The Short: There are no direct flights from the United States to Bali, Indonesia.

The Long: Flying from the U.S. to Bali is challenging with no direct flights available. You’ll need to fly to Denpasar International Airport (the main airport in Bali), which usually requires a layover in Asia or the Middle East. But Delta Air Lines and the new jetBlue x United  Airlines partnership makes it easier for U.S. travelers. 

A trip to Bali will cost you, on average, approximately $1,000-1,200 cash or 84,000-121,000 points depending on your airline choice.

How you book from using points to cash matters—a lot. Especially when using points. No matter the method, you should book with your preferred credit card—I recommend one geared towards redeemed airline rewards; I use Amex Platinum. 

If you use Delta SkyMiles directly, you’re stuck with worse routing with often 2+ layovers through places like LAX and Sydney. The worst part? You won’t earn any new SkyMiles or MQDs when redeeming miles directly through Delta.

A trip to Bali will cost you, on average, approximately $1,000-1,200 cash or 84,000-121,000 points depending on your airline choice. There are flights from East Coast routing through Middle Eastern carriers, Midwest flights connecting through Seoul or Doha, and West Coast travelers having the most options including Korean Air and Singapore Airlines. 

Finding Your Way to Bali

The first thing you want to do is check Google Flights for the best flight deal. But where exactly is Bali? As in, what airport do you fly into? If you type “Bali Airport,” you will come up with random options. What you’re looking for is Denpasar International Airport. This is the main airport in Bali and the one that most airlines you know fly to.

Next, you want to figure out what’s the best airline for you and your travel purposes. Are you focused on cost effectiveness? Do you want to include a layover? Which U.S. coast are you traveling from?

All U.S. coasts have a plethora of flights even though there are no direct flights from the U.S. to Bali, even from Hawaii and Guam. In fact, most frequent flights overseas will come from Australia and other Southeast Asian cities. What’s worse? When you use points—you get even worse options and multiple layovers (see below).

No Direct Flights Using Awards Searching on Delta.com

If you’re in Hawaii, you can get very cheap flights to Bali by flying Jetstar ($767). So if you really want to break the trip up, then you could fly for free on rewards to Honolulu.

However, let’s just throw all that out the window and book a flight like a normal person. Where are you coming from? Check the list below to see some of the airline options and potential layover options you can take advantage of. 

From East Coast

• Turkish Airlines (I would skip this airline)
• Emirates
• Qatar
• Etihad
• Cathay Pacific

From Midwest

• Delta / Korean Air
• Korean Air (Layover in Seoul)
• Qatar Airways (Layover in Doha, Qatar)
• Emirates (Layover in Dubai)
• Etihad
• EVA Air
• Cathay Pacific (Routing through Hong Kong)

From West Coast

• Delta / Korean Air
• Singapore Airlines
• Alaska Airlines (partnerships)
• China Airlines
• Etihad (Routing through Abu Dhabi)
• EVA Air (Routing through Taipei)

My Actual Experience: Seattle to Bali

I booked Delta Airlines / Korean Air. I am deeply embedded in the Delta ecosystem, which is SkyTeam. That includes airlines such as Korean Air, Air France, and recently SAS to name a few.

My flight departed from Seattle, connecting Seoul, South Korea, on the way to Bali. Again, my main goal was to stick with SkyTeam since that meant I kept my rewards and earned them, while netting a layover in Seoul.

Here’s What I Did (Using Amex Points Through Their Travel Portal)

I did something a little different. I actually booked my ticket through the Amex Portal vs. Delta directly.

Why? At the time of booking, the cost of using miles was more than using them through the Amex portal, which has a 1:1 conversion from Amex MR Reward Points to Delta SkyMiles.

This is how it looks on the American Express travel portal:

Amex offered a lower penalty in terms of redeeming these rewards. In addition, the main difference when booking with the Amex portal using rewards vs directly through Delta is that Amex will BILL the purchase using dollars and then apply the rewards.

How the Amex hack works: Amex bills your ticket purchase in dollars. It then applies your points as a statement credit. Since you’re technically “paying” with your Amex card, you earn all the associated rewards. Win! Win?

That means you get 5x points for booking the airfare with your Amex Platinum, and then you ALSO get airline miles aka SkyMiles from Delta. Essentially, you are double-dipping.

This isn’t the case when you’re booking directly from Delta. You would simply use your SkyMiles (thereby depleting your SkyMiles account) and not capture MQDs. The other benefit is that if you are booking on Amex, even if you have status, you can pick your seat.

What I booked:

• Delta: Economy – 12hr 31 mins SEA – Seoul
• Korean Air: Economy – 7 hours Seoul – DPS
• Korean Air: Economy – 7 hours DPS – Seoul
• Delta: Economy – 10hr 30 mins Seoul – SEA

Total Cost: $1,218.21 (of which $452.21 were taxes). Total points used: 121,821 and zero dollars used. This comes out to 60,910.5 points per leg.

Gear Used

Korean Air and Alternative Options

I mentioned that I purposely went with Delta. And it also helps when you have status with a SkyTeam airline, which Korean Air is part of.

With Korean Air, you can take advantage of the KAL Prestige Lounge if you have Delta Gold or Platinum medallion. This offers an excellent chance to stock up on Korean goods and relax. If you want Korean beauty products or want to get your K-pop fix, you can easily head towards downtown Seoul on a layover.

Korean Air is a premium airline and would cost more if you possibly selected other airlines or try to figure out a more complicated multi-leg journey across different air carriers. 

Again, for this, I would ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you want to keep your Skymiles? 
• Or do you want to spend less dollars? 
• Do you want to build up more status with a Skyteam Airline and rack up points?

Korean Air is known for their service, and trust me, their service is great, and so is their food. That means that you don’t have to get PTSD from Delta Calzones on every flight. (Or is that just me?)

Look Into Backup Options (jetBlue Anyone?)

As I tell people, it’s always good to have a backup option in case you want to have some flexibility.

My backup is JetBlue, which also has options within the same price range $915-$1015+ (from either ORD (Midwest) in Chicago or BOS (East Coast) in Boston) and has a mix of JetBlue and Qatar flights.

Flying to Bali on jetBlue is even more of a reality with their new partnership with United Airlines called BlueSky. This means you can earn and redeem points while flying United and still get your jetBlue Mosaic perks (checked baggage, priority boarding, and extra legroom seats at no additional charge).

If you book on JetBlue with Qatar or Etihad, you can earn and redeem TrueBlue points going to Bali. That’s a huge asset, especially if you don’t fly or plan to fly these airlines often. 

With JetBlue, the flight can look like:

• Qatar only
• JetBlue, Qatar

The surprising thing is that with JetBlue, you would only spend 84,000 points round trip using either Qatar or Etihad. That is substantially cheaper than 121,000 miles.

Where to Stay and Loyalty Programs

If you want to know right up front where to stay as a first-timer, then it would be Canggu or close to it in either Kuta or Seminyak. First-time visitors should stay in Canggu, Seminyak or Kuta for the best experience. If you want a whole different experience, then consider the Ubud location or Uluwatu.

If you decide to stick with SkyTeam, I would recommend booking your Airbnb villa with Delta so that you can earn Delta SkyMiles that you can use for your next trip. If not, you can always book a hostel with Booking.com.

If you want to keep with this ecosystem and don’t want Airbnb, then if you go with the hotel option, I would look into Marriott options, which also transfer back to Delta SkyMiles. That way, you are creating a flywheel effect when it comes to Delta SkyMiles.

This includes:

• Cicada Resort (Ubud)
• Element Bali (Ubud)
• Westin Resort & Spa Ubud
• W Bali Seminyak
• Aloft Bali Seminyak
• Renaissance Bali Uluwatu Resort & Spa
• Bali Nusa Dua Gardens
• Ritz Carlton Bali (Nusa Dua)

Budget Options and Timing Considerations

If you are on a budget and want an immersive experience while maximizing rewards, I would do the following:

• Airline: Delta or Korean Air (SkyMiles) – Get SkyMiles Credit
• Rental: Book a co-working hostel via Booking.com – Get a Free Airport to Hotel Ride
• Daily Expenses: Use either Amex Gold, Capital One Savor One, or JetBlue Plus Card

Other things that influence flight choices will depend on when you want to go, as well as the strength of your currency.

Daily expenses in Bali: $6-12 per day if you budget appropriately.

We went in late February/Early March, which made the costs relatively cheap, and the area wasn’t as crowded as it usually would be. The prices listed for JetBlue above are actually in the dead of summer, which means those are really good deals as long as you are OK with flying in Economy. Most award travelers are concerned about trying to get Business class seats and all sorts of hacks to get that. I don’t care about that or have time for that. I try to book around my job and what my workload will allow for.

Plus, when you have status on a particular airline, you will most likely get upgrades to Comfort+ on a SkyTeam Partner or even get lucky with a huge upgrade to Business class like on Air France.

Booking on Points

Tips, Tricks, and Logistics

DO:

• ✅ Book through airline websites or premium credit card portals only
• ✅ Use Amex/Chase/Citi travel portals for better routing + double rewards
• ✅ Check partner airline availability (Korean Air, Singapore, etc.)
• ✅ Consider timing – late Feb/early March offers better prices and fewer crowds

DON’T:

• ❌ Book directly with miles programs for international routes (terrible routing)
• ❌ Use third-party booking sites (there isn’t always protection if things go wrong)
• ❌ Forget to factor in layover cities (Seoul layover = K-beauty shopping opportunity! Or, Singapore layover for delicious food.)

Trip Soundtrack

Because every adventure needs a soundtrack, each of my trips comes with a theme song. And for this trip's anthem? Well, it's...

Important Booking Tips

Also, remember: When booking flights, ONLY book through airline websites directly or through a credit card portal, for instance, like the Amex portal. That way, in case anything happens, you have some protection.

I would be wary of super low-cost flights, especially if you are working a remote job. You want to ensure everything in your setup is running appropriately outside of an “act of God” type of event like power outages, which happen in Southeast Asia.

Bottom Line: The “free” flight to Bali isn’t really free, obviously you’re using points you earned through spending or sign-up bonuses. But the strategy you choose can mean the difference between a painful journey with multiple layovers and zero rewards, versus a more streamlined trip that actually earns you more points for future adventures.

That means that the very nature of your remote work will require that you spend some money for at least quality accommodations or transport options. Just know that even though you might spend more in terms of cash or points, you will actually spend less money while you’re there, probably $6-12 a day if you budget appropriately.