If there's a lesson to be learned from Atallah's Thailand-Australia-Hawaii trip, it's that sometimes you have to make your own itinerary, instead of letting an airline or booking site do it for you.
If you plug your eight desired destinations into Expedia, you might end up with a bargain, or you could wind up with an expensive flight with three stopovers. Instead, make the stopovers work for you by planning them yourself — that’s how Atallah was able to fit Australia into her itinerary.
“Most flights from Phuket to Honolulu had long layovers in other countries. So I decided to make my own layover,” Atallah said. That’s when she decided to add Sydney to the itinerary—between Phuket and Honolulu.