PLANNING TO TRAVEL
You may think this travel
blog is all just rainbows and unicorns; frivolous musings of our cavorting
around the world and around the corner, but behind the scenes at VFH Central there
is serious planning going on to get us to these destinations. It’s a 24/7 intense
process of details and prices and itineraries. Well, at least that’s what Janet
tackles with alacrity every day in her high-tech control room. Me, I kind of
lean in the rainbow and unicorn realm as I tend to just show up somewhere and
write about how "lovely” or “magical” or “cool” it is to visit wherever we
land.
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| Greg's way of traveling |
Without her, we go
nowhere. Me, I’ll drive around in circles, but she is laser sharp in her directions
and costs and agendas. She even plans our meandering drives with stops and
special routes which appease my “careless” shuffling.
“Trips aren’t ‘thought-activated,’”
she’ll say and to that I’ll wisely murmur, “Yes, Dear!” Then I mutter under my
breath, “spare me the details.”
Without her attention
to details and her pursuit of deals, travel costs would be exorbitant, and now
that we’re finally seeing light at the end of this nasty COVID pandemic it is
time to dust off Janet’s control room console and ‘get ‘er done.’
SPARE ME THE DETAILS
As traveling companions
go, we’re very compatible. Janet burrows into the details and hunts down the
best prices for air travel, etc., and I hand over my credit card.
Between Apps on her
phone and emails and websites that she constantly monitors, Janet consistently
provides our travels with the best cost-saving tactics. When we planned a trip
to Croatia two years ago, she suggested we open credit cards that gave us the
requisite miles. Even though we consistently fly on American Airlines (to gather
frequent flyer miles) she goes off other sites that offer the flights at some
discounted rate. A few years ago, she discovered that we could fly to England during
the Christmas season for half the price if we departed from BWI Marshall Airport
instead, catching first a puddle jumper to the normal Philadelphia – Manchester
flight we usually take.
She monitors prices and
when she gets an inkling that prices will rise, she will make the purchase.
I know, my head’s
spinning too!
Here’s a quick list of
her “sources."
Janet says Kayak is great for comparison shopping, and with Google Flights you put in your itinerary and it shows on a calendar the different prices for different days.
Janet says the cheapest days to fly are generally Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the lowest fares can usually be snagged on Wednesday morning. Prices fluctuate daily and hourly.
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| AIRFARE WATCHDOG |
AIRFARE WATCHDOG
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| SCOTT'S |
Hopper is interesting because the smartphone app actually predicts if prices for the flight you are interested in will go up and send you an alert to your phone warning you of this.
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| HOPPER |
Good luck with your search. Janet says this is JUST SCRATCHING THE SURFACE with the information. Me? I'm going to drink another Unicorn shot
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| JANET SEARCHING FOR DEALS |
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| Remember to visit the official VFH store! |
©
2021
By greg dunaj
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