Thursday, July 19, 2018

approved

Study to show yourself approved,
a workman who need not be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.

—2 Tim. 2:15

Without even studying anything, I got official approval for my upcoming vacation in the States. My approximate travel dates will be August 9 to August 23; I'm flying standby, space available, so these dates might change rather suddenly.

The above ticket comes courtesy of a cousin who works for a major US-based airline; she got me a "buddy pass" that, alas, wasn't free, but was several hundred dollars cheaper than anything I could see on Kayak.com.

Regarding my October trip: the selfsame Kayak.com showed me that round-trip tickets to France are way the hell cheaper than tickets to the east coast of the US: instead of starting at $1280, tickets to Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport, start around $650. Alas, those lowest prices are for China-run airlines, all of which have been given very low customer ratings. At the $900 range are tickets for flights by British Airways and Korean Air, two airlines I trust more than the poorly rated China Eastern (despite its being operated by Air France). Should I get a ticket with China Eastern? I'll ponder this. Meanwhile, feel free to leave my ass a comment.



5 comments:

John Mac said...

In my experience, you are much better off going with the better airlines even if the cost in dollars is more. I'll pay for comfort (to an extent at least) and the low cost carriers nickle and dime you on everything from luggage to meals. I'll go with Korean Air and Asiana over the budget airlines every time. Now, never flown China Eastern so I can't say, but I wouldn't risk it personally. Not for 300 bucks anyway...

Charles said...

Hey, Kevin's Ass: Keep it clenched, my friend.

John from Daejeon said...

The high cost of air travel to the U.S. in August happens every year when most South Koreans take their vacations as well as those from the U.S. visiting South Korea at that time resulting in extremely full planes as staggered vacations are not the norm in Korean businesses.

I usually travel between September to early December or February through early July to find decent prices using www.google.com/flights to find the cheapest airfare with their wonderful monthly, day to day flight prices charts and graphs. Right now you can find flights from Seoul to the D.C. area for as low as $901 during Sept. and Oct. on Asiana/United. Might have to go to Baltimore though.

John from Daejeon said...

With www.google.com/flights you can select the country you want to fly to and it will show you all the prices for every airport in the country for the dates chosen. It's crazy to see the price differences as some airports have higher fees for various reasons that vary widely day to day.

Charles said...

@John #1: Unfortunately, Asiana seems to be imploding right now. :(