If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere
I hate airlines.
I don’t say that because of true costs, flights, airplane conditions, flight times, number of connections or turbulence. I don’t care about what food I eat or the fact that I have to pay for alcohol on international flights now. I don’t have a problem with them charging $5 for headphones for the in-flight entertainment if they want to make a few extra bucks.
What has got me up in arms is the complete and random nature of pricing for flights. And don’t get me wrong: I have benefited from some low prices and been victimized by higher prices, so I’ve seen both sides of the equation. But the pricing just seems to be completely illogical.
Here is an example. My friend Gary knew that he was probably flying to London months ago. Some time in August, he found that, if all the contracts were completed, he’d be flying over on 09/16/06.
When I returned from my trip to Edmonton on 08/16/06, I started looking into ticket prices for a specific time frame, 11/16-11/25/06. When I first started looking, there was a flight from Pittsburgh to London Gatwick through Dulles that left early in the morning and arrived in London on the same day, 9:45 pm Thursday, for $415 total. There were several flights that left Thursday evening and arrived early Friday morning, 11/17/06, all for $415.
Gary, however, was unsure if all the contracts were going to be signed or if he was even going to go, so I made a decision not to buy my ticket to London until he was actually there, but I kept paying attention to the prices. 2 weeks before Gary left, prices suddenly spiked up to $501, and the same-day flight was no longer available. That was fine with me, and still not too much of a price problem.
The day Gary was leaving, I was at his house to drive him to the airport. He was frantically packing, so I sat down at his computer and checked flights. The cheapest flight I could get for the same time frame was $640! How is that possible? We were still talking 2 months prior to departure, and the flights spiked up another $139, and were $225 more than they were 3 months prior to my planned trip.
So I started looking for other flights, and checking all these different websites that supposedly offer cheap airline fares. Lynne had talked about going, but she was out of the office for the first 2 days back after I dropped Gary off. On 09/19/06, I saw a ticket price of $540. On the very next day, the best price I could get was through NYC for $566. I booked this flight, and when Lynne was back in town the next day, the same flight was available for same price so she booked it.
One of our co-workers and good friend of Lynne worked for the airline we are going on, so Lynne asked her “What is LaGuardia Airport like?” I looked at Lynne and said “No, we need to know what JFK Airport is like.” Lynne & I started arguing, confused which airport we are going through. Turns out we were both correct.
We fly from Pittsburgh into LaGuardia. Then we have to get our bags, leave LaGuardia, take either a bus or a taxi to JFK Airport to get our flight to London, check our bags back in, go through security again and get to our gate. I will say, we have just a bit over 6 hours to do this as long as there isn’t any delay in our flight from Pittsburgh to NYC. With no problems, I think that this is doable. Completely doable. Annoying as all fuck, but doable. As long as there are no unusual traffic problems.
However, we fly back the same way, and have to go from JFK to LaGuardia, but this time we have only about 4 hours to do this. And we have to go through US Customs. And let me just say, I have a sad problem where TSA seems to think I am someone on some list and I keep getting searched at airports, so I would say we have a good chance of being delayed at JFK on the flight back. Unless the city that never sleeps takes an afternoon siesta on 11/25/06, I think we have a chance of missing our flight from NYC to Pittsburgh!
So, I have kind of accepted the inevitability that I will not be home in Pittsburgh on Saturday, 11/25. I think I will be stuck in NYC for the night, and I have a brother who lives there, so I can handle that, though not happy about that prospect.
This running across the Big Apple to different airports is what bothers the snot out of me. I have had more anxiety over the exchange from one airport to another in NYC than anything else about this trip. And it was all due to fear of the price of a flight.
What drives me completely batshit is the prices and the fact that since I have bought the ticket, I have been able to find tickets cheaper and with the layover being in one airport, not having to run from one to the other. And I don’t have a choice now that I bought it: can’t exchange tickets without incurring $200 fee.
I don’t know how I could have looked and looked and seen the tickets skyrocket up just when I was ready to buy, and how afterwards, I have found most tickets cheaper since I bought my ticket, and only going through one airport to get from Pittsburgh to London.
This morning I checked and USAirways has a flight from Pittsburgh to London through Charlotte, NC, coming back through Philadelphia, all for $488 total. So it is $88 cheaper, but what is really getting me is the fact that I wouldn’t have the stress of crossing the biggest city in USA to get from one airport to another. If I had been offered the same flight for $566, but only going through one airport, I would have taken it.
Due to the constant, insane price fluctuation that is airfares, I took what I thought would be the best price, and it was the only time that the price spiked upwards, so I look like an idiot now. If there was some type of consistency in flight prices, some of us wouldn’t have to go through shit like this regularly (be lucky I didn’t describe for you the one flight I took to Edmonton a few years ago where I went to 4 total airports and 19 hours in one day, just to save myself $40, which I promptly spent on a taxi ride to get to my friends house earlier!)
Fucking airlines!
I don’t say that because of true costs, flights, airplane conditions, flight times, number of connections or turbulence. I don’t care about what food I eat or the fact that I have to pay for alcohol on international flights now. I don’t have a problem with them charging $5 for headphones for the in-flight entertainment if they want to make a few extra bucks.
What has got me up in arms is the complete and random nature of pricing for flights. And don’t get me wrong: I have benefited from some low prices and been victimized by higher prices, so I’ve seen both sides of the equation. But the pricing just seems to be completely illogical.
Here is an example. My friend Gary knew that he was probably flying to London months ago. Some time in August, he found that, if all the contracts were completed, he’d be flying over on 09/16/06.
When I returned from my trip to Edmonton on 08/16/06, I started looking into ticket prices for a specific time frame, 11/16-11/25/06. When I first started looking, there was a flight from Pittsburgh to London Gatwick through Dulles that left early in the morning and arrived in London on the same day, 9:45 pm Thursday, for $415 total. There were several flights that left Thursday evening and arrived early Friday morning, 11/17/06, all for $415.
Gary, however, was unsure if all the contracts were going to be signed or if he was even going to go, so I made a decision not to buy my ticket to London until he was actually there, but I kept paying attention to the prices. 2 weeks before Gary left, prices suddenly spiked up to $501, and the same-day flight was no longer available. That was fine with me, and still not too much of a price problem.
The day Gary was leaving, I was at his house to drive him to the airport. He was frantically packing, so I sat down at his computer and checked flights. The cheapest flight I could get for the same time frame was $640! How is that possible? We were still talking 2 months prior to departure, and the flights spiked up another $139, and were $225 more than they were 3 months prior to my planned trip.
So I started looking for other flights, and checking all these different websites that supposedly offer cheap airline fares. Lynne had talked about going, but she was out of the office for the first 2 days back after I dropped Gary off. On 09/19/06, I saw a ticket price of $540. On the very next day, the best price I could get was through NYC for $566. I booked this flight, and when Lynne was back in town the next day, the same flight was available for same price so she booked it.
One of our co-workers and good friend of Lynne worked for the airline we are going on, so Lynne asked her “What is LaGuardia Airport like?” I looked at Lynne and said “No, we need to know what JFK Airport is like.” Lynne & I started arguing, confused which airport we are going through. Turns out we were both correct.
We fly from Pittsburgh into LaGuardia. Then we have to get our bags, leave LaGuardia, take either a bus or a taxi to JFK Airport to get our flight to London, check our bags back in, go through security again and get to our gate. I will say, we have just a bit over 6 hours to do this as long as there isn’t any delay in our flight from Pittsburgh to NYC. With no problems, I think that this is doable. Completely doable. Annoying as all fuck, but doable. As long as there are no unusual traffic problems.
However, we fly back the same way, and have to go from JFK to LaGuardia, but this time we have only about 4 hours to do this. And we have to go through US Customs. And let me just say, I have a sad problem where TSA seems to think I am someone on some list and I keep getting searched at airports, so I would say we have a good chance of being delayed at JFK on the flight back. Unless the city that never sleeps takes an afternoon siesta on 11/25/06, I think we have a chance of missing our flight from NYC to Pittsburgh!
So, I have kind of accepted the inevitability that I will not be home in Pittsburgh on Saturday, 11/25. I think I will be stuck in NYC for the night, and I have a brother who lives there, so I can handle that, though not happy about that prospect.
This running across the Big Apple to different airports is what bothers the snot out of me. I have had more anxiety over the exchange from one airport to another in NYC than anything else about this trip. And it was all due to fear of the price of a flight.
What drives me completely batshit is the prices and the fact that since I have bought the ticket, I have been able to find tickets cheaper and with the layover being in one airport, not having to run from one to the other. And I don’t have a choice now that I bought it: can’t exchange tickets without incurring $200 fee.
I don’t know how I could have looked and looked and seen the tickets skyrocket up just when I was ready to buy, and how afterwards, I have found most tickets cheaper since I bought my ticket, and only going through one airport to get from Pittsburgh to London.
This morning I checked and USAirways has a flight from Pittsburgh to London through Charlotte, NC, coming back through Philadelphia, all for $488 total. So it is $88 cheaper, but what is really getting me is the fact that I wouldn’t have the stress of crossing the biggest city in USA to get from one airport to another. If I had been offered the same flight for $566, but only going through one airport, I would have taken it.
Due to the constant, insane price fluctuation that is airfares, I took what I thought would be the best price, and it was the only time that the price spiked upwards, so I look like an idiot now. If there was some type of consistency in flight prices, some of us wouldn’t have to go through shit like this regularly (be lucky I didn’t describe for you the one flight I took to Edmonton a few years ago where I went to 4 total airports and 19 hours in one day, just to save myself $40, which I promptly spent on a taxi ride to get to my friends house earlier!)
Fucking airlines!
posted by Mike at 9:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home