A holidaymaker saved £2,500 by flying from London to Australia using budget airlines and only a tiny backpack – with ‘risky’ self-transfers. Christianne Risman wanted to visit her family in Australia without forking out ‘thousands’ of pounds on flights last month so turned to a potential hack.After seeing direct flights to Perth were ‘more than £3,000’, the 31-year-old pieced together her own journey hopping from country to country.
Creating her own mammoth 26-hour trip, Christianne took three different flights with self-transfers that linked four countries to reach Australia – but meant she spent only £418. The travel vlogger admits that the journey was risky as the layovers between the flights were more than two hours, and the airlines would have no liability if she missed one of her flights.
Christianne confessed that the packing was ‘challenging’ as she had to pack six weeks’ worth of clothes in a backpack to avoid being delayed by having check-in bags. The travel influencer flew from London Stansted Airport to Athens [11th December], then from Athens to Singapore and then directly to Perth, using Ryanair and Scoot.
To her horror one of her flights was delayed by two hours – but thankfully it was the final leg of her journey as she admits otherwise she would have been ‘screwed’. Christianne, from London, said: “Normally, the flights are thousands of pounds, I even looked months ago and it was so expensive so there was literally no other way around it but to do it really cheaply.
“The entire thing was self-transfers which meant that if any of the flights messed up along the way, the liability would be entirely on me and the airlines wouldn’t do anything to help me, not even compensate me. I looked at the layover times and they were just over two hours per layover which normally would be enough time but I knew it was risky.
“I thought to save over £1,000 it was worth the risk, flights directly to Perth were over £3,000. I also had to fly with only carry-on baggage. I could have gotten check-in baggage but that would mean that after each flight I would have to leave the airport, collect my bags and then re-check them for the next flight.
“I committed to doing the whole thing with just one personal item, so just one backpack that will fit under the seat. The first one from London to Athens was really early in the morning so I was able to sleep through the whole thing so it wasn’t really an issue with trying to entertain myself for four hours.
“The second one to Singapore was very long, around 10 hours and I was in a middle seat but because I was not willing to spend any money I had to go with the seat that was assigned to me. I wasn’t worried about my last flight being delayed at all because I didn’t have another flight after that but god forbid that delay happened with any of the other flights, then I would have really been screwed.”
Christianne said that although her trip went well and she is not a big worrier, there were times when she was stressed about missing her flight. At Athens International Airport, Christianne had to go through immigration twice as there was not a specific lane for transfers.
In the meantime, Christianne was also worried about the amount of time the planes would be taxiing for. Christianne said: “The most stressed I was was when I would get on the flight before the plane took off because you never really know how long your plane is going to taxi for, it could be 15 minutes or it could be an hour.I’ve been on flights in the past when I had a plane taxiing for over an hour so that was the point when I was most worried but luckily the planes never taxied for that long and as soon as they took off I was pretty chilled.
“I’m not a big worrier but if you’re someone that worries a lot I wouldn’t recommend this option because it can be very stressful. Athens was a slightly trickier airport to navigate because they wouldn’t let me transfer straight to the departure gate. I was surprised because normally you can go through a special lane but unfortunately not so I had to go through immigration and have a passport stamp.
“I would also have a look at the cost of onward flights. When I was in Athens I was looking online to see how much it would cost me to book a new flight from Singapore which was about £90 to Perth in case I missed my flight.”
Christianne is spending time in New Zealand and will fly back to the UK by using budget airlines again, but she said that this time the layovers are more than five hours so it will be less tense. The YouTuber says she would recommend making the ‘risky’ journey to those that want to save money and have the adventurous spirit, but wouldn’t recommend it to those who stress easily.
Christianne said: “I would recommend it to people who want to save a lot of money but also adventurous people who wouldn’t be too stressed out if things go wrong and would see it more as an adventure. It’s definitely a risk, things could go wrong, but when they go right, it’s so sweet.
“Just be aware that it can go wrong and you may have to fork out more money but that’s a risk you’ve got to be willing to take. You could have to pay extra money and that is something you have to accept. I would definitely do it again. I would assess the risks, if the layovers are under two hours I won’t take it, I think that is too risky.
“And if there’s more connections I’m less likely to do it but the exact trip that I did I would definitely do that again.”
In an online post, Christianne said: “Challenge well and truly accepted! This was a risky flight and I’m SO glad it paid off because I saved a lot of money travelling this way!”
One commenter said: “No food or entertainment on a 10 hour flight would’ve made me homicidal. You are STRONG.”
Another said: “You have such a positive attitude!!! I would be too raging from tiredness to even finish filming the video.”
One said: “Worst nightmare. Comfort for such a long flight is defo worth the money for me.”
Another said: “I would’ve had a meltdown.”