Friday, March 04, 2016

Carpe Dealem

Here is another guest post by my friend Dale S. Brown, on the need to act fast in order to take advantage of good travel deals.

"To Snag A Trip
 Grab It Fast
By Dale S. Brown

My friend and I got a deal on a trip to Australia. We went first two weeks of November, 2015.   The trip was described in a previous blog post. 

We paid $1,884.00 for airfare and 6 days in a hotel in Sydney.   We snagged the trip because we grabbed the trip- by making a decision fast.   It was  best deal we had seen for Australia after several years of studying specials.

Previously, we had tried to buy an equally good deal to China.    But we couldn’t decide if we wanted to do it or not.  We called the travel agency.  We then had conversations with each other.   We called again for more information.  We talked some more.  We went back and forth a few more times.   Finally, we decided we would go for it. 

Well, when we tried to reserve the trip, only a few travel dates were left.  The Yangtze river was freezing cold during those time periods.  So we decided not to go.

My friend noticed the Australia deal.  This time, we conference called the travel agency together.  We talked afterwards, “slept on” our decision overnight, and booked it the next day.  We did spend a little bit more, because we wanted to stay longer and visit other places.

When it comes to budget travel, you have to get the deal quickly.   Several years ago my friend and I snagged a deal to Iceland after missing it two years in a row.  In 2011, she asked if I was interested.  This time I said,  “I am on a deadline right now, but I can go on the trip.  So if you are willing to make the arrangements and let me send you a check for the money immediately, I’m going.”

So she made the arrangements, I gave her the check for my portion, and off we went."

As Dale pointed out, deviating from the included flights by, for example, staying longer, often results in higher costs. In the case of a destination like Australia, I would think the difference in cost would definitely be worth it, since the flight from eastern North America is so long. In the case of Iceland, perhaps not.



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