I Like This - A Personal View

I got the tickets back in February, almost 2 months in advance. I checked all the usual sites: Orbitz, Travelocity, Priceline, Expedia, Cheaptickets and AirFare . Going from L.A. to Warsaw puts a lot of variables into the mix.

You can go non-stop or have up to 3 plane changes. The trip can be as short as 13 hrs or as long as 32 hrs. The prices I found ranged from about $720 to over $4000 per ticket - I only considered coach. The funny thing is that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how the tickets are priced. Here is an example I found today for the same trip profile and dates:

So can somebody explain to me why you would chose to pay over $2000 to travel 31 hrs and hang out at 2 airports when you can get to the same destination in 16 hrs, with just one short stop and for half the price. Is there some underground cult of airport junkies, who's addiction to the mind numbing effects of airport food and air, that is causing this crazy disparity in airfare prices?

Anyway at first I was just jumping around all these sites trying to figure it out. Than I discovered KAYAK . As they put it themselves "Kayak is a travel search engine." You can't buy tickets directly from them but they will search the Internet and get you all the available prices - they aggregate information from over 100 other travel sites.

It's an excellent resource, with simple clear options, well organized search results, many sorting options and most importantly no ads and come-ons for hotels and car rentals in the search results. I found my best price to features solution and ended up buying my tickets through Orbitz because of their price guarantee. I felt good that I did all I could to get the best deal that met my needs until...

A few weeks ago I was poking around the widget section at the Apple site and among other games and gizmos I installed a widget from FLIGHT.PL . After running my first search, just to make sure, I was stunned, disappointed and angry. The prices were several hundred less than I had paid. My brain, involuntarily, started working out schemes of ways to weasel my way out of my current non-refundable fare so that I could still end up with the best deal possible. What a relief when I realized the prices where in Euros.

I guess that I, like most of us, hate spending money on something that in the end is not an overall pleasant experience. I don't know anybody these days who would pay money for the "joy" of the ride when it comes to air travel. Trains, maybe even a bus but never long distance international air travel in coach. I would be very happy if somebody came up with an alternative.

Since there is nothing fun in the experience now - how about this: passengers get drugged, anesthetized or put to sleep, packed into individual, secure, safe and protected packages, loaded on a C4 with their luggage and shipped of to their destination. On wakening they are given a glass of juice to revive their wits and sent of on their merry way refreshed and rested with out the memories of crowded airports, inept security and uncomfortable seats. Imagine the savings - we would all be mailing ourselves to the ends of the world just for the pleasure of a long weekend abroad. It's all good unless you end up like Waldo Jeffers.