Hi all!
I've been looking for a month now, trying to find any way to get from Detroit (DTW) to Phuket next January for a (hopefully) 2 month stay. We are on a pretty low budget here, hence one of the reasons Thailand is a viable option. Unfortunately, the travel aspect of it is far from "budget friendly". The bare minimum I've been able to find is right around $1650.00 per person, and that's with a 12 - 18 hour layover in Qatar. Not sure that sounds too fun. With shorter layovers, I've found some flights for about 1800.

I've tried the old hack method of finding a cheap flight to Seattle and flying from there, which seems to be the cheapest US airport to leave from, but the cost of getting to Seattle from Detroit brings the cost right back up to the same level, if not slightly more.

So, having 7 months to get this all planned out, there's no hurry, but I'd really like to find a way to cut back on costs to get to Phuket (Or Bangkok, as we plan on spending a month in each location anyhow, so the order doesn't really matter).

Any suggestions how to start? Or am I pretty much doomed to paying almost 2k / person for our flights?
Thanks!