I should begin this post with a note about a personal travel hook-up I’ve had since forever – my grandpa is a mechanic for American Airlines, which means that I am able to fly on his “buddy pass” system for a fraction of the price of what a normal plane ticket would cost.

So, with that information in mind, flying is an expense that never manages to crush my bank account. While using the “buddy pass” does mean flying standby, and in the past I have certainly opted to pay the full amount and buy a ticket so as not to have to worry about getting to or from my destination on time, I also realize that it’s generally a ginormous advantage as a relatively young, relatively broke person who travels often.

American Airlines en Route to Indonesia

Since my boyfriend and I don’t have a specific date we need to be in Bali, flying standby isn’t an issue. However, American Airlines does not fly all the way to Indonesia, so we’ll need to stop at an American Airlines destination and buy the rest of our onward plane ticket on another airline from there. Our best options (and the nearest and least expensive to Bali) are Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul. Apparently there is supposed to be a new Dallas to Sydney route in the works, but it’s not up and running quite yet.

Since I’d like to return to South Korea, the plan is to fly from Dallas to Seoul and spend a couple days exploring the city before continuing onto Bali.

One way tickets from Seoul to Bali are around $140+ on AirAsia, with a quick layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

flying to bali

Visa Travel Requirements

Once we arrive, we’ll also need to have a ticket out of the country within 60 days. Singapore is the cheapest round-trip destination, but since we’ll be living near other countries that are fairly inexpensive to explore once we arrive, including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines, we’ll take our visa runs as an opportunity to explore more of Southeast Asia.

Also, since we don’t plan on finding a long-term place to live on Bali until after we arrive, we’re going to take some time to explore a few of the cities that, from everything we’ve read and heard, are most appealing to us. These include Seminyak, Canggu, Uluwatu, Ubud, and perhaps even the calmer and more remote areas of Amed or Lovina.

texas to bali route

But more on that later.