Was about to come back... but this is gonna cost way too much.

[Xaiven]

A friend had persuaded me to join him back in XI and I finally caved. I actually reactivated already but now i'm hesitating because of how much money it would cost. First of all there is the 25$ world transfer. That's pretty damn high but oh well. But besides that; the only way to add the 3 Abyssea expansions to my account is to buy each one through the SE account management (30$). Not to mention the subscription.
That makes it almost $70 that i'm not sure I can spend right now.

My question is, is there a way to get the Abyssea expansions for cheaper? When I came back in 2010 to play for a while I just purchased the ultimate collection and added the registration code through POL and it added WotG and the 3 addons to my account which was a great deal for 15$ on steam. But unless its very well hidden, there is no way to add a registration code on SE account management.

[Arcon]

I assume you don't have the Abyssea Edition of the Ultimate Collection? If you do, you can enter that code in the SE management site, and it should activate all Abyssea expansions. It's very well hidden (SE don't want people to play their games), you need to go to "Select Service" > FFXI > "Add a service account". There you can enter the code, and then you can select which POL account you want to add it to, which means if you have more than one POL account you'll need to do that more than once (however, it will apply to all characters within one POL account).

However, even if that isn't possible, you can still get all of them cheaper, by buying the entire game again:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/39260/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

Occasionally it's on a special offer, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be right now. It's still 10 bucks cheaper than getting them all separately.

[Camomille]

As Arcon stated, I would get the Abyssea Edition either over Steam or Amazon. You can add that to your existing account with no problems! Plus, you'll get the handy dandy Destrier Beret.

Good luck!

[Mayoyama]

But unless its very well hidden, there is no way to add a registration code on SE account management.

*Log into SE account -> https://secure.square-enix.com/account/app/svc/Login?cont=account
*"Select service account" option on left hand menu
*"PlayOnline/FFXI"
*"Add a service account" button on top right
*Input code

As for expansions, you have the option of either buying the Abyssea collection (was a mere $5 on black friday) now and then buying the expansion in March for $30, or waiting til end of march and buying the Adoulin collection ($40). If you can get the abyssea one for $10 works out same price anyway (plus you get a very sexy hat for low level jobs)