Flying on Christmas Day is great. The crew start to relax after the big rush and in anticipation of their time off. The passengers are generally in a good mood.
We did it for years. Perfect day to fly. Mid-day you can take your pic of seats, too.
Fly on Christmas Day, into Indianapolis. Stay until Tuesday. Just under $600.
Flying on Christmas Day is great. The crew start to relax after the big rush and in anticipation of their time off. The passengers are generally in a good mood.
A friend told me a little trick about getting good airline prices - looking online about 50 days before the departure date, when fares do a big drop in anticipation of making sure to sell every seat. Then they gradually go back up again.
Travel just before Christmas, obviously, does not follow this rule. The airlines (Ebola or not) can pretty much name their price because everyone wants to be "home for the holidays."
This year I FINALLY had paid time off to go, but airfares were NEVER low enough for my budget. They are drifting around in the low to mid $800s, and Kayak sends me drop notices (only between $8.-10. though) when they happen. I tried various airports in cities surrounding my destination.
Does ANYONE know any other tricks (besides waiting stand-by) to finding a rare $400-$500 fare across the country at Christmas?
I haven't been home for the holidays since 2010.
But if I can't go then, maybe I'll go back in January. And pray that Ohio doesn't have as brutal a winter as last year.
Fly on Christmas Day, into Indianapolis. Stay until Tuesday. Just under $600.
A friend told me a little trick about getting good airline prices - looking online about 50 days before the departure date, when fares do a big drop in anticipation of making sure to sell every seat. Then they gradually go back up again.
Travel just before Christmas, obviously, does not follow this rule. The airlines (Ebola or not) can pretty much name their price because everyone wants to be "home for the holidays."
This year I FINALLY had paid time off to go, but airfares were NEVER low enough for my budget. They are drifting around in the low to mid $800s, and Kayak sends me drop notices (only between $8.-10. though) when they happen. I tried various airports in cities surrounding my destination.
Does ANYONE know any other tricks (besides waiting stand-by) to finding a rare $400-$500 fare across the country at Christmas?
I haven't been home for the holidays since 2010.
But if I can't go then, maybe I'll go back in January. And pray that Ohio doesn't have as brutal a winter as last year.
Speaking of TSA chuckles/headscratchers, last summer I was flying out of Billings and had just popped a piece of gum in my mouth when I approached the boarding pass-checker TSA guy. There was a basket of cinnamon candies near the waiting line and I thought, "hey free candy" so I grabbed one, put it in my pocket and walked thru the scanner. The x-ray thing spotted the suspicious article just like when Arnold went thru the airport that one time in Total Recall except he had a giant gun and I had a candy.
On their display screen tho, the candy was circled and highlighted in pretty much the same position and the implied severity of threat was identical.
So when I reached in my pocket to fish out the offending article, I said, "Candy." And they said I couldn't have it. I was all wtf because they gave it to me in the first place but I said I got it about 12 seconds ago from that basket over there and they said I could go ahead and eat it but I couldn't carry it onto the plane. I told them I didn't want to eat it since I was rocking this great gum already so I said "where's the garbage, I'll just throw it away" and they said "Oh please don't. We'll have to fill out a bunch of paperwork!" So I asked to spit out my gum and they were okay with that, no paperwork! And I ate the candy, threw away the wrapper, no paperwork! And went and got on the plane.
I have my problems with the TSA, but the attention this story is getting is beyond ridiculous. The lady in question was delayed a few seconds while a supervisor verified to a clueless agent (who probably won't make the same mistake again) that DC drivers licenses are valid IDs.
Are we shocked that an agency that requires no more than a high school diploma as a qualification has geographically-challenged employees? This is a first-world problem maybe worth a chuckle or two, but not a grave civil liberties issue.
American Airlines To Phase Out Complimentary Cabin Pressurization FT. WORTH, TX—Explaining that the costs of the service have grown too high in recent years, American Airlines announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer free cabin pressurization to passengers starting March 15....
Ha! Don't give them any ideas.
Meanwhile I have a story of a TSA agent who needs some refresher courses on the state(s) of the union:
American Airlines To Phase Out Complimentary Cabin Pressurization FT. WORTH, TX—Explaining that the costs of the service have grown too high in recent years, American Airlines announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer free cabin pressurization to passengers starting March 15....
Absolutely the luggage/cargo should be screened - although I was under the impression the TSA did screen the luggage, or that at least they do random checks. They went through my checked bag on a return trip from Dallas a couple of years ago. (Although isn't that a similar search-and-seizure issue to the controversial current methods?)
Would these previous methods be pre- or post-9/11 methods? Because I have to say the pre-9/11 methods seem a little inadequate now.
I think they screen the carry on stuff pretty well, however I was referring to the cargo or luggage that you check.
Cockpits are locked and pilots are armed - even with the older screening methods this should be sufficient.
Also I heard that less than 5% of cargo coming into our port is screened.
Personally, I'd like to see the real root of the problem addressed.
What do I mean?
The TSA is a symptom.
What's the disease? (a bunch of government isms)
Obviously the TSA is our government's reaction to "bad guys" that want to do us harm (we'll leave out the well connected "good guys" who are profiting wildly from this).
Why do the radical Muslims want to harm us?
Religion?
Or that we have been bombing them for decades? And supplying the bombs/weapons to our allies who bomb them too?
It takes a massive war machine and a lot of money to do that.
And it takes a (corrupt) government to force taxation of the people and leverage their potential/credit to get do that.
Even before we ask what we'll replace it with (and there are alternatives), we need to acknowledge that what we've got is violence and coercion (not good) and that practically any non-violent solution would be better.
Absolutely the luggage/cargo should be screened - although I was under the impression the TSA did screen the luggage, or that at least they do random checks. They went through my checked bag on a return trip from Dallas a couple of years ago. (Although isn't that a similar search-and-seizure issue to the controversial current methods?)
Would these previous methods be pre- or post-9/11 methods? Because I have to say the pre-9/11 methods seem a little inadequate now.
?
The perpetrators of 9/11 used a crude weapon that could pretty easily be crafted out of materials found inside the security zone or simply smuggled in (Adam Savage) . They relied on the fact that prior to 9/11 most hijackers were intent on surviving and getting away. Right now you couldn't hijack a plane full of nuns because they now think their lives might be in peril and will mob anyone causing a commotion.
The apparent fact to me is that terrorists aren't that good. Look, it's been 10 years and nothing other than a couple of false starts that could have been disastrous if only the idiots had bothered to wait for the fasten seat belt light to go off and headed off to the bathroom before causing their drama. Reporters and highschool kids are smuggling crap on to planes and hacking the security systems. And we are actually helping to make the terrorists jobs easier by lining up a bunch of defenseless victims in one easy to get to place without any security screening at all - the security screening line. And so far? - Nothing.
It's not the billions of dollars worth of scanners and mall cops we've deployed, and it's surely not the genital inspections they are now performing on Children & the elderly. I'd say the stuff we are now doing is wholly inadequate.
We know this is a violation of our constitutional rights, so it is unacceptable. I'm OK with going back to previous method/metal detectors. We should really make sure to screen the luggage/cargo well.
Regards
Absolutely the luggage/cargo should be screened - although I was under the impression the TSA did screen the luggage, or that at least they do random checks. They went through my checked bag on a return trip from Dallas a couple of years ago. (Although isn't that a similar search-and-seizure issue to the controversial current methods?)
Would these previous methods be pre- or post-9/11 methods? Because I have to say the pre-9/11 methods seem a little inadequate now.
Location: Auckland, New Zealand (former Boston native and Atlanta transplant) Gender:
Posted:
Nov 29, 2010 - 7:59pm
katzendogs wrote:
As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something. Hagar The Horrible
I like to play the "who's the Federal Marshall?" game when I fly.
As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something. Hagar The Horrible
I posted this often over the years and was called names for being paranoid.
Funny how this quote has become acceptable lately.
So let's try another one that I have often posted with the one above from Mr. Ford. Maybe some people will find some new understanding of it as well. "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
~Benjamin Franklin
I posted this often over the years and was called names for being paranoid.
Funny how this quote has become acceptable lately.
So let's try another one that I have often posted with the one above from Mr. Ford. Maybe some people will find some new understanding of it as well. "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."
We did it for years. Perfect day to fly. Mid-day you can take your pic of seats, too.
