My girlfriend and I are trying to get to Steemfest. It's a 5,400 mile (8,700 km) trip from Phoenix, AZ to Amsterdam, so airfare will likely be the most expensive portion of the trip. Let's see what we can do to decrease the price...

First, we go to https://www.google.com/flights/ and search for roundtrip airfare from Phoenix to Amsterdam.

Here, the cheapest roundtrip flight is through Delta Airlines for $1,234. But now let's take a look at Google's suggestions:

They offer a couple decent suggestions:

• Save $192 by flying on a different date.
  Unfortunately, that won't work for us.
• Save $132 by flying into a different city.
  That might be an option, but we'd have to figure out additional transportation to Amsterdam.

Now we get to the hack

Notice here we select a one-way flight and put Europe as the destination
Travelling throughout Europe is relatively inexpensive, so searching one-way flights to Europe can offer huge savings!

Here we see various destinations throughout Europe and a flight to London is only $320!

Now let's search for a one-way flight from London to Amsterdam. We'd be leaving for London Tuesday, November 8th, and arriving Wednesday, November 9th at 9:10am. We need to search Wednesday flights from London.

Here we have a couple good options:

• 3:45 PM flight for $50
• 11:40 AM flight for $63
  Remember, our cheapest round trip flight was $1,234. We found a way to get to Amsterdam for just $370!

Now, let's look for return flights. $370 to get there was an outstanding price, so we'll be lucky to find THAT good of a deal getting back. If it's $864 ($1,234-370) or less, it's still cheaper than our best round trip option.

You can use the strategy that we followed above. But here we're trying a different route. Searching a one-way flight from Amsterdam to Phoenix, then also selecting nearby airports.

Here we have a flight from Frankfurt to Phoenix for $502. But if we go this route, we need to take a bus, train, or flight to Frankfurt. This adds a bit of complexity, but it is an option. Let's try flights through London since that was so cheap on the way to Amsterdam.

Our cheapest from from London to Phoenix is on Monday, November 14th for $386. That flight leaves London at 11:10 AM, so we have to get there well before then.

Unfortunately, the cheapest flights in this screenshot don't get us to London in time. So we need to purchase the $76 flight.

Each leg of the trip will cost:
$320
$50
$386
$76
Total = $832

That's $402 cheaper than the lowest-cost round-trip flight. Bag fees will likely still apply, but it remains significantly cheaper. I hope you can use some of these tips in your travels!