Everybody has a bucket list destination that seems just out of reach. You've passed it over on your list time and time again, assuming it's too expensive or too far away. I'm talking Bond villain lair locations, White Lotus-type luxury, and some of the most remote beaches in the world that your friends can't even pronounce.
You might not be able to find them on a map, but you know you want to go … if only you could afford it. But these once-in-a-lifetime destinations can be well within reach.
Over the past few months, Thrifty Traveler Premium members have received some astonishingly low fares to some of these tropical or far-flung escapes, booking flights that typically cost $1,400 or more for half that price. Plus, you can fly up front in business class using your points and miles or with some of the rarest cash fares we've ever seen to the Pacific.
You might have dreams of waking up in an over water bungalow in the Maldives, sipping a cool drink on the beaches of Fiji, or exploring the Polynesian islands that your Instagram followers don't even know exist. We're here to tell you that they're not out of reach if you know where to look.
So please don't put off that trip this time around, because if you don't book it this year, you'll be one year older when you do.
The Basics of Finding Cheap Flights
Pulling off a cheaper trip to a typically expensive destination isn’t rocket science. But it can require a mindset change, approaching your travel planning in a different way than you have before.
Here are the basic rules for finding cheap flights you’ll need to follow to get to any bucket list destination:
- Find a flight deal first. Don’t lock in travel dates, accommodations, or activities until you’ve secured a flight on the cheapest dates.
- Let the flight deal come to you! Subscribe to our flight deal alert service, Thrifty Traveler Premium, for instant alerts when an exceptional deal comes around.
- Use Google Flights to start your search and book. No other search engine is better at finding the best deals.
- Not seeing any good flight prices from your home airport? Consider looking at prices from major U.S. airport hubs, and then booking a positioning flight to bring your total costs down.
Read our ultimate guide on how to to find cheap flights for more tips and tricks!
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s get into some of the most amazing places where you can find cheap fares.
The Maldives
The Maldives might be the quintessential bucket-list destination of the modern era. Relaxing in an overwater bungalow in the Maldives is almost a cliche at this point.
It has branded itself as a piece of paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Depending on where you stay, that assessment holds up.
Like all the destinations on this list, however, the Maldives are not easy to get to. There are no direct flights from the United States and just a handful of airlines fly there. So cheap flights can be hard to come by – but not impossible.
There is a best way to get to the Maldives, and we found it easily available to book using your points and miles.
These fares are gone now! Get the next deal and book ASAP with Thrifty Traveler Premium!
That 70,000-point rate is for flights to Qatar's Doha (DOH) hub, but to connect on to the Maldives in business class, you only need 15,000 more points.
This is one of the best uses of points out there, but don't expect to secure these rates just a few months ahead of time. Qsuites fares are best booked 10-12 months ahead of your trip, so get the calendar out and start planning soon.
Tahiti
Tahiti might be the most Bond villain-esque destination on this list. It just seems impossibly remote and insanely expensive.
What you might not know is that you can fly to the French Polynesian island in the Pacific nonstop from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA), which puts the stunning islands well within reach for tons of travelers all over the U.S.
Plus, the flights there are only about eight hours and the the islands are on the U.S. side of the date line, so you don't lose two costly days flying there. It's almost as convenient as flying to Hawaii, but twice as exotic.
Just check out this deal we recently sent to Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers.
The nonstop flights from the West Coast tend to go on sale more frequently than the rest of the country. So use positioning flights to get yourself out west, and then grab one of these extremely cheap flights to save.
But you can do even better than that. That's because you can fly Air Tahiti Nui business class down to Tahiti when space becomes available. That's exactly what happened a few weeks ago when we sent this flight deal to our subscribers.
Just 60,000 Alaska Airlines miles could put you in one of these seats flying down to Tahiti. It's a great value for your miles if you want to arrive on the islands in style.
Fiji
The islands of Fiji are about as remote and hard-to-get-to as it gets. The next closest continental landmass to the Pacific Ocean archipelago is Australia – 1,000 miles away. One thousand miles!
It's the kind of place you go when you really, really want an escape. Even so, it doesn't have to break the bank if you hop on a flight deal like this one.
Flights to Fiji generally cost upwards of $1,300 from the U.S. So you can imagine we were gobsmacked to find this deal to get you to paradise for less than $700! This brand-new route from Dallas (DFW) to Fiji (NAN) is one of the most exciting new ways to get to the islands.
But it's not the only route available for cheap. Just a few days before we found this Fiji Airways Dallas fare, we found others, too.
Whether you're flying from hubs like Dallas (DFW) or Los Angeles (LAX) or smaller outposts like San Antonio (SAT) or Sacramento (SMF), these flights can be yours!
Tasmania
When we found these fares at Thrifty Traveler Premium, I was certain they were a mirage. Cheap flights to Australia can be hard to come by, and to get to the island of Tasmania, you'd almost definitely have to book an expensive connecting flight on from the Australian mainland.
But American Airlines and Qantas decided it was time to change that.
These airlines targeted three Delta hubs in the U.S. with these unique fares. More or less, AA and Qantas just tacked on this connection from Melbourne (MEL) to Hobart (HBA) for nothing.
Best of all: These fares are main cabin! That means you can change or cancel your flight for a voucher if your plans don't work out. These low-risk, high-reward fares are the key to booking a trip to someplace as remote as Tasmania.
Polynesia
Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu…I'll raise my hand and cop to the fact that I was stumped by these destinations. Had I heard of them? Sure. But I had no clue where to find them, or if there was any way to get there for cheap.
And the last thing I expected was to find half-off fares to these destinations in business class, too!
Look, is $2,807 a lot of money? Of course it is. But these flights typically sell for $6,000 or more. And remember, these cash rates are roundtrip, too!
This is a majorly discounted fare, and if you can swing it, it's one of the best value deals we've sent this year.
Apia (APW), Nuku'alofa (TBU), and Port Vila (VLI) might be too remote to have even made your bucket list. But I bet they're there now!
Bottom Line
The archipelagoes of the Pacific and Indian Oceans are all seen as once-in-a-lifetime destinations, but if you can book flight prices like these, these might be annual trips before you know it!
While flights to these destinations have a reputation for being outrageously expensive, there are ways to bring flight costs down, and flight deals to be found.
