One of my least favorite things to do is to book a flight. I absolutely despise it – especially post 9/11 and with all of the baggage fees. I know flying is expensive, but trying to coordinate times with length of flight as well as price is incredibly frustrating.
We have two trips planned this summer/fall, both to Iowa. There are not an over abundance of people flying out of San Diego to Iowa and vice versa so finding a cheap flight is practically impossible. Sure, every once and awhile one will pop up, but the times are usually ridiculous and completely impractical for a family with two small children.
I would rather pay an extra $100 (total, not per ticket) for an hour less of fly time or for a flight not leaving at 6:20am. Also, when I fly somewhere, the last thing I want to do is get into a car and drive for another 2 hours to get to my final destination. Which also means we are probably renting a car, and has to be factored into the overall price of the trip.
My favorite airline is Southwest. They are going to start flying into Iowa, but not until the week after we complete our second trip. Grrrr. So I am forced to search high and low for the next best deal.
I can’t just go for the cheapest flight for reasons stated above. Before we had kids, the cheapest flight was always the one that we booked. We didn’t have to worry about a crabby 3 year old who takes 2 days to get his shit back together only to turn around and have it all screwed up again.
It could be worse, I guess. One of us could be afraid of flying or unable to sit for long periods of time making flying impossible or extremely terrifying. The only thing worse than trying to find the cheapest and most practical flight is driving hundreds of miles.
Ryan suggested we just buy a jet. We’ll just hop on over to the jet store and pick one up. I know a couple of pilots and maybe I can jet fuel on eBay on the cheap. I assume buying a jet is less frustrating for me than actually booking a flight and making it worth the very practical price of $65M for “feelin’ so fly like a G6”.
10:02 
I had to book a flight to Vancouver, WA on Friday for business – I’m flying out on Sunday and coming home the following Friday. Fortunately, I wasn’t paying because the cheapest was about $820. That’s with a connection. So I have to fly east, from Louisville, to completely the wrong coast – Philly – and then fly literally right across the entire country to get to the right coast and Vancouver LOL Total travel time from the moment I leave home to the time I arrive at the hotel… about 14 hours…
I have done that too many times – never a 14 hour travel time, but a common route from Iowa to San Diego is through Chicago. I refuse to do that anymore. It makes for an extremely long day with or without kids.
I don’t mind the travel per se… just being stuck in Economy with your knees and your elbows jabbing into you, plus the elbows of the ignorant person sitting next to you… kinda wears on me a little LOL