Beloved family members recently visited - Adults are about 10 years younger than me, with 3 kids. Their travel sucked (the visit itself was great) but in talking to the trip-planner about it, he eventually said "Yeah, in hindsight, we saved some money by getting the cheapest flights and rental car, but really came out way behind".
Any tips on how to do this better?
Background:
They could have driven, which would have been about 1000 miles, so I don't think flying was a bad option...
However, their plans seemed not so great:
* drive 150 miles (away from a regional airport) to a major airport
* fly, on the last flight of the day (leaving 9pm, arriving about midnight)
* rent a car (cheapo rental car agency)
* drive to their hotel
Their flight was delayed, so they arrived about 2am, at which point the rental car desk had closed, so they ended up getting a hotel near the airport, and picking up the car the next day.
By flying, Door-to-door, it took over 24 hours, they paid over $2500 for airfare + rental car + extra hotel room.
Had they driven, it would have required 1 hotel room night extra (for the drive down), about 15 hours of driving, but zero airfare, no rental car, and perhaps cost about $500 to $1000.
Any tips?
For example, as I age I realized "sleep is really important" so I'm very reluctant to choose early-morning, late night / red-eye flights, even if they are much cheaper. |
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