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If you were to fly from North America to end up in Leicester, which airport would you choose for best economy? I am not excluding ones with a substantial train or bus ride involved, so long as the expense doesn't negate the savings.
I hesitated buying tickets for a long time because I was giving the son-in-law the maximum chance to change his mind and come with us. I wish I could have impelled him somehow: compelling him is of course out of the question.
Then I made a couple false starts because the process is intimidating and because it was apparent we needed a two-week trip because the alternative is a three-day trip (the prices for flying are that stupid). Then I stayed up till midnight last night trying various supposedly cheap airline ticket sites, and ended up, as the last time I bought air tickets, going through an airline. I did Delta. There's probably something wrong with that.
COnvenient flight times are impossible. The best I could do is leaving San Francisco at eight in the morning -- which I think means sleeping at Moher's house the night before, or possibly paying for the expensive shuttle, or maybe both, instead of taking public transportation, which is my preference (it's kind of a complicated trip: the highway 17 bus to the train station, the train to the station next to the airport, then the special train? bus? -- I forget because I've only taken it once -- to the airport. That doesn't sound complicated, but each transfer is an adventure). And then we arrive back home at eleven at night, which effectively means another missed day of work. The other alternative Pragueward were six in the morning which is absurd -- it means either spending the night in the airport or getting up at three in the morning in San Francisco -- or some tme in the afternoon, which makes us arrive almost a whole day later. And coming home, the alternatives for leaving were more civilized, except that they all seemed to be glued to hugely long layors in cities where we have no friends. 22 hours in Paris, for example. That's not long enough to dash out and look at the city. 17 hours in New York. Ditto. Why do they do that? More convenient connecting flights were obviously available at these airports, as I found them glued to some other inconvenient flight.
Also, ticket pricing. What the hell? Specifically, what the hell game are they playing with "fees and taxes?" Why do they offer a trip for 480 dollars that works out to 1200 dollars with fees, and a flight for 800 dollars that works out to 950 dollars with fees? Taxes are obviously going to be greater for the larger base price, so it has to be the fees that are the difference? What fees could possibly be five hundred dollars more for the cheaper flight?
Especially as it involves one of the same connecting flights and all the same airlines. And it's all the same economy class, too. And why is it cheapest to fly on Wednesday? Is it because it's the absolute farthest from the weekend and therefore forces you to lose the most possible work? Why do the airlines hate people?
They're charging for all the luggage, I think, so the cost of the trip is still not completely known. I think this because they kept trying to get me to upgrade to business class -- I mean every time a new screen loaded, and a new screen loaded for every variable of every permutation I tried and I tried a lot of permutations -- there was a big splash taking up half the screen nagging me to change, promising "first on, first off" and "first piece of baggage is free" -- I hope that only means checked baggage and not carryons, and I hope you still get two carryons, because I don't need much more than that even with presents for Frank and Hannah, and since I'm going to be getting a lot of presents in Prague, I think I will mail them to myself, as expensive as that is, because it's just that much more convenient and frees me up to get more Krtek swag than you can shake a stick at. I was able to give away all my Krtek swag (Youtube links) before (except for what I kept on purpose). I even found that there is a Krtek fan here in Santa Cruz (Shirley's daughter Olivia, in case anybody from that circle stumbles upon this and wonders what to get her for presents).
Okay, our dates: leaving April 13, coming back April 26. Going back to work April 28, because I won't be back in Santa Cruz till April 27th.
Next step: getting the dog taken care of.
On another front, I am not driving to work anymore! Even though I have a kind of a Charlie Horse (I thought it might be something more sinister till I looked it up, and then found the sproinged muscle or tendon or ligament or whatever it is).
Then I made a couple false starts because the process is intimidating and because it was apparent we needed a two-week trip because the alternative is a three-day trip (the prices for flying are that stupid). Then I stayed up till midnight last night trying various supposedly cheap airline ticket sites, and ended up, as the last time I bought air tickets, going through an airline. I did Delta. There's probably something wrong with that.
COnvenient flight times are impossible. The best I could do is leaving San Francisco at eight in the morning -- which I think means sleeping at Moher's house the night before, or possibly paying for the expensive shuttle, or maybe both, instead of taking public transportation, which is my preference (it's kind of a complicated trip: the highway 17 bus to the train station, the train to the station next to the airport, then the special train? bus? -- I forget because I've only taken it once -- to the airport. That doesn't sound complicated, but each transfer is an adventure). And then we arrive back home at eleven at night, which effectively means another missed day of work. The other alternative Pragueward were six in the morning which is absurd -- it means either spending the night in the airport or getting up at three in the morning in San Francisco -- or some tme in the afternoon, which makes us arrive almost a whole day later. And coming home, the alternatives for leaving were more civilized, except that they all seemed to be glued to hugely long layors in cities where we have no friends. 22 hours in Paris, for example. That's not long enough to dash out and look at the city. 17 hours in New York. Ditto. Why do they do that? More convenient connecting flights were obviously available at these airports, as I found them glued to some other inconvenient flight.
Also, ticket pricing. What the hell? Specifically, what the hell game are they playing with "fees and taxes?" Why do they offer a trip for 480 dollars that works out to 1200 dollars with fees, and a flight for 800 dollars that works out to 950 dollars with fees? Taxes are obviously going to be greater for the larger base price, so it has to be the fees that are the difference? What fees could possibly be five hundred dollars more for the cheaper flight?
Especially as it involves one of the same connecting flights and all the same airlines. And it's all the same economy class, too. And why is it cheapest to fly on Wednesday? Is it because it's the absolute farthest from the weekend and therefore forces you to lose the most possible work? Why do the airlines hate people?
They're charging for all the luggage, I think, so the cost of the trip is still not completely known. I think this because they kept trying to get me to upgrade to business class -- I mean every time a new screen loaded, and a new screen loaded for every variable of every permutation I tried and I tried a lot of permutations -- there was a big splash taking up half the screen nagging me to change, promising "first on, first off" and "first piece of baggage is free" -- I hope that only means checked baggage and not carryons, and I hope you still get two carryons, because I don't need much more than that even with presents for Frank and Hannah, and since I'm going to be getting a lot of presents in Prague, I think I will mail them to myself, as expensive as that is, because it's just that much more convenient and frees me up to get more Krtek swag than you can shake a stick at. I was able to give away all my Krtek swag (Youtube links) before (except for what I kept on purpose). I even found that there is a Krtek fan here in Santa Cruz (Shirley's daughter Olivia, in case anybody from that circle stumbles upon this and wonders what to get her for presents).
Okay, our dates: leaving April 13, coming back April 26. Going back to work April 28, because I won't be back in Santa Cruz till April 27th.
Next step: getting the dog taken care of.
On another front, I am not driving to work anymore! Even though I have a kind of a Charlie Horse (I thought it might be something more sinister till I looked it up, and then found the sproinged muscle or tendon or ligament or whatever it is).
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