California Trip: Booked

I'm heading to California in June for vyrin and ariiadne's wedding; I just booked my tickets the other day. Woohoo! So why the convoluted itinerary below? Short answer: I'm a cheapskate, and when the airlines go bankrupt, it's going to be All My Fault. Oh wait... they already are... nevermind...

2008-06-09 NWA 597 BOS-MSP
6:05 PM - 8:25 PM

2008-06-13 UAL 1224 MSP-ORD
6:57 AM - 8:11 AM

2008-06-13 UAL 139 ORD-SFO
9:58 AM - 12:19 PM

2008-06-16 UAL 158 SFO-ORD
11:05 PM - 5:02 AM

2008-06-16 UAL 530 ORD-MSP
7:01 AM - 8:27 AM

2008-06-17 NWA 1042 MSP-BOS
10:05 AM - 1:53 PM

First of all, I'm travelling to a conference in MSP the week before the wedding, so I thought I'd fly MSP-SFO, making use of the fact that I'll be halfway across the country. However, I'm going to be on travel for a Government Contract--meaning that I can't do what previously worked fine for my company in-house: "I'll book a 3-city trip, here's the cost of a round trip, only the latter is going on my expense report." Thus, the return to MSP on the way home--it has to be a BOS-MSP round trip, or the auditors start to creep out.

Then I started looking for round-trip tickets MSP-SFO. Added condition: my close high school friend (psycho security guard) lives in the Cities, so I definitely wanted to an earmark an evening to hang out with him. The only cheap tickets (~$200) were evening flights--I'd miss seeing him, or I'd miss the Friday night festivities in SF. Grr. So on to frequent flyer options.

Northwest is the usual option MSP<->***... but I used up my last miles getting to Canada for Iron Ring. Grr.

Southwest? Doesn't fly out of MSP. Man... I should make use of that inch-thick stack of free booze coupons I have with them someday.

So what do I have left?... Delta, nothin'... Continental, nothin'... American--when did I even fly them last? United? Yeah. And my options are... connecting in ORD, no nonstops on miles. Swell. So Monday-Tuesday is going to be a hellish travel day.

Of course, after all this, you might ask, "Bats you cheapskate, why don't you just pay the $300+ to get a real flight?--you make enough money nowadays." Well, it's a pathology, I suppose, to want to get halfway across the country for $10:


I have no problem spending these amounts when it is travel for work (i.e., somebody else's money). It's an expected cost of doing business. And I have no issue with how much the airlines are charging: this is a relatively fair price for this service--especially considering the business state of the airlines ("We know you have your choice when it comes to choosing bankrupt airlines, so we'd like to thank you for flying with us today...")

I guess that when it's my own money, spending $300 on plane fare just bothers me when I compare that to physical things that I would buy with that type of money--a new iPod, a nice benchtop planer, a car axle and constant velocity joint, a tooth extraction. Long-term purchases... stuff that actually hangs around for a while (say, like 2002, or 1992, even). Also, I'm so used to the model of "When I fly for personal reasons, it is on miles."

I'm probably bothered by spending that much on something that ephemeral. I think my starts-to-bother-me point is around $100--a nice dinner out or perhaps a show. The concept of $200/bottle wine is beyond me.

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So I guess this means I'm not going to be on the mailing list for Emperor's Club anytime soon, huh? ("For a low price of $1500/hour, you could destroy your political career as well...")

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