Okay, I've booked round-trip tickets and a car rental for the week between Christmas and New years for our vacation in Oregon.
Woo!
We will be leaving on December 24th, so I expect the airport to resemble the foyer of hell, but it was the cheapest day to leave.
Coming back on a Monday, the 2nd, so that may be a bit better.
I had some pain in the wallet, though, accepting the $900 price tag. For that, I could get a computer and a nice LCD monitor! Or two REALLY nice LCDs!
I don't know how the airlines do their pricing, but I do know that it fluctuates wildly within a defined range. My preferred prices for the tickets was $250, but that was just a pipe dream. I got $300 tickets.
I've been watching the prices over the last couple of months, and the do get down to the $250 range... if you don't mind 6:00am departure times, three-hour layovers, or travelling overnight.
Mostly I mind the 6:00am departures. We did in fact get a three and a hour-hour layover. At least we are unlikely to miss our connecting flights. I'm bringing books. And maybe a pillow.
Ooh, and I can see if I have any friends in LA still, who can visit us in the airport.
I spent an hour or so selecting my options, picking a car (the cheapest one), dithering over whether to buy now or see if it gets better later (it won't), and talking to Marla to soothe my fears.
In that time, the price of my flight selection went up $60.
If I waited another hour, would that flight disappear? Go down $100?
I probably just pissed $60 down the rat-hole, but I didn't want to go through the entire process again, in the hopes of finding a better price. The selected trip had rational departure times, and that counts for a lot. Most of the flights I could find did not.
Now I get to worry whether I read it all correctly. So many words for my poor, overheated brain.
I guess I'll check it again tonight when I can see straight.
Posted by Edwin at September 20, 2005 12:59 PM