Hannakristina

Hi all,
short introcuction (my first post here : I am 36 years old and have lived in the USA for 7 years now. I am originally from Finland and have done 3 trips to Sri Lanka in the past (1999, 2001 and 2005). I would love to go back with my husband and son somewhere in the future. However, flying from the USA rather than Europe IS expensive! The cheapest tickets from the East coast of USA to Sri Lanka are $1350... multiply that with 3 (or 4 if we had another child?) and the budget is blown....

Are there any tricks to get cheaper tickets? Such as fly to some main city in Europe and get cheap tickets from there? Or is it downright impossible to get to SL with less than $1350? Thanks in advance!

alanRow

Try Emirates or Turkish from New York and book several months in advance but don't think you'll save massive amounts of money as Trans-Atlantic is expensive these days.

You'll probably find also that cheap route = long route so you might want to consider a stopover somewhere on the way.

julia1

Welcome, Hannakristina! I think many here will empathize with your wish to return to Sri Lanka with your husband and son (and possibly another child) someday in the future. But travel is expensive, we all know, and cheap tickets are few and far between.

If you really want to do this, make your trip a priority and start saving today! As you go about your daily life, use all the money-saving tricks your mother or grandmother or wise auntie or friend might have mentioned. Start a 'Sri Lanka travel fund' and put a fixed amount in it every week, perhaps what you save by foregoing a morning coffee, lunch or evening meal out.

Switch to a less expensive plan for mobile/internet/cable service. You and your husband empty your pockets/purse of change every evening, add this to your fund. Need a new purse, pair of gloves, scarf, camera, whatever? See if you can make do with what you already have and put the money you save into your travel fund. $50 'found money' saved each week for travel could take four people to Sri Lanka two years from now.

You can also keep a sharp eye out for the (rather infrequent) air travel sales that come along once in a while. And being flexible with dates and plans will also help.

I don't intend to offend or patronize, so please excuse me if I come across that way. I myself love to travel and manage to travel often. This is how I do it.

Hannakristina

AlanRow and Julia1--thanks so much for the replies!! Alan, I greatly appreciate your tip--I just randomly checked Turkish Airlines from NY to SL in late Nov to mid-Dec and the lowest fare I found was $873 dollars! Way lower than, say, $1400. There was a long (19 hr) layover in Istanbul but I don't mind (I actually have a cousin who lives there). I will see if they fly from Atlanta (closer to us) and check the Emirates as well .

Julia, you didn't sound patronizing at all . The travel fund idea sounds like a great idea and I will set it up soon! I will likely "move" to my home country of Finland soon for 6 months, while husband deploys, and will be able to work there and make money. I'll be living with my mother and she would watch our son now that she is almost retired, so there would be no costs to rent and childcare. It is crazy how little things add up... expensive cable, eating out, buying clothes etc etc. I will consciously start putting money aside and hopefully will save enough for a future trip!

Thanks again guys, you've been helpful!

Hannakristina

Better yet, Turkish flies from Houston to Colombo for $946. It's more than from NY, but not much more. Houston is more than half closer to us than NY so saves a lot of driving time. How didn't I know of this airline before? . I've been doing tons of flight engine searches and never gotten anything lower than $1300'ish. I guess they leave some airlines out when you search with Expedia, Kayak etc...

rkkwan

TK's IAH-IST service is new.