Hi Sara, I am looking for any advice or thoughts you are willing to share with me. I have never really traveled before except for work and I just booked a family vacation in Mexico for my wife’s 40 birthday. Well, have I just learned a lesson, I should have looked at flights before booking the resort!!! From Boston to Puerto Vallarta the least expensive has been around $800 w/ fees and there is 4 of us – Yikes!! I never in a million years would have thought it would be over $3,000 to fly coach, even though it is over April school vacation. Anyway, my question is – do you think I should wait an see if prices drop or is that taking too much risk? Is there anyway that you would know of putting flights together for less cost for example spending a night somewhere during layover etc.? I realize this is not the part of the business you are in – I am just looking for any recommendations you might have. Thank you in advance for any advice,

Cliff

I received this letter from a friend yesterday, actually a guy I went to HS with…gotta love Face Book!
Anyway, I feel terrible because I really don’t have a good answer for him. I like to solve problems and I wish I could help with this one, I mean he’s taking his wife on vacation for her 40th Birthday!!!!….hint..hint honey if you are reading this; ) I would have even offered him Buddy Passes,(which I NEVER do, they are a super pain in the rear and I have a nightmare story I will share at a later date) but it is school vacation week and I know Cliff and his family don’t want to spend it a Logan Airport trying to get on a flight. It is an impossible week to non-rev. (non-reving is airline lingo for space available, travel)

So, the only thing I can do is post Cliff’s story and hope we can save someone else from the same mistake. Airline ticket prices are up, I think they will stay up for a while. I believe you can find a much better deal on a trip if you shop for air and hotel together. A great resource for travel is Kayak.com. They actually search all the discount sites, like Travelocity and Orbitz for you.

And Cliff is right, it’s not my side of the biz, so if I’m missing something and someone has an idea, let us know! Otherwise, Have a great trip Cliff and send some pictures, I’d love to do a follow up post and know how your first real travel experience was!