Last Minute Travel Plans

by admin on July 30th, 2009

Running Suit - Licensed via Creative Commons - http://www.flickr.com/photos/illumiquest/3208486102/ Every once in a while, you have to leave on short notice, and the travel industry tries to stick it to you with higher fares. Of course, it’s perfectly understandable since they would like to know as early as possible about whether or not a plane will be full or if they’ll have enough cars on the lot for a rental. However, cost savings are often still available. You just have to know where to look.

Yesterday, I hastily put together some last-minute travel plans for tomorrow for a daytrip down to LA. My schedule is fairly tight, so time generally outweighs cost. However, I think I managed to strike a fairly good balance. Here’s the process I went through.

First, I figured out my non-travel portion of the day and made sure I knew when and where I needed to be. There’s no point to trying to book a cheap flight when you don’t know when you need to be somewhere and how long an appointment will last! Business travelers sometimes book multiple flights for one day if they don’t know when a meeting will end and then just skip the flights they can’t make. Airlines know this, which is why they often overbook flights and charge an arm and a leg for more flexible tickets. If you can solidify your plans for the day, then you can spend significantly less on a less flexible ticket.

Next, I searched for airfares, primarily using Kayak. Kayak is by far my favorite travel search engine, and it has a lot of cool new features that make finding a cheap airfare really easy. For example, after typing in your location and destination, it now displays a calendar showing the lowest available fare for every day! You can also enter in flexible departure and return dates, which makes life really easy.

The good thing is that the SFO-LAX route has a fair amount of competition, so I was able to find a <$100 airfare (roundtrip including taxes) only two days before my trip. If your schedule has enough flexibility, definitely consider flying only on major routes and then using ground transportation to save money. For example, I once flew from Boston to Detroit and then rented a car rather than from Boston to Fort Wayne. Also, consider nearby airports, e.g. if you’re flying into SFO, consider SJC and OAK as well.

Last, I figured out my ground transportation. Since time is tight, I actually decided not to get a rental car, originally opting for a taxi. Standing in line at the rental car company, driving in LA traffic during rush hour, and finding parking all kill a lot of time. Shuttles can also be time-consuming and unpredictable, largely depending on the number of other passengers. I find that public transportation actually tends to be more reliable, but again, it’s a huge time-waster due to indirect routes and a lack of stops right next to where you want to be. Luckily, someone offered to pick me up from the airport, so I’m set for Wednesday morning. Then, when time isn’t as important in the evening, I’ll likely just take public transportation to the airport.

In total, transportation should cost me less than $150, though who knows if I’ll have to shell out for a cab ride at the last minute.