Wed, 21 Feb 2018: Always to me the most memorable line from Madonna’s venerable 1987 worldwide #1 single, “Open Your Heart,” that simple imperative became my mantra today.
I had four separate flights to book, and nothing was going to get in my way.
For the past several weeks I’ve been doing my annual (sometimes bi-annual or tri-annual) airfare shuffle. Which airlines are offering the cheapest fares on which dates? Do those dates fit the window I’ve envisioned for my next trip? If I plug in June 20 instead of July 20, does the economy seat double in price for any reason known to God?
I knew a summer trip is happening this year because have you met me? What I didn’t know (and still don’t; it’s not too late to join up, folks) is how many people are coming with me.
Up until this week, my airfare booking prowess fell into only two categories: flights I’m taking, with others possibly accompanying me, and flights I plan for clients but won’t be going on myself.
This week, I was tasked with getting two friends two different itineraries from mine and Dana’s. They decided they want to go to Europe with us, but they can’t stay the full month. They’re in for the opening leg, London and Scotland.
As you read that, you’re thinking, same flight to London, and then I just send the two friends home after ten days, right?
Hunh-uh, hunh-uh, as Porky Pig said. (Porky Pig said lotsa things. Er, well, tried to.) Not only do our two pals need to leave twenty days sooner than we do, but one of them lives in Georgia.
With the same single-mindedness as in the Madonna song, I set about getting that friend a round-trip flight from Atlanta to London, with a change in Orlando that put her there in time to meet the other three of us for our round-trip Orlando to London flights.
Then it was a matter of getting our two friends from London back to Orlando in early July and the two of us ALSO on the same route, but LATER in July.
I’ll spare you the intimate details of my profanity-laden reaction to the discovery that all four flights couldn’t be purchased from one airline because the two ten day trips are via Virgin Atlantic and the two month-long trips are through Delta. Those are sister airlines, and even though the Orlando to London run is on the exact same plane the flight codes are different. That was the guacamole in my five layer dip of frustration.
Long story longer, the airlines tried to resist me, but I made it happen. I got the best possible prices and got two of my favorite travel buddies onto flights that suited their schedules and kept them with me on the ride to Europe.
If I’m going to turn this travel agent / Europe touring hobby into a full-time moneymaker, I need to become adept at coordinating difficult itineraries. So, although mixing and matching variables for the four flights was like stringing Christmas tree lights— switch one bulb out, all the other bulbs go dark— in the end it was a rewarding experience. And UK, here the four of us come!