Is it truly horrible if I start printing money?

[dream_labyrinth]

I should stop checking travel rates for this summer. wolflady26 suggested to book about a month in advance, and by checking in ever so often I just get depressed. It seems I can't get the prices to fall under 700 Euros (about 1000 Dollars) no matter on which site I look, though the American sites usually are a tiny bit cheaper than the German ones.
Which makes it more and more likely that my trips within the US will be made by coach.

You guys were kind enough to offer me places to stay. That really means a lot, because otherwise I think I'm just about reaching the point where I'm ready to give up the whole plan. Which would suck majorly because I so want to go to Portus and meet you, and visit linnapaw and quietselkie and martianmooncrab.

I have cut down on expenses. I haven't bought a single book this year. Basically, I have only bought food.
But there is the minion's birthday and my brother's birthday this month, and my sister's birthday and another RL friend's birthday in March.
And my family seems unwilling to give me money for my birthday, if Christmas is any indication. And I hate hate hate to borrow money for things that aren't stricly necessary because after all I do have an income.

I do hope that I'll get some tax return.
There is also some money in a savings account that isn't actually doing anything right now, but it's money that my parents saved for each of us kids to use when things get rough, and that isn't really the case. It will take some more calculating and whining on my part before I overcome my reluctance to touch that money, I suppose.

Ignore me. I'm just depressed right now because I have a headache. There's been a lot of activity on the training ground yesterday and today (mostly bazookas and mortars with a side of machine gun) and as it has been very cloudy, the sound really stays close to the ground and we get the full benefit. And just to make things perfect, the kids in the flat underneath mine have been blowing up the last of their New Year's fireworks and have now taken to hammering on the walls.
I love kids. I just can't eat them whole.

Anyway, so I have a headache and see everything in black and dark grey. It will get better.
I'll go read fanfic and point and laugh at the Indiana General Assembly of 1897. (thanks to Google; the reason for pointing and laughing is here)

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Wot? That seems a bit much.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I've been looking at fares for flights from Munich to Chicago, as the idea is to stop off there before going down to Dallas, and then travel back up there with stops at the monncrab and the selkie.
And all the cheap flights I could find are around 750 Euros or 1100 Dollars. Driving me nuts.
Especially as I then still have to add travel expenses to get to the airport in the first place, as I am living in the middle of nowhere and there isn't even any decent form of public transportation, and I don't want to have my car parked at some airport for four weeks, because then it would either be stolen or I'd have to sell it to pay the parking fees.
This whole planning is getting really annoying.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

for me to go to Ireland this year it will cost about 2000 dollars. I havent started on my tickets yet (probably aug/sept) because I not sure if its Ireland to Atlanta or Atlanta to Ireland. Its complicated.

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Wow, I didn't think it would be this much more expensive! That's almost double what I'd pay for Munich-Chicago-Munich.
Air fares are a pain in the arse, especially as there are so many different options, and flying a day sooner or later can make quite a difference.

Travel agent

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

Back in 2006, we were using a local travel agent for a number of work trips, until a couple of things (she got sick, I was finding stuff significantly less on expedia, etc) made us switch to booking a lot of travel stuff on our own... It turns out, though, that there's a family in Yonkers who run a travel agency, and they've come up with some really decent stuff, especially when it comes to special trips, such as ones where with an odd number of flights, etc. The place is called Dunwoodie Travel, and the woman's name there is Lesia, and her email is dunwoodie@vacation.com. She's not always the quickest with a response, but it probably wouldn't hurt to ask what she can come up with... And if there's any problem, such as having a US credit card or mailing address, I'm always willing to help out where I can.

Re: Travel agent

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that sounds like a great idea. Even if she can't help me with the international flights, she might be able to find something cheap from Chicago to Dallas, Dallas to Seattle and Seattle to Chicago.

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

Also, one that used to be very good (and now is probably in the decent category) is one based out of Germany called US Discount Travel. I've played around a little bit with FareCompare as well, but I've been more impressed with their newsletter than actually finding useful flight info. If you end up flying with a US carrier, you might want to keep track of the ticket price using a little program called Yapta. (Unfortunately, it doesn't support "international" carriers yet.)

*L* Can you tell I've agonised over a few too many airline tickets in my day?

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

:-)
There's nothing like having a friend with experience. Thank you, that is really helpful. I've searched on several sites, but haven't come across these yet.

[linnapaw.livejournal.com]

Another quick idea is to sign up for the Travelzoo newsletter. At least on the US site they send out a lot of notices when there's a really good price, and many of those are only available for a very short period of time...

[dream-labyrinth.livejournal.com]

I looked around on their website and they have some amazing stuff.
I'vde discovered that Air Berlin offers flights to the US by now, too, though unfortunately not to Chicago. Still, it's goo to keep in mind so that if I come across something dirt cheap, I could fly just as well to Cleveland or Los Angeles or something if all I do is stay for a night or so before going to Dallas.
And I can't fly before July 6, anyway, so I will have to be in Dallas almost immediately.

Thanks so much, this is such a great help!