Today I feel like Queen of the Hot Deal. Super Sleuth. Master of the Airline Domain. Ok, ok. Let me enjoy it for a few minutes! I just found the best airfare price EVER for our trip this weekend! I've been looking every couple weeks since July, and never saw anything better than $194 per person from within a 2 hour radius of our destination. With hospital bills for Little Girl's delivery and a few surprise expenses this year, we just couldn't foot that bill plus the rental car. So we had decided that even with gas at $3 a gallon, it was still WAY cheaper for 2 people to drive there than to fly. So Scott and I have been planning to drive the 11 hours each way.
I really wasn't too bummed about it. I figured I'd get lots of knitting done, plus I love a good road trip with Scott. It was also fun to think about the silence and ease of a road trip without kids! No whining. No McDonalds Happy Meals. No potty breaks every hour. No kids' DVDs playing the whole way. No whining. 1/4 of the packing and unpacking. 1/4 of the laundry. No whining. No hours and hours of kids singing silly songs like "Where Is My Hairbrush?" "Graham Cracker Song," and "The Wheels On the Bus." No whining. Sleeping the whole night without waking up to care for a child. Taking a nap whenever, instead of only when I can find 15 minutes where everyone else is either asleep, at school, or watching a video. No whining. Actually eating all the food on my plate, instead of sharing half of it. Eating meals at regular times at all!
But at the same time, 22 hours of driving and being gone 4 days is a LOT. And I wasn't looking forward to missing 4 whole days of nursing Little Girl. See, the body continues to produce milk for awhile after the last time you breastfeed. So if I miss even one feeding, I get full and very uncomfortable. I'll have to bring a pump to get some relief from the pressure (and to hopefully keep my body making milk as I'm not ready to wean Little Girl yet!). Plus, I love the kids, and while things can get pretty intense at times each day (like when everyone is having a meltdown at once and I didn't sleep well so I just want to sit down and have a meltdown myself), I really only want short breaks before I really miss them. Their smiles and antics are the best.
So Scott suggested that I check this week to see if we could get any last-minute deals on airfare. I am getting paid to participate in some meetings at the hospital, so we have some extra cash coming in this month. I figured that we'd think about it if we could find something under $200 each. The first three airports I checked were no-shows. I didn't find anything under $250. Then I checked my last option. The first days I plugged in were the same, but then Hotwire has this feature for flexible flyers where it shows other combinations of days and their possible prices. I scrolled down and suddenly saw this unbelievable price! I first thought it was a typo. But there was one that said Saturday to Tuesday for $97 each!
I clicked on it, expecting it to be a time that wouldn't work (the wedding is Saturday afternoon) or some ridiculous terms or one-way only. Or maybe it was for some obscure airport 2 hours from where we need to go. But no -- it was actually a regular fare leaving early Saturday, and I could return Monday or Tuesday for the same price! Going in and out of the airport we wanted! Scott's mom was able to make it work with her schedule. The price didn't change between the time I found it and the time I booked it. Wow! Then we got a car rental for really cheap on Hotwire too -- I priced the discount we get through Costco, and it was about $60 more than the Hotwire price!
So I feel like I got the upper hand on the whole travel industry this week. I have NEVER seen a round-trip airfare for this low, not even back when we could buy gas for $1 a gallon! Even then, the best deal I got was $110 round trip. I always hear about other people finding great deals like this, but I've never managed to pull it off! I'm so overjoyed that we're flying. It's so much better to fly 50 minutes than drive 11. Plus we'll be gone one less day! That means I have one more day to get this house ready and get everything done that I need to this week.
Do you think they'll allow me to carry on my knitting? They won't have a problem with 18-inch long semi-pointed metal objects, right?
