Cheap flights are waiting for you!

             They’re out there.  The cheapest seats on that flight you’re eyeing.  And they can be yours.  Yours!  Mwahhahahahaha (that’s the evil scientist laugh of victory).               

            Provided you book early, that is. 

           And by booking early, I don’t mean at 8:30 in the morning, I mean 3-6 months prior to departure.  Seriously.  Those last-minute deals you remember your Uncle Buddy getting in 1989 have gone the way of the dinosaurs (with the exception of charters, but I’ll get into that later), and now if you don’t act fast, the price of your flight will continue to go up with each passing minute.  Essentially, all economy-class seats on major scheduled airlines (like Air Canada, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, etc.) are identical, but price-wise they’re divided into anywhere from 5-20 different price ranges, with a limited number of seats at each range.  The earlier you book, the higher your chances of snagging one of the cheaper seats before they all sell out and you have to move up to the next lowest option.  This is also why last-minute tickets are usually the most expensive, as all the cheap seats have sold out and you have to suck it up and take whatever’s last.  No one wants to do that.  Unless, of course, you have gobs of money just sitting around in your Scrooge McDuck cash tower, and don’t care if you waste a few extra hundred.  But in that case, what the hell are you doing flying coach?  I can hook you up with all the cushiness of business class…

         Oh, and killer seat sales?  I really wouldn’t bet on it.  Every day another airline’s in the news as it struggles to stay out of bankruptcy, so giving away all their profits is not likely to happen any time soon.

            As I mentioned earlier, the exception to this rule is charter airlines.  They don’t fly nearly as frequently on limited routes, so having empty seats hits them harder financially as the larger carriers.  This is where we find the CAD$50.00 one way flights to London (not counting the CAD$275.00 tax, of course) and the awesome week at a Cancun all-inclusive resort for CAD$750.00 plus tax package deals.    Price-wise, charters are a great deal.   And with a lot of the smaller, unreputable charter companies not surviving the recession, the ones that remain are the ones with good service, good reputations and better financial footing, so they’re much less likely to go under between the time you’ve purchased your ticket and actually get to travel.   The flipside is that they don’t fly daily, so you need to be a bit flexible with your dates, your luggage limit is much lower (those gianttubs of gummi bears you want to bring home for each of the grandkids?  Perfect, as long as you have no clothes or other souvenirs that might push you past the free luggage allowance.  Over that, you’re paying crazy high fees per extra kilo – please see Scrooge McDuck note above.  This is a true story, too.  The passenger had to load all her gummi bears into a cardboard box, cover it in duct tape and pay extra to get them home from Frankfurt) and you’re more likely to have big screens instead of seatback TVs on your long-haul.  For the amount you’re saving, it can be a very even trade.

              But for those of us who can only take certain days off and/or really want those 12kg worth of gummi bears (umm, this is making me hungry, I should have used an example I didn’t like), the only way to guarantee you’re not paying hundreds more than the guy next to you reading the in-flight magazine over your shoulder is to book early.  Think of it this way, the earlier you book, the more time you get to just chill and plan what you’re going to do on your vacation.  Or pay off that Visa bill.

Tags: airlines, BlogSherpa, charters, deals, Flights, luggage, price, savings, travel agent

Vacation Anatomy part 2: The trip itself

           Okay, so now you’re off.  All your worldly possessions are crammed in your wheeled nylon sidekick, you have a complimentary bag of peanuts in your pocket and your camera batteries fully charged.  I’m not going to tell you how to travel, that’s a very personal thing and can vary dramatically from person to person.  But I am going to say: enjoy every second of it.

               Whether you’ve been to the destination a dozen times before or it’s your very first, the most important thing is that you have fun while you’re there.  Without a doubt, everyone gets out of a vacation exactly what they put into it.  Happiness is contagious.  Regardless if you can communicate with the people around you or not. a smile is universal and can go farther than you think in breaking down barriers.  Things have a tendency to go awry on vacations (be it a late plane connection, mislaid luggage, a disappointing city tour or even simply getting lost), but the secret shared by all great travelers is to not let that event ruin your whole trip. Far too often I’ve seen it where something goes a bit off-track at the beginning of a vacation, and, despite the fact that the matter was resolved, the passengers continue to mope about it for the remainder of the trip.   All this does is bring them and the people around them down.  Move on.  Roll with it.  Don’t rob yourself of enjoying your hard-earned vacation.  You spent a lot of time and money on this, you deserve for it to be great.     

              Remember, the  joy is in the details.  Even a trip to the supermarket can be fun if you look at it from the right angle (”They have seafood tempura flavoured chips?  Cool! ”, “It called Coke Light here instead of Diet Coke!”) and revel in all that your destination has to offer.  Then, no matter where you are and what you’re doing, you’re guaranteed to have great memories of your vacation. 

            But eventually you have to go home, which brings us to Stage 3…

Tags: BlogSherpa, enjoyment, luggage, memories, Tips, travel agent

Babies are not luggage.

          Cruises are awesome.  You get on and unpack once, they give you craploads of free food, nightly entertainment, children’s programs, and you can wake up stress-free every morning with a new city to explore.  But yes, it’s true, every person in your cabin has to pay the same price, regardless of whether it’s a 400-lb man who eats his body weight in lobster every night or an infant who gurgles, coos, and rapidly expels whatever food it does consume.  I know it sucks. But doing this (and charging an insanely high price for a Coke) has kept cruise lines afloat for decades and will continue to do so.  There’s no way around this.

              Babies cannot be classified as luggage.  Stop laughing, I have been asked this more than once by very serious, loving parents.  Yep, they’re small, can weigh slightly less than your standard suitcase and have to be carried everywhere, but that doesn’t mean they let you stuff them in overhead compartments on airplanes, either (that would probobly violate the liquids in the carry on rule, as people are what, 80% water?).  Trust me.  I have actually called cruise lines to ask this.  And, judging by the bored-sounding “no” I keep getting, I am clearly not the first person to inquire.  I’m sure there’s some safety rule about having to know the correct number of bodies onboard at all times, and this rule doesn’t apply to suitcases.

             But really, would you rather pay for your baby to travel with you, or watch as they get a barcoded sticker wrapped around their handle and are thrown on to the luggage truck?

Tags: babies, cruise, luggage