I've come to some rather opinionated positions on the byzantine process of purchasing airline tickets. Mind you, I'm not a seasoned pro, but I've had the opportunity to engage in two protracted battles in the last few months. Therefore, when it comes to buying plane tickets....
Forget search engines. Kayak, Orbitz, etc? Forget 'em
Really.
Well, not entirely.
You use search engines as a starting point, to find out ballpark
figures and which airlines fly to your destination, and what times are
available. It's a useful research tool, but not a reliable buying
vehicle. All the websites - Kayak, orbitz, expedia, travelocity,
hotwire - will have the exact same prices. They do a good job of
showing lowest fares first, etc. However, as I learned through my
experience and through some airfare advice websites, the prices are
often estimates based on averages, and are always subject to fine
tuning on the part of the airline. Airlines do not like these sites -
not that they lose money because of them so much as that they're notoriously
inaccurate. I tried to buy Eleuthera tickets through them one time
last fall, only to find out that the flight quoted to me did not
actually exist, and was based on last years' schedule for that date.
I found this out through the airline, later. Luckily, expedia did not
let me finalize my purchase, but told me that "we cannot guarantee
that price at this time. Try again later."
You buy through the airline directly, and on-line. First of all, you
pay $15 per ticket extra if you speak with a human on the phone. Plus,
if the flight is posted on the airline website, it actually exists.
More importantly, though, I never saw a price on one of the search
vehicles that was less than the airline website. Often, the airline
was less expensive than Kayak - sometimes significantly. Kayak, etc.,
only updates their prices a couple times a day - hence the averaging
of prices. (By the way, Kayak only sends out alerts once a day.
Prices change dozens of times a day.)
The airline website prices can fluxuate profoundly. There are the
usual prices, which roughly match with Kayak, then they'll spike up
during prime times. Sometimes outrageously, and you'll panic, thinking
that you've lost the lower price forever. If you can, give it a few days. Relax.
But sometimes the airlines will have an unannounced sale through their
website only. These are rare, and only last for a few hours. A day at
most. So you do your homework, knowing how the rates fluctuate (over a
period of weeks, if you can), and learn what the usual price is. There
will be a usual price. Then, you lurk on the airline sites,
obsessively (or at least I do), and be patient. If you happen to check
during one of these surprise sales, and you get a surprise price,
you're ready and armed with information. You hit it like a topwater
buzzbait on a Tennessee farm pond. BLAM!
For me, There were only two airlines that could get us from here to
Nassau in time to catch the last puddle jumper to Eleuthera: USAIR and
Air Tran. Both had a couple of viable choices for flights, but each
had only one ideal flight to-from combination. Air Tran's was the
better, as it was 7$ more per on average, but allowed us to leave
Dayton an hour later in the morning than USAir. If you have to drive
an hour to the airport, an 8 am flight is substantially better than a
7am flight.
Trouble is, this cuts things close. If that flight sells out, you're
screwed. Good luck getting to Eleuthera in one day. Now you figure in
an overnight layover somewhere. So. how long to wait before you suck
it up and pay the "regular" low price for a little certainty and peace
of mind? I almost did this.
Wait. Check the website again. And again.
Not only were the Air Tran flight times slightly better, but I'd been
watching Air tran's website literally since January '11, I hate to
admit, and I knew how low their prices could potentially go for this
flight. I hadn't seen those prices for our specific dates,
unfortunately - not within $150, in fact. On the website, you see the
to and from prices and times a la carte. There were some good one way
prices, but never for the combination of dates and times we needed.
Wait. Check. Wait. Check. Multiple times a day. Waste VAST amounts of
time and speed up the aging process. Be patient. keep your passport
numbers in your wallet, as you'll need them to buy your tickets.
Wait. Check again.
Checked Air Tran late one January night. Something funny was going on. The
home page said something about a "warm weather sale" in the upper
corner. I ran a search. Instead of the normal a la carte prices, the
website showed much higher prices. Odd. I ran an itinerary, and when
it got to the total cost, it was the usual price. Somehow, they
changed their website to show the a la carte prices with taxes and
fees. Odd, that, too. Checked again first thing in the morning. Same
deal. However, checked later in the morning, around 10:15 - big drop in price.
Numbers I hadn't seen before. Did they just go back to pre-tax
numbers? Run itinerary. Nope. Those WERE the numbers with tax. and cheap. The
game's afoot.
Total cost - $144 less than the price I was almost resigned to paying
two days earlier. Pounce. Fast. BLAM. And you do so with confidence
because you've been doing your homework for a long time. Probably too
long.
Based on my research, I'd expected $1500 to get us to Eleuthera and
back. Thanks to my obsessive efforts, it will cost us $1146,
including puddle jumping. That's still a hell of a lot of money, but I
feel pretty triumphant.
This is, by the way, exactly how I saved $120 on my March Dallas flight.
Radiohead was awesome.
Wow. I wrote way too much.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Why Eleuthera?
Excellent question, and how we made that decision is interesting...to me, at least.
First of all, despite my obsessive research into this trip, I'm convinced that we could have chosen a dozen different tropical places that would have been magnificent for what we want. Probably.
Our first decision, once we decided to plan a 15th anniversary trip (Krista's excellent idea, BTW)was "old world cultural," or tropical beach. Krista's a beach lover, and though she really wants to get to Paris someday, it sounds like more work than relaxation...and Krista needs relaxation more than most people who don't wear a sidearm or scrubs to work on a daily basis. For me, I've lived abroad, I've been to Paris, and I went to Jamaica on two different occasions - one to work with church when I was 15, and one to play when I was 22. In other words, I could go either way.
Beach it is, then. But where? Time to prioritize:
Priority one: A place of our own, or at least with a kitchen. We love to cook, and Krista's issues with wheat / gluten make any buffet line like Russian Roulette. It's not a vacation if you're worried about getting sick every time you eat, or, perhaps worse, having to ask the chef about every item for every meal. Gluten is an insidious bugger. That kind of cancels out all but the most exclusive resorts, or villas / condos. I mean, a place like Caneel Bay looks fabulous, but is out of our budget. Besides...
Priority two: Quiet. We're not looking to make lots of new friends and hang with a bunch of strangers. We like people (well, Krista does, at least), and we'll likely meet some delightful folks on our trip, but partying is not a priority. We're going away to be together. We don't need night clubs or casinos or neon or noise. Just give us miles of beach to walk by ourselves, and we're cool.
Priority three: Be within a one-day trip. This cancels out the South Pacific, essentially, and keeps us in the Caribbean.
Priority four: Stay ON the beach, with loooong beach walking potential. This is also a HUGE narrowing variable. Most islands will have some properties right on the beach, and most places they're really frikkin expensive. On many islands, the affordable places are up in the hills, or in town. We found some that were on the beach, but the beaches were small and / or isolated from other beaches. I was surprised how quickly the list narrowed. Because we wanted quiet, we needed to discover a secret gem or two
I spent a lot of time cruising VRBO.com, and found a number of viable candidates in our price range, such as this one in the Caymans, or this one in the Turks and Caicos , or this one in Belize . These were fairly reasonably priced, had lots of beautiful beach and water, and were mostly away from the crowds. I'm still convinced that any of those would have been fine.
I don't know how I found Eleuthera. It was early in my search. And I found myself returning to this beautiful out island that had numerous beachfront rentals in our "price range." It didn't have the Rainforest / mountainous tropical aesthetic of Belize or the Virgin Islands , and it was a pain in the butt to get to, but it fit all of our criteria beautifully. The island is 110 miles long, with beaches lining the length of the island on one side and half the other, is two miles wide, has no major resorts (since Hurricane Hugo Etch-a-Sketched Club Med Eleuthera off the face of the earth, and never rebuilt. You can still visit the ruins on arguably the best beach on the island), and, therefore, no gaggles of tourists. Go to any Eleuthera discussion of beaches, and the common denominator is, "we had this gorgeous beach to ourselves."
But as much as anything, the beauty and serenity of this place won me over:
Thanks, Doug M for your awesome photos!
That, and the almost cult-like affection that people have for this place. Read the message boards, or the reviews on VRBO or Tripadvisor. It reminds me of the reverence and sanctity that people exude when they discuss the Adirondacks, or the Outer Banks, or the Upper Peninsula, or Big Sky country, or Joshua Tree. Like the place is magical, and sacred.
One last thing. Almost everyone you read says that once you arrive on Eleuthera, before you even get to your villa, you feel the stress, anxiety, and neurosis of the real world melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.
We both could really use that right about now.
First of all, despite my obsessive research into this trip, I'm convinced that we could have chosen a dozen different tropical places that would have been magnificent for what we want. Probably.
Our first decision, once we decided to plan a 15th anniversary trip (Krista's excellent idea, BTW)was "old world cultural," or tropical beach. Krista's a beach lover, and though she really wants to get to Paris someday, it sounds like more work than relaxation...and Krista needs relaxation more than most people who don't wear a sidearm or scrubs to work on a daily basis. For me, I've lived abroad, I've been to Paris, and I went to Jamaica on two different occasions - one to work with church when I was 15, and one to play when I was 22. In other words, I could go either way.
Beach it is, then. But where? Time to prioritize:
Priority one: A place of our own, or at least with a kitchen. We love to cook, and Krista's issues with wheat / gluten make any buffet line like Russian Roulette. It's not a vacation if you're worried about getting sick every time you eat, or, perhaps worse, having to ask the chef about every item for every meal. Gluten is an insidious bugger. That kind of cancels out all but the most exclusive resorts, or villas / condos. I mean, a place like Caneel Bay looks fabulous, but is out of our budget. Besides...
Priority two: Quiet. We're not looking to make lots of new friends and hang with a bunch of strangers. We like people (well, Krista does, at least), and we'll likely meet some delightful folks on our trip, but partying is not a priority. We're going away to be together. We don't need night clubs or casinos or neon or noise. Just give us miles of beach to walk by ourselves, and we're cool.
Priority three: Be within a one-day trip. This cancels out the South Pacific, essentially, and keeps us in the Caribbean.
Priority four: Stay ON the beach, with loooong beach walking potential. This is also a HUGE narrowing variable. Most islands will have some properties right on the beach, and most places they're really frikkin expensive. On many islands, the affordable places are up in the hills, or in town. We found some that were on the beach, but the beaches were small and / or isolated from other beaches. I was surprised how quickly the list narrowed. Because we wanted quiet, we needed to discover a secret gem or two
I spent a lot of time cruising VRBO.com, and found a number of viable candidates in our price range, such as this one in the Caymans, or this one in the Turks and Caicos , or this one in Belize . These were fairly reasonably priced, had lots of beautiful beach and water, and were mostly away from the crowds. I'm still convinced that any of those would have been fine.
I don't know how I found Eleuthera. It was early in my search. And I found myself returning to this beautiful out island that had numerous beachfront rentals in our "price range." It didn't have the Rainforest / mountainous tropical aesthetic of Belize or the Virgin Islands , and it was a pain in the butt to get to, but it fit all of our criteria beautifully. The island is 110 miles long, with beaches lining the length of the island on one side and half the other, is two miles wide, has no major resorts (since Hurricane Hugo Etch-a-Sketched Club Med Eleuthera off the face of the earth, and never rebuilt. You can still visit the ruins on arguably the best beach on the island), and, therefore, no gaggles of tourists. Go to any Eleuthera discussion of beaches, and the common denominator is, "we had this gorgeous beach to ourselves."
But as much as anything, the beauty and serenity of this place won me over:
That, and the almost cult-like affection that people have for this place. Read the message boards, or the reviews on VRBO or Tripadvisor. It reminds me of the reverence and sanctity that people exude when they discuss the Adirondacks, or the Outer Banks, or the Upper Peninsula, or Big Sky country, or Joshua Tree. Like the place is magical, and sacred.
One last thing. Almost everyone you read says that once you arrive on Eleuthera, before you even get to your villa, you feel the stress, anxiety, and neurosis of the real world melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.
We both could really use that right about now.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Countdown to Eleuthera
Welcome to the blog for our 15th anniversary trip to Eleuthera! We've been saving for five years to take a vacation, just the two of us, and it's almost here. Well, as I post this, it's still over a month away, but given the amount of time I've spent researching and, frankly, obsessing over this trip, it seems like it's right around the corner. Anyhow, I imagine that many of you haven't heard of Eleuthera, so I encourage you to visit the links on the right hand side to find out everything you ever wanted to know about this quiet "Out Island" in the Bahamas.
Here's some photos of the house we're renting:
Our house is the one in the lower right hand corner. See all of the resorts and casinos? Nope, neither do we. See all of the people on the beach? Neither do we. See our children? Nope. For more information, here's a link to the house: Oceanaire
So, between the links and pictures, you can get started on discovering Eleuthera, too. And if you're interested in following the run-up to this trip, filled with all sorts of banalities like packing and the trip there, etc., feel free to check back from time to time in the next month. Once we get there, we'll start posting for real.
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