Like any traveler, I have my favorite websites for cheap flights (namely Skyscanner). But sometimes… well sometimes you cheat on your favorite sites…
When searching for my return flights during Christmas, I found ones on CheapOAir for $500 less than anywhere else I’d seen!
Now numbskull me didn’t notice as I pressed the “purchase” button that the website had reset to 7 days later, rather than the original 7 months later I had set.
So that $500 saved? Yeah, spent it changing the ticket.
Did I learn my lesson? Well…
My parents then planned the cruise, which started out of Venice. And just happened to end one day before my return flight to Cali, which flew out of Athens.
No biggie – found round-trip tickets (Athens à Venice) on a budget website (that was not through skyscanner). I was going to arrive at 9 pm in Athens, and my flight out of Athens left at 7 the next morning.
So on my last weekend in Greece, I moved my things to one of the apartments. Made plans with my roommates who were staying behind. I was going to spend the night there, since I had a layover time allowing for a pretty good night’s rest, and then leave early the next morning.
Easy squeezy lemon peezy (as all the Greek kids like to say).
But then Murphy looks up from his law books and decides that things just aren’t going his way!.
So 2 days before I fly to meet my folks, the budget website emails me to say that my tickets have been changed to 2 days earlier; a date when I won’t be able to fly because I’ll be in the middle of the ocean!
I frantically call them (as this is my last chance for normal internet).
An hour and a half long phone wait (on Skype!) finally gets me talking to a person. We take about another half hour to work it out, but I do manage to change my tickets.
So the cruise ends, we all get off the ship.
And now I’m stuck in Venice all day with all my luggage until about 9 pm.
I arrive in Athens at 2am.
I jump on a bus. Jump off the bus. Find a taxi. Take a taxi.
Arrive at old roomates’ apartment around 3. Chat for a bit (my poor tired roommates!), grab my stuff, walk to a bus stop, catch a taxi to the airport bus stop, and catch the 4am bus so I can get to the airport at 5.
The nice night’s sleep I was planning? Didn’t happen.
But the plus side?
Not sleeping all night ensured that passed out once I got on that plane!
Another plus side?
That although I didn’t get any sleep, I did get through security SO much faster than in Israel!.
(Also: I hate to admit it – but I’ll probably cheat on favorite website again in the future – oh the bargain hunter in me…)
Stories like this, when they end well, are icing on the cake of a good journey.
Besides, I once ended up with 5 extra early am hours in Miami International.
It’s a miracle I didn’t kill myself.
Loving your work – will have to take a look at those websites myself!
Skyscanner is definitely great – it searches all the different sites (including Cheapoair and others). Obviously it depends on the time of year, but I’ve gotten roundtrip tickets to Scotland from California for $700!
This is why I don’t travel much. Also being broke. And children. But mostly that I have no sense of direction and would get lost in the airport and the city and also probably goof up my own travel plans. I do love to fly, though, just not getting on the plane or getting off. Why do people think they can fit elephants in the overhead compartment?
Oh, I DEFINITELY have no sense of direction! (I get lost ALL the time! hahaha)
Yeah, getting on and off the plane is really a hassle – I can imagine it’s even worse with kids!
And the size of carry-ons that people bring astounds me sometimes! How does the airline let them get on with that??
A travel post? Very unexpected – and great!
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