My experience with budget travel over 3 cities in Saudi Arabia $77

One of the travelers’ goals is how to travel with budget travel. It is especially true when you travel with a large group or a family with kids. We need to spend more money on airlines, a big taxi to fit you all, and other expenses.

Yes, I had been there. I use “had” instead of “have”. It is because I used to spend at least $160 for round flights within cities in Saudi Arabia. Then I realized that many people around me travel a lot. They are not rich people. I have a higher income than them. Because I love travel, I did not want to just quit travel to save money. I searched a lot of ways of budget travel topic.

I did not want to write this post without true/real experience with budget travel. I just came from a trip between 3 geographically distant cities in Saudi Arabia. I move between Makkah – Jeddah – Qassim – Riyadh using 3 different transportation. I only spent about $77 to get an experience in budget travel. As a result, I will cover the following:

My trips from Makkah to Jeddah (King Abdulaziz International Airport) using Haramain High Speed Railway for budget travel

I had 2 options to start my trip from Makkah to Jeddah for budget travel. First, I can take an Uber/Taxi which may cost me at least $40. Second, I can use the Haramain High Speed Railway which costs me about $16.

I preferred to go with the second option to save money and try budget travel. I wanted to use Haramain High-Speed Railway for many reasons:

• I did not have a chance to try the Haramain High-Speed Railway before.
• It is cheap compared to Uber/Taxi since I am testing budget travel. Even If I wanted to use my car, I need at least $30 for the Gas for my budget travel goal.
• It is Fast. The average speed of the Haramain High Speed Railway is between 290-300 km/h. That is why they named it Haramain High Speed Railway.
• I wanted to try different transportation.

A summary of my experience with budget travel using the Haramain High Speed Railway:

• Official website of Haramain High Speed Railway to book your trip: https://sar.hhr.sa
• Cost of the ticket: $18.4 for the economy OR $29.7 for the business class
• Speed of the Railway: 300 km/h
• Duration time from Makkah to Jeddah using Haramain High Speed Railway: 30 minutes to Jeddah OR 50 minutes to King Abdulaziz International Airport.
• The accuracy time of the Railway is high. It means that you can plan your trip using the railway to arrive at King Abdulaziz International Airport on time.

What I like about the Haramain High Speed Railway:

• The train seat is comfortable. As you can see from the following pictures, there is a good space between my feet and the next seat in front of me.
• The seats are equipped with portals, including USB, to charge your devices.
• The time accuracy is fantastic on departing and arriving.
• The toilets/restroom in the

An additional hint: one of the best places to visit in Jeddah is Jeddah Yacht Club & Marina

My Flight from Jeddah (King Abdulaziz International Airport – JED) to Qassim – Buraydah (Prince Naif Bin Abdulaziz International Airport – ELQ) for budget travel

After I arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, I checked in my luggage. I used SAUDIA airline. The cost of my flight is only $20.5 (77 SAR) which is nice for my budget travel goal. The regular price of the local airline in Saudi Arabia is over $70. I used 4500 miles from my account in the Alfursan loyalty program with SAUDIA airline (for a one-way flight).

How did I get the cheap ticket from the airline in Saudi Arabia? How did I travel from Jeddah to Qassim for only $20? The answer is the loyalty program of SAUDIA airline Alfursan. Let me explain it more. The more points/miles you earn in the Alfursan program, the more free tickets, and airlines you get. You do not need to have a lot of points. 4500 miles can provide a free one-way flight locally in Saudi Arabia using the Alfursan program which is important in terms of budget travel.

The important question is, how can you get Alfursan program points/miles without traveling for budget travel goal?

There are many ways to collect points from airline loyalty program:

• Credit Cards: I used this method for budget travel. I compared all available credit cards that provide free points/miles for the Alfursan program. My criteria were the number of miles I get for spending each Saudi riyal and whether can I use the card for all my living expenses and bills earning miles/points in the Alfursan program. This is important because many cards will not give you points for some important elements in daily life such as paying for the car’s Gas. Remember when I told you earlier that 4500 miles can give free airline tickets? Will, my monthly expense allowed me to earn a minimum of 10000 miles every month. So, I can collect what is enough for me to travel one time internationally and many local flights. I do not need to worry about summer vacation or budget travel anymore.
• Buying points/miles: The international flight can cost over 2,000 SAR at a destination. One of my friends loves traveling and budget travel. He told me how he could save 4000 SAR on the flight tickets when he spent 1000 SAR via buying miles of the Alfursan program and replaced the points/miles with the international ticket value of around 5,000 SAR. Hint: On national days and other important events, the loyalty programs of the airlines provide special offers and discounts to buy their points and miles. Take advantage of these offers and holidays.
• Debit Card points: Many banks in Saudi Arabia offer an internal points system to encourage people to use their debit cards and open accounts with them. In the end, you can replace these points as value coupons in different stores they collaborated with. Many banks collaborate with hotels and airline loyalty programs that help you with budget travel. Check out your bank points system or find another bank that gives this opportunity.

I like Jeddah Airport (King Abdulaziz International Airport). It has a total area of 810,000 sq. meters and a capacity of 30 million passengers annually. It has the KAIA Aquarium, which is the biggest aquarium tank in the airport in the world located at the arrival area at King Abdulaziz International Airport. It has a height of 14 meters, a diameter of 10 meters, and a capacity of 1,000,000 liters containing a wide variety of about 2,000 rare fish.

Also, the airport consists of many restaurants and coffee shops that may help you with budget travel. For example, there are restaurants in both departure and arrival areas such as Albaik, Subway, Century Burger, Dominos Pizza, Smash Burger, MacDonalds, and more. If you like coffee and dessert, you have money options such as Barn’s, Starbucks, Joffrey’s, dr. Cafe coffee, Dunkin’, Segafredo café, esquires coffee, and more.

Personally, my favorite one is Barn’s coffee. They have a big din-in branch in the arrival building you should try it.

After arriving at the Qassim Airport (Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz International Airport) in Buraydah, I was lucky to arrive at the new terminal they recently built. It is a small airport but can fly internationally. Because it is a new building, many services and restaurants are coming soon as shown below in the pictures.

An important tip about the transportation in Qassim airport (Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz International Airport) for budget travel. Uber, Taxis, and privet taxis are available. I do not like using Uber (in Qassim airport only) because the drivers accept and cancel the ride if they do not like where you are going (usually they prefer long destinations such as different cities or towns). So, I just took a taxi which is easy to save me time. The cost is 2.7 SAR ($0.72) / km. Because my destination to the Train station was over 40km, I spent 120 SAR ($32) for this transportation to arrive at Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR). This is the only thing that impacted my budget travel.  

My Trip from Qassim to Riyadh via Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) for budget travel

I like taking the train from/to Qassim to Riyadh for many reasons. First, it is cheaper than taking my car which is significant for my budget travel goal. The gas costs about 120 SAR ($32) while the train costs approximately 80 SAR ($21.5) in the economy class. Second, it is convenient for me to relax and do my work such as writing this post. Third, you do not need to worry about being late. From my own experience for over 6 months taking this train every weekend, the accuracy time of the train is over 95%.

Additionally, the train station has Dunkin’ as well as a nice sofa to sit comfortably. The restroom/toilets are clean. Workers are friendly and helpful.

The train seats are comfortable. There is space between your legs and the next seat. Also, there are charging ports to charge your phone and laptop under each seat.

The design of the train stations in SAR is similar. The Riyadh station is similar to Qassim station. You do not need to worry about being lost if you are familiar with one of them. The only difference between them is that Riyadh station has an additional fast-food restaurant Albaik while Qassim station does not have any fast food or restaurant (only coffee and grocery). Hint: Albaik restaurant is one of the most famous and economical food in Saudi Arabia. It helps you to eat cheap and high-quality food, which is important for budget travel goals.

Tips on how to get cheap tickets:

Enroll in loyalty programs for budget travel

As we mentioned earlier, my experience with enrolling in the loyalty program of SAUDIA airline (Alfursan program) helped me to save a lot of money and budget travel. I do not need to worry anymore about the cost of the flight. I can use the free miles I collected from my reward account. You can do the same thing with other airlines. Check out their loyalty program options.

Use the advantages of Credit Card for budget travel

Because I do not fly a lot, it was not easy for me to collect points and free miles in loyalty programs for budget travel. As I said before, there are other ways to collect points/miles for your loyalty programs of the airlines. For examples:

• Many banks provide special credit cards that give points/miles for each dollar you spend.
• Some services allow you to redeem the points of their loyalty programs into airlines’ loyalty programs. For example, in Saudi Arabia, I pay my phone bill to STC company (Saudi Telecommunication Company). The company gives points in its loyalty program (Qitaf program). STC gives me the opportunity to replace/transfer my Qitaf points into my account in the loyalty programs of SAUDIA airline (Alfursan program). Spend some time figuring out the bills and services you used and the benefits of their loyalty programs that may reflect positively on your budget travel plan.

Fly during the working weekdays

If you did any flight search before, you would notice that the airlines’ price goes high during the weekend and go down in the middle of the weekdays. It is because of the demand and supply. People are busy during the weekdays. They cannot skip their work and school to fly. It may not be helpful in a budget travel plan. The same idea in the exam weeks where students and their families are busy preparing for the exams. The flight cost is cheap.

Follow airline accounts on social media.

If you have social media accounts, you should go right now and follow the accounts of the airlines. Many airlines post special offers with cheap flights to help you plan for budget travel. You do not want to miss these offers because they are time-limited. It means they may post an offer that is valid for 24 hours only.

Compare prices in different Flight Price Search Engines for budget travel

There are many flight price search engines that work as third-party of airlines and booking such as Expedia, Booking, Wego, and more. Do not rely on one website to book your flight. Try to compare different flight search engines before you make the decision. At the end, compare the price with the official website of the selected airline. Recommendation tip: use a VPN before you start your research to not allow companies to follow your IP and increase the prices next time you want to book a flight.

Set price alerts for airlines to save money and budget travel

I was surprised when I noticed that many people around me are not aware of this amazing feature many Flight Price Search Engines provide. Now, you can set a price alert for airline tickets to be updated. For example, you want to fly 6 months from now. You can go to Google flight (as shown in the screenshot below) and make your search for the selected destination and data. Then, there is an option of set price alert. It means that Google flight will email you every time there is a cheaper flight or if the price goes down.

Sign up for deal newsletters at airlines’ websites

Newsletters of the airlines are one of the best sources to get cheap flights. Many airlines use it as a market method to fill their flights. They do not want any flight to be empty. What they do is that they look at coming flights with a small number of travelers, and they offer discounts via their newsletter, emails, and social media accounts. Take advantage of the newsletters and sign up for your preferred airline.

To sum up, I was lucky to discover how can I fly locally and internationally for free for budget travel purposes. I only need to pay a small service fee (around $20). I did that by taking advantage of the loyalty programs of the airlines and the points from my Credit cards.

I hope this post is clear and formative. If you have any questions or comments, please share them with us in the comment below. We will be more than happy to answer them.