Re: Trip to Pakistan
Right before Eid, summer peak travel months (June-August), and December break are traditionally bad months in terms of ticket prices to Pakistan.
It’s true that the more layovers you have, the cheaper your ticket could potentially be. But if you’re making a long haul flight, 2+ layovers can get really tiring, and I’m speaking from experience.
Anyways, I just did a random search on kayak.com for the month of November, SFO to Lahore, and cheapest is for $1323 on mostly Etihad.
SFO - ORD
ORD - AUH
AUH - LHE
Return:
LHE - AUH
AUH - SFO
Start with kayak.com and then browse around a bit to find your cheapest fair. Don’t forget to check the actual airline’s website to see if you can get a break on the fare by directly booking from their website, though in my experience it’s only worked once. Also try flightfox.com. It costs a little bit to have others search itineraries for you, based on your criteria (time, money, certain layovers you want for sure), but the end savings are worth the cost.