So, if there is one industry that epitomizes the dark side, its probably the airline industry. Trying to purchase airline tickets sometimes feels like trying to negotiate with the Hutts. You rarely get what you want, and you feel kind of icky afterwards.
We had been watching airfares for our Star Wars Weekends trips with great interest. Every now and then wed check in to get an idea on prices. If we could get air from the Twin Cities to Orlando for about $200 or so each, that would be acceptable.
There are a few ways to get from here to there. Delta offers the best direct flights at the best times of day. Sun Country offers direct flights as well, but often at odd or unacceptable times. Air Tran and Southwest are other relatively inexpensive options, though both require connecting flights. Our favorite of all of them are a pair of Delta flights that depart from Minneapolis at 7 p.m. or so and return around 6 p.m. or so. That allows us to work pretty much a full day on our departure and have a good amount of time in the parks on our return. Plus, we get our frequent flyer miles. But just to be frugal, we usually check Yahoo Travel and Kayak.com to make sure were getting the best deal out there. Kayak in particular has some good options for seeing what trends are in airfare to make sure youre buying at the right moment.
And that, my friends, is what makes the airline industry so evil. I worked at an airline call center for a couple years, so Im very familiar with how their pricing works.
In a simple world, flights from one destination to another would all be the same price. The trouble is that its very expensive to fly a plane. If you fly your planes empty, or even half-empty or even a bit empty, you lose money. Thus, the goal is to fill your planes up. If every ticket cost the same, there would be no incentive to purchase tickets early. And airlines wouldnt know whether theyd lose money on a flight until right before departure. So, it behooves them to offer lower prices farther out, to encourage people to purchase tickets early, so they can capture that revenue early on and know how a flight is selling. When its not selling fast enough, either on that flight or on flights in general, then they can discount the price to encourage purchase. However, they cant do that for the whole flight, or else theyd lose money. So, they only have a certain number of seats to sell at the lowest price, another certain number of seats at the next lowest price, etc., etc. And what makes this so delightful, is that based on how the flight is selling, theyll change around how many seats are available at a moments notice. This allows them to maximize revenue.
It also makes the process of purchasing tickets more difficult than the Kessel Run.
Well, we finally got to the point, around March or so, that we were ready to purchase our tickets. The fare was at the right price for the right flights. Wed fly down Thursday on the 7 p.m. Delta flight and return on the 6 p.m. Delta flight on Monday. That would give us full days during all three days of that Star Wars Weekend.
You dont need to be a Jedi to foresee that those prices on those flights decided not to play nice.
After we had checked the fares one day, we discussed them over a couple days, did some comparisons, etc. And lo and behold, when we were ready to get our credit cards out, those prices on those flights were gone.
In fact, if our memory served, our flights disappeared while Dugette was checking with her boss one last time to get approval for the trip. By the time she called me back, no dice.
I got on the horn with Delta and tried to talk them into helping us out. From my memory, the prices had been jumping around for several days, from $200 to $250 and back, and I had had the flights we wanted on the screen at $199, but when I pressed the confirm button to purchase them, the prices jumped up again.
This was not magical. This was something Watto would pull.
I had no luck with customer service. I wouldnt say they laughed in my face, like Jabba, but it came close. Speaking to a customer service representative didnt help either.
After debating and worrying that it would only get worse, we chose a different itinerary that was $210 instead of $199, but that had a flight change in Atlanta on the way back, not ideal.
This was not the end of the story, not by a longshot.
A little known fact is that with Delta, you can cancel your flights for any reason within 24 hours, if youve booked it at delta.com. That means if a better price or flight schedule comes out at any point within that window, (not exactly 24 hours, really just by midnight the day after you purchase the tickets) youre golden.
And sure enough, the following morning, our ideal flights were available for $210. So before heading to work, we did a quick cancel and rebook, using two separate browsers, crossing our fingers the flights wouldnt disappear when we pressed confirm.
And that still wasnt the end. Because three hours later, our flights showed up again at $199. So again, we canceled and rebooked, and all was well with the world.
As frustrating as Delta can be, that policy is awesome. And it really saved our butts a month later. Dugette had been saving up some extra cash with the idea that maybe if a good airfare came out, we could take an extra trip down there, stay at Pop, leave on Friday, come back Sunday, and have just a real quick trip. Sure enough, we eventually found a trip like that for $240, the first weekend of Star Wars Weekends. We had been hoping that a Flower and Garden weekend might be available, even though it seemed kind of crazy to fly down just to see topiaries (since neither of us have a green thumb). But that was never available. So when Dugette offered to pay for a trip where Id get to see more of Star Wars, I didnt argue much.
Besides, we might be able to knock out a few of the Star Wars events, like the Hyperspace Hoopla, that weekend, which would make our trip two weeks later a bit less stressful (I know, it sounds insane, right?).
It would mean a lot of travel. I was going out of town for a semi-work-related trip one weekend, and Memorial Day weekend we were planning to meet my brother in South Dakota. It would be four weekends in a row out of town. Ufda. But, we went ahead and booked the trip anyway.
But a day and a half later, while I was on the phone with somebody, I had a horrifying realization that the semi-work-related trip was not the weekend I had thought it was: it was the same weekend as the one where we had just purchased flights for the first Star Wars Weekend! The blood vessels in my brain started throbbing with terror, as I thought we were outside of the Delta cancellation window. I called up Delta, told them about my horrid realization, and the person I talked to cancelled the flight, no problem, no fee.
I was so thankful, and Ill give them credit, that was great customer service. So maybe, like Darth Vader, there is still good in them.
So only one Star Wars Weekends trip to go to now, but wed make it a good one. Because after all, we had ADRs. And they would be good ones.
Where would we eat? Would we get to eat at Le Cellier? And what the heck is in Blue Milk anyhow?