Original post date: 10-Feb-2016
Last holiday season I decided to meet my aunt and uncle and also explore Los Angles. Of course it is was a nice excuse to escape from the snow and cold weather. And as I realized later I had escaped a major power blackout that lasted as long as 72 hours in some parts of our city. So, as I was planning for my trip, I realized I was tad late in making my plan; the flight rates were already exorbitant. And I was not ready to pay that much. And I also wanted to go. So what should I do?
First I started by searching from nearby airports. Flights from Chicago were less expensive but I was not interested to take the risk of travelling in the cold weather, especially to catch a flight. Possible bad weather can disrupt my plans. It is December you see. All other nearby airports, there was no big difference in ticket price. I even searched for bus and trains. They were immediately ruled out, I didn't want to spend 4 precious days of my vacation in travel, especially not in train. With expensive flight tickets, no proper bus and train options, I either had to pay with time or money.
That is when I decided to try something new; explore; take some gamble. Instead of booking a direct ticket to LA, I decided to break my journey into smaller legs. Divide and conquer you see. Take the cheapest routes from source and keep moving in the destination's direction. And if you are lucky, you have your plan. There are these smaller and low cost airlines which offer really good price. And always look for major airports. You will get both cheaper flights and better connectivity from there. And I was lucky that I had use only one transit point i.e. Las Vegas to reach my destination. The transit time was really good just over 2 hours, which is probably better than what a airline or travel agents would offer. So that was onward journey, Done!. I have cut the cost by more than half. Of course it comes with a gamble, if my first flight gets delayed, I would miss my second flight. But that was not a big worry for me as LA was just 4.5 hours by bus from Las Vegas.
Then I realized the problem with these type of booking. You really cant expect to the get proper connecting flights. I had no option but to fly the conventional route. But Fortune favors the brave they say! And it did favor me. Just when I gave up and decided to book an expensive flight for the return journey, I found a special fare flight ticket (1 seat left kind of). That would bring me to Chicago. And I had no problem to go back in bus. Thus with little bit of research, little bit of gamble and little bit of luck I had reduced my ticket cost by more than half! And then I happy spent my vacation in LA.
Last holiday season I decided to meet my aunt and uncle and also explore Los Angles. Of course it is was a nice excuse to escape from the snow and cold weather. And as I realized later I had escaped a major power blackout that lasted as long as 72 hours in some parts of our city. So, as I was planning for my trip, I realized I was tad late in making my plan; the flight rates were already exorbitant. And I was not ready to pay that much. And I also wanted to go. So what should I do?
First I started by searching from nearby airports. Flights from Chicago were less expensive but I was not interested to take the risk of travelling in the cold weather, especially to catch a flight. Possible bad weather can disrupt my plans. It is December you see. All other nearby airports, there was no big difference in ticket price. I even searched for bus and trains. They were immediately ruled out, I didn't want to spend 4 precious days of my vacation in travel, especially not in train. With expensive flight tickets, no proper bus and train options, I either had to pay with time or money.
That is when I decided to try something new; explore; take some gamble. Instead of booking a direct ticket to LA, I decided to break my journey into smaller legs. Divide and conquer you see. Take the cheapest routes from source and keep moving in the destination's direction. And if you are lucky, you have your plan. There are these smaller and low cost airlines which offer really good price. And always look for major airports. You will get both cheaper flights and better connectivity from there. And I was lucky that I had use only one transit point i.e. Las Vegas to reach my destination. The transit time was really good just over 2 hours, which is probably better than what a airline or travel agents would offer. So that was onward journey, Done!. I have cut the cost by more than half. Of course it comes with a gamble, if my first flight gets delayed, I would miss my second flight. But that was not a big worry for me as LA was just 4.5 hours by bus from Las Vegas.
Then I realized the problem with these type of booking. You really cant expect to the get proper connecting flights. I had no option but to fly the conventional route. But Fortune favors the brave they say! And it did favor me. Just when I gave up and decided to book an expensive flight for the return journey, I found a special fare flight ticket (1 seat left kind of). That would bring me to Chicago. And I had no problem to go back in bus. Thus with little bit of research, little bit of gamble and little bit of luck I had reduced my ticket cost by more than half! And then I happy spent my vacation in LA.
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