tickets as we went, so researching cheap flights on consolidators like Jetabroad was a daily task for us.

We knew we planned on going to Patagonia from BsAs, and we also wanted to get up to Colombia before moving on to New Zealand and the other side of the world.  So all those possible flights were in our minds as we searched.  After making our way to New Zealand, we then wanted to get to Bangkok.  After that we needed a cheap flight to India, then back home.  We were on a tight budget, so we needed to be diligent to find cheap flights.

I shudder to think how many hours we spent in front of our computer checking every possible flight out there to get us where we wanted to go.  Part of the Buy as you Go way of traveling, especially when you’re on a tight budget, is being very creative with your way of thinking for booking flights.

Getting Creative

When we realized that getting from S. America to New Zealand was going to be expensive, we began to get creative.  We checked every possible combination of flights from major South American cities to New Zealand.  When we came up empty, we checked for flights from various US cities to NZ.

We finally we came upon a great deal on a flight to Auckland from LA.  Next up was finding a cheap flight to Los Angeles.  We also had to keep in mind that we really wanted to get up to Colombia before leaving South America, and the rest of Argentina and Chile were still on our agenda.

After literally weeks of searching different combinations on a near daily basis, we found a multi flight deal, Santiago to Bogota, then a month later Bogota to LA.  We had already found our LA to Auckland deal, so we were all set for the next leg.

This literally took weeks and weeks of searching all our possible options.  Luckily for us, I don’t mind doing research like this (though it did get tiresome after a while).  We were happy to have the flexibility that a Buy as you Go flight brings, but I do think it’s important to let people know what they’re in for.  It is a lot of work if you’re set on getting a great deal.  Great deals are out there, but it takes persistence.  We had to go over the same thing a short time later to get our flight from NZ to Southeast Asia, then to India, and then back home.  Just another thing to keep in mind when deciding whether to go with a RTW flight or the Buy as you Go option.

What’s Next?

I know I promised you a Budget post today, but after re-reading last week’s post, I thought it was important to go into a little more detail about buying your flights as you’re traveling and not having it all set up before departing from home.  Next week will see a monstrous budget post and give you all the tools you’ll need to set that budget.

Disclaimer:  This post was sponsored by Jet Abroad.  However, the story and details are from our trip and are 100% accurate.