It has been a very long time since I last had to book a flight and at that point I had the help of a travel agent. This time I decided to go it alone and do it myself. We are planning a trip to Disney World this fall and despite the success of our road trip to Myrtle Beach last year, we decided that we would be better served by flying. For one thing, our van isn't all that new, secondly the 12 hour trip from last year would be closer to 16, and frankly, I hate driving.
To be honest, we will probably not end up all that much different cost-wise when you factor in gas, maintenance and lost vacation time (I would have needed several more days off to drive there and back), so I'm not feeling at all bad about the decision. Plus this will be the first flight for our kids so that should be a really cool experience for them.
We decided to go with Southwest airlines simply because we had some points to use with them that we had gotten from a credit card promotion. (never will I do that again, but that's another story) I have little recent experience with current airlines so it is hard for me to say if their procedures were any better or worse than say iraq airways, but after spending some time on the site and getting some questions answered I was able to make my way around it pretty easily.
I ended up having to purchase extra points to book the flight I wanted because we didn't have quite enough and the arrival time isn't ideal given that I was unwilling to make layovers, but we will make it work.
In the end, I was very happy with the experience and will be happy to do it again when the time comes for our next vacation. Depending on where we go I will be happy to avoid the long car trip if the cost of the flight isn't too prohibitive.
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