Stuck being American till Airfare gets cheap.

Stuck being American till Airfare gets cheap.

by Liv | Published on January 6th, 2010, 5:02 pm | Travel

So it's about this time of year I begin dreaming of traveling somewhere and doing something. This has been further complicated by "Da Sister" off in Paris for New Years. (above pic) It's like a cold, once one person sneezes, everyone has got the bug... The bug to travel.

Money is tight this year, and you would think perhaps since no one is flying except the bomb squad, that flights would be less expensive. Nope. Pulled out my bank statement from last year. Our exact flight, round trip on American airlines from Raleigh to Heathrow was 601.46 per person. This year, the same flight is $727.77. I've been searching. I'm not even saying it has to be Britain. From Moscow to Dublin, to Brussels, to Rome, from Prague to Cairo, flights seem to be much more expensive than they've been the last two years.

What really boggles my mind is this flight last year flew with about 20 people in coach. A 767 capable of flying nearly 300 people. What's more is it doesn't look like it's changed. Of course this particular flight has a usually busy "business" section which I believe is more valuable to American than us little people back in coach. But why raise the prices, when you have empty seats? Then again, I'll be glad to sprawl out if American would kindly reduce their European airfare into the $500's for me. (I'll take 2 please.)

At this point I'm convinced this may have to be a leap year in my wish to go abroad. With money tight, the dollar weak, and airfare expensive it would take an absolute nutter to spend their money and fly overseas...

..then again I've never been exactly characterized as completely sane.

To simply say "I feel your pain" is a gross understatement! Im feeling the draw of the old country in a bad way lately.

Secondly, if your sister is the one on the left, you and I need to talk ... immedatly...

Sanjuro wrote:Secondly, if your sister is the one on the left, you and I need to talk ... immedatly...

Which left? Yours or hers? She's the blonde.

Liv wrote:
Sanjuro wrote:Secondly, if your sister is the one on the left, you and I need to talk ... immedatly...

Which left? Yours or hers? She's the blonde.

Good lord!

Cue a lull in posting while Sanjuro wipes the drool from his keyboard and polishes his mouse.

I plan to be out of the country for a week this year. After listening to the news for the last few days, I wish I could make it permanent. I'm dead tired of living in a country that is in the situation our currently is in. There must be better citizenships I could get ........

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote: There must be better citizenships I could get ........

If there is, please let me know. As far as I can tell, there isn't a way to escape America unless you're wealthy or extremely educated. Of course there is always the illegal route....

Liv wrote:
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote: There must be better citizenships I could get ........

If there is, please let me know. As far as I can tell, there isn't a way to escape America unless you're wealthy or extremely educated. Of course there is always the illegal route....

Ooooh! We could be the next Mexicans, heading north of the border! :twisted:

I meant to renew my passport, but with my timing being what it is, I checked on the renewal process DAYS after the "window" closed. So now I have to go through the whole process as if I'd never had a passport before. At least I have no immediate plans to leave the country, so I won't have to "rush order" the sucker. At least, not until they start digging that section of the location for the future Tanger outlets ... I swear I know nothing about any bodies buried around there. :wink:

Serendipitous wrote:I meant to renew my passport, but with my timing being what it is, I checked on the renewal process DAYS after the "window" closed. So now I have to go through the whole process as if I'd never had a passport before. At least I have no immediate plans to leave the country, so I won't have to "rush order" the sucker. At least, not until they start digging that section of the location for the future Tanger outlets ... I swear I know nothing about any bodies buried around there.

Interestingly, I renewed my family's passports by mail, and got the new docs (books and cards) within a couple of weeks. Not having any bodies buried at Tanger, that makes the process move along very smoothly indeed.

OMG, I just checked my RSS feeds this morning and supposedly there was a LAX to SYD flight FIRST CLASS for $550 each way.... it's gone, and not sure if we could have gotten it locally.... but OMG can you imagine FC to Australia... that would have been awesome!

I really would like to ski this year, but the high flight costs might mean getting a car ferry from the U.K and into Europe

smiler125 wrote:I really would like to ski this year, but the high flight costs might mean getting a car ferry from the U.K and into Europe

Don't they ski in Scotland?

Well I'm open and looking, so if anyone sees something extraordinary, let me know...

The discount period should be starting pretty soon, so we shall see what develops.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
smiler125 wrote:I really would like to ski this year, but the high flight costs might mean getting a car ferry from the U.K and into Europe

Don't they ski in Scotland?

There are some ski resorts, but I don't know anything about them.

I live in Southern England, so it's probably easier and quicker for me to get to France.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
smiler125 wrote:I really would like to ski this year, but the high flight costs might mean getting a car ferry from the U.K and into Europe

Don't they ski in Scotland?

If sliding down wet cement counts then yes.

It also depends on where you start from, London to Aviemore is 530 miles (9 hours 15 min), London to Basel is 570 miles (9 hours 15 min).

The way it looks in the news, looks like you can go skiing almost anywhere in the U.K.....

Funny you should mention Aviemore. I went there once, when I was a teenager. Lovely countryside. Very peaceful. Of course, I was there in the summer (if you could call t that...) and it was rather empty. Bought some coins there, though.

As a teen, some friends and I planned a week's ice climbing in Glen Coe in January. We drove up there and camped on the snow for a frigid night. By the morning a thaw occurred and we woke to find ourselves in a melting bog. The ice was melting quicker than we could climb it.

Scotland is arctic maritime so the weather is highly variable. For reliable snow you want to be in the middle of a continent and start above 1,000m not finish there.

Speaking of expensive air fares, just for somethings and giggles, I went to Expedia.com the other day to see what it costs to fly to Fiji.

OMG!

The best they could come up with, round-trip, was about $2800 per person.

I guess I'll have to settle for Hawaiian Scuba trips. :dance:

This thread is so odd now, since I practically stood where Sarah and Denise did in that photo.....

Now is the time to fly to Europe apparently. The moment they started flying again after the Volcano, I started getting some of the best deals of the year. In fact better than we got on our trip.