Dopey Member
Post by doctork on Oct 1, 2017 0:45:38 GMT -5
I have finally got most of the details about the National Storytelling Festival trip settled, just booking my flight tonight. I probably should have used that website TripIt.
Often, it does not save much money to book far in advance. I've been watching Western Washington to NC/East TN for a couple months and they have been stable with much bigger deltas attributable to departure city, number of stops and time of day than due to early vs late purchase.
It especially doesn't pay for me to book way in advance because I am always procrastinating or changing my plans.
Genevieve decided day before yesterday that she wanted to go to storytelling too. She got a reward ticket for miles straight into Tri-Cities (closest airport to Storytelling) and a return ticket on Spirit for $100, one week prior to departure. So her last minute round-trip airfare cost is $100 plus miles.
This particular trip cost me $300 less to fly into Asheville than Charlotte plus it is closer to Tri-Cities, but the timing was better for AVL than TRI.
Even easier and cheaper was to fly from Vancouver BC to Tri-Cities, except that the timing was wrong, as I do not like red eyes and I don't like arriving at midnight. Otherwise Vancouver Airport is much closer and easier to negotiate than Seattle.
It's often cheaper to buy two separate tickets, each being one way. That's what Gen did. It isn't always cheaper to buy round-trip from one airline. Sometimes when you leave you haven't yet decided when you are coming back.
Sometimes I check flight prices and times on Travelocity then purchase the ticket on the airline website. That way I keep up with my status, and I might get better service from the airline if there are any snafus.
I usually fly on legacy airlines instead of the low cost carriers, which I think are too unreliable. If something goes wrong you could be stranded for days because they can't book you on a different flight or bring in a spare airplane. Maybe OK for leisure travel when you have spare time, not good if you want to be back to work on time.
Often, it does not save much money to book far in advance. I've been watching Western Washington to NC/East TN for a couple months and they have been stable with much bigger deltas attributable to departure city, number of stops and time of day than due to early vs late purchase.
It especially doesn't pay for me to book way in advance because I am always procrastinating or changing my plans.
Genevieve decided day before yesterday that she wanted to go to storytelling too. She got a reward ticket for miles straight into Tri-Cities (closest airport to Storytelling) and a return ticket on Spirit for $100, one week prior to departure. So her last minute round-trip airfare cost is $100 plus miles.
This particular trip cost me $300 less to fly into Asheville than Charlotte plus it is closer to Tri-Cities, but the timing was better for AVL than TRI.
Even easier and cheaper was to fly from Vancouver BC to Tri-Cities, except that the timing was wrong, as I do not like red eyes and I don't like arriving at midnight. Otherwise Vancouver Airport is much closer and easier to negotiate than Seattle.
It's often cheaper to buy two separate tickets, each being one way. That's what Gen did. It isn't always cheaper to buy round-trip from one airline. Sometimes when you leave you haven't yet decided when you are coming back.
Sometimes I check flight prices and times on Travelocity then purchase the ticket on the airline website. That way I keep up with my status, and I might get better service from the airline if there are any snafus.
I usually fly on legacy airlines instead of the low cost carriers, which I think are too unreliable. If something goes wrong you could be stranded for days because they can't book you on a different flight or bring in a spare airplane. Maybe OK for leisure travel when you have spare time, not good if you want to be back to work on time.
