Need an Escape? The Best International Flight Deals You Can Book Right Now

Nobody really needs a reason to dust off the passport and head somewhere like Rome, Cape Town, London, or Mexico. But many travelers are suddenly feeling the urge to get away – next week, next month, or next year.

Good news: It could be much cheaper than you think. Flight prices to destinations near and far have been dropping lately for an escape yet this fall, over the winter, or into next spring. 

Whether you want to catch some rays on the beach, need a break from the news and social media, or … any other reason … here are your best bets to book a cheap trip abroad over the coming months. 

Rome & Back from Just $438

Everyone wants to go to Italy. You don’t need to explain yourself.

Lucky for you, airlines have been adding tons of flights to Italy lately, adding more seats than they can fill at the usual sky-high prices. The result is airfare deals like this recent gem:

This nonstop fare from New York City (JFK) to Rome (FCO) – flying with Italian flag carrier, ITA Airways – in a few months is the perfect escape: There’s no wrong time to fill up on pizza and pasta. You can’t beat these prices.

But New York wasn’t the only city with dirt-cheap flights to Rome this winter, either. We rounded up all the best rates for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members in a flight deal alert that looked like this. 

This coast-to-coast flight deal offered tons of outstanding airfare flying to Italy this winter. When airlines offer fares this low, take them up on it!

Bali, Indonesia from $755

If a beach as far away as possible in Southeast Asia is calling you, your timing is impeccable. We recently found some of the cheapest fares we’ve ever seen straight to Bali (DPS) in Indonesia. 

And these sub-$800 fares aren’t flying budget carriers with two or three stops. No, these roundtrip flights to Bali and back were on five-star-rated airline Cathay Pacific with a quick pitstop in Hong Kong (HKG).

San Francisco benefitted from the lowest fares – it could be well worth booking a positioning flight to the Bay Area to save on a trip to Bali. But other U.S. gateways with Cathay Pacific service like Los Angeles (LAX) and Vancouver (YVR) also benefitted from cheap fares in our latest flight deal this week.

So go find some beach, some hammock, some waves, a yoga mat, or some good old rest and relaxation in Bali this winter. You deserve it – we all do. 

Cape Town, South Africa from $897

When it’s winter here, it’s summer in South Africa. And that makes it this winter a perfect time to plan your trip down to Cape Town (CPT). 

Flights to South Africa regularly top $1,500 or more. So here’s this: A shockingly cheap fare. 

These sub-$900 fares we found this week are about as cheap as the long flights to South Africa get. And while a 20-plus-hour journey might seem daunting, this is about as good as it gets: You could fly Delta with a pitstop in Atlanta (ATL) or United with a quick connection in either Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD) or Newark (EWR). Either way, you won’t have to connect in Europe to get to South Africa next year!

If you want to plan a safari or explore stunning, seaside Cape Town, this is your ticket. Trust me: It won’t get cheaper than this. 

Roatán, Honduras from $389 RT

Why not go somewhere your friends on social media have never even heard of?

The island of Roatán (RTB) is a perfect island escape in the Caribbean, just north of mainland Honduras east of Belize. It’s a true tropical paradise, often overlooked, and deserves your consideration … if for no other reason than the low prices you can pay to get there. 

Check this out:

This recent flight deal we found from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) lands just in time to escape the states as the coldest, darkest days of winter settle in. Why not hit the beach in the Caribbean for just $389 roundtrip?!

Travelers in Baltimore (BWI), Jacksonville (JAX), and Tampa (TPA) can also secure these fares during the same time of year. 

Cancún from $230 RT

One of the tried-and-true escapes you can find from the U.S. is a flight down to Cancún, Mexico (CUN). Dozens of airlines fly from dozens of U.S. cities, back and forth every single day. 

All those flights mean one thing: Cheap flights. 

This nonstop fare from Tampa (TPA) for just $231 roundtrip is a prime example. But really, there are no shortage of cheap ways to get down to the beaches of the Riviera Maya in the coming months – whether you fly nonstop from a hub city or connect from your smaller, local airport. 

Under $400 roundtrip – or even less than $300, in some cases – is all you need to make your speedy escape to the Yucatan. 

Japan for Only 55K Points 

You don’t have to fork over a bunch of money to book a flight abroad, either. That’s what your unused stash of credit card points and airline miles are for! 

For example, if you’ve decided to finally cross Japan off your bucket list, you could book roundtrip Delta flights from the U.S. to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) for as low as 55,000 points … roundtrip!

But you’re not booking these flights with SkyMiles. No, the best way to get these low rates is by booking Delta flights through a partner airline instead: Air France/KLM Flying Blue, which charges a fraction of what Delta itself levies for these exact same flights to Japan.

Those Air France miles are incredibly easy to earn by transferring credit card points: You can instantly turn a stash of points on cards like the *chase sapphire preferred*, *venture x*, or *amex gold* into all the Air France miles you need for your trip to Tokyo. Best of all, a current 20% transfer bonus from Amex to Air France means you need fewer points than ever!

Here’s all the instructions you need to make it a reality. You’re welcome. 

Fly to London & Back from 9K Points (or 21K Each Way in Biz Class!)

Finally, I’ll point you across the pond to one of our best flight deals we’ve sent all year.

Thanks to some (surprisingly excellent) recent changes to their rewards program, you can now fly Virgin Atlantic to London from just 9,000 Virgin points roundtrip … or 21,000 each way in business class! It was a stunner, and we wrote all about how we found it right here. 

Take a look and see for yourself.

These international fares are cheaper than many domestic flights! Plus, Virgin Atlantic points are unbelievably easy to earn: You can transfer them from all the major banks like Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi, and Bilt. 

This all started when we stumbled on this jaw-dropping fare a week ago: Just 29,000 Virgin points each way from New York City (JFK) to London (LHR). With Chase points, a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin brings your final total down to just 21,000 points.

You’ll have to be flexible, but these seemingly too-good-to-be-true deals are still available! 

But then we dug a little deeper and found that the economy rates on many Virgin routes were historically low, too. Utilize that transfer bonus, and the 12,000-roundtrip-rates here come all the way down to 9,000 points. A big trip across the pond doesn’t get any cheaper than that! 

Bottom Line

Looking at the map longingly? There are plenty of fun ways to book a quick escape in the months to come – and unbelievably cheap deals to make it happen, too.