The Art of Flying Part 1

A couple of weeks ago I flew to Pennsylvania for my sister's graduation (she got her masters) and it was adventure just getting there.

My mother was in charge of buying the tickets and in traditional fashion she waited till pretty much the last minute to get them. Now I have done a lot of flying over the years and as such I've gotten kind of good at finding a decent ticket. I've discovered two things, 1) if you try to buy to early the price is going to be high and 2) of course is that too late it will be expensive. There is about a two week window where the price is going to be reasonable and if you are lucky you'll get a non stop flight.

Which brings me to the next part of flying. If you want a non stop flight you can pretty much forget it, chances are you're going to have to have a connecting flight. Most people (myself included) go the traditional route of getting connecting flights because it's cheaper, but not always easier. If a non stop flight is not that much more than a connecting flight then put the crowbar to your wallet and pay the extra, especially if you really need to get where you are going on time.

For this particular flight I had not one but two connecting flights on two different airlines. My mom was, up till recently unemployed and it was around the graduation that there was a good possibility that she would get one. Turns out she did. The bad part was the fact that she had to go to Minnesota. So while she was looking for a flight she discovered that my dad and I could end up on the same flight as hers leaving from Minneapolis to Philadelphia. Wouldn't it be great if we could do that? Having one connecting flights is stressful enough but two? Well I just smiled and said sure, it would after all make it easier on my sister to pick us all up at the same time.

Connections are tricky because you are constantly worried that your going to miss the flight if your first plane is late. I have missed them and I've known lots of people who have missed them. My best tip is this, if you have a connection then try to give yourself enough time to make it. That way if your plane is late there's still some wiggle room.

For this trip I had about an hour between each flight and mercifully each of my flights was on time and so I made each one. Of course no one wants to sit in a airport for several hours waiting for the next flight. It's boring, uncomfortable, your tired, and all you want to do is get there already.

Finding flights are hard and more likely than not you're going to pick the flight that is the cheapest one, and that's okay, why spend a fortune when you don't have to. All I suggest is that when looking for a flight shop around. Expedia and others like it aren't always the best option, there have been a couple times that I have gotten a better deal through the airline. Also if you can help it get a non stop flight. If you can't just pay attention to the times in between each flight.