New York to Italy to Prague to China… For $132… Yes, Seriously.

I originally wrote this in May of 2014. Since then I’ve gotten a TON more amazing travel deals. If you have not yet done so, sign up for my once in a while email updates here, and follow me on social media, where I send new deals as I come across them.

I just booked a ticket from New York, to Italy, to Prague, to China, and it cost me $132. Total. Including taxes. I didn’t use any miles, or points or rely on my frequent flyer status. Anyone can do it, and you can too.

Sometimes it’s a bug in the system, sometimes it’s a hiccup in the pricing structure, or sometimes it’s just an insanely good promotion. But whatever the reason, Priceline.com is currently offering tremendously discounted rates on one way tickets to Asia, (AND allowing stops of about a week in Europe).

“The Points Guy,” a travel blog that I follow has a very in-depth run through. Check it out here, including full details.

In short, multi-city one way tickets booked around mid October through mid November are coming in at a fraction of the price as they would normally. When I say a fraction I mean 25% or as low as 10% of the normal cost. I’ve included my run down below, but again, check out, The Points Guy as he goes a bit more in-depth and really holds your hand through it.

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I read The Points Guy’s blog post and jumped at the chance.

The deal involves flying from either New York or LA to Asia, with the ability to stop over for an extended time period in Europe. You could go to Beijing, Hong Kong, or Tokyo, and stop in Prague or Budapest. I decided to go with Prague and Beijing.

Now there are two things to keep in mind.

1. You fly into Italy but you have to get to Prague six days later. For me this is not a drawback at all but instead a huge benefit. I get to spend 6 days in Europe. Also something to keep in mind that either by bus or train or plane, you’re responsible for getting yourself to Prague. And all the fares are like this, that’s why they are such a deal.

2. Remember this is only a one way ticket. You need to get yourself back from Asia. Or… maybe you just want to see Europe for six days. Just as easy, just don’t get on the plane to Asia and fly back from Europe.

$132? Yep. Not a typo. I can tell right away what you’re thinking, “Well yea Steve, but there’s probably like $700 in taxes and fees right?” Nope. $132 TOTAL.

The ticket itself is only $50… How is this possible? I have no idea. Gremlins have nested in the priceline servers maybe. But there it is. The ticket itself costs less than the pizzas I’m going to buy the office to celebrate.

To compare that, I checked out search engine Kayak.com

To get the same exact flights, I’d spend close to $1,300. Even if I selected, “Hacker Fares,” which merge together different carriers along the route, (think of buying a ticket from New York to LA but needing to fly Delta from New York to Atlanta, then American from Atlanta to LA), and I’d still be looking at $1,000.

So I decided to go with the $132 Priceline deal instead. I entered my credit card, clicked “submit” and received my confirmation.

“But now you’re in China Steve… You’ll probably have to spend a fortune to get a one-way ticket. You’re probably going to get killed with the return cost and it’s going to destroy any money you saved…” I can hear you saying it now… But why are you so negative? Smile and enjoy my success! Even if I pay the typical going rate of $1,000 for a return ticket, I’ll still be coming out way ahead. $1,132 for a round-trip, around the world ticket is a great deal!

Except I’m not going to pay anywhere close to that.

This is where points come in, and is why I cannot recommend enough that people who want to travel get serious about understanding points and rewards.

I found a one way ticket on American Airlines, from Beijing to New York for 55,000 miles. There were flights that required fewer points, but they didn’t synch up with what I wanted. I wanted to be able to spend about a week in China and also be home for my mother’s birthday and then Thanksgiving.

55,000 miles plus $34 in taxes. Click, submit and confirm. And I’ve just picked up the best travel deal I’ve ever gone after. (I’m so proud of myself.)

$132..30 – One way from New York to Milan to Prague to Beijing
$34.40 – One way from Beijing to New York

A roundtrip airline ticket, around the world, for $166.70. Including taxes and fees. $166.70 TOTAL. At one point that was almost what I was paying for a month and a half of my cell phone bill.

Even I almost can’t believe this deal. Since I originally booked this, I’ve since helped two friends get similar deals. Their prices had gone up a bit, (these deals don’t last long,) but they still picked up amazing fares.

As always, when people tell me they’d love to travel but, “Can’t afford it.” I tell them that if they really want to travel there are lots of ways to do it at a tremendously discounted cost. I’ll post more on my trip as I plan out how to travel around Europe and Asia and keep saving money.

In the mean time, check out this deal, visit The Points Guy’s post on this subject, and see if you can grab a discount too!