(no subject)
In case it isn't more widely known now: I'm going back to the school in the fall. More specifically, I'll be starting a Masters in a prestigious UK university. I'll delve more into the subject matter in a later post, but I'd thought I'd comment a bit on the logistics of the travel.
I've already sorted out my student visa, which was a straightforward but deep dive into my past travel history, family, nationality, and finances. No surprises there.
I'll be staying in residence, so I expect I won't be doing a lot of shopping or set-up upon my arrival, which is a considerable relief from the house-related travails (snooty phrase for work) that has been taking up my recent evenings.
No, what occupied my time an inordinate amount was buying my plane ticket and otherwise booking travel. Those who know me personally likely have witnessed my tendency to over-analyze.
My objectives for the flight were straightforward:
*attempt to fit in a stopover in Montreal
*minimize total cost
*prioritize Star Alliance
*avoid unnecessary connections
*maximize overall mileage
Using tools such as ITA (http://matrix.itasoftware.com), expedia, travelocity, and airline specific sites, I made some general discoveries:
*adding stopovers has negligible impact on overall price in the same fare class
*aggregators came up with airline/fare combos airlines or even ITA wouldn't
*flights originating in the states are invariably cheaper
*adding too many segments on a multi-city itinerary breaks good routing
After about three days of solid searching, I ended up booking:
Vancouver-Montreal
Montreal-London (after a week)
London-Vancouver (in later March)
Vancouver-Los Angeles (early April)
In all, this was $1400 and change, maybe $100 more than a round trip from Vancouver to London for the same overall dates.
The rest is all well and good, but why the "one-way" leg to Los Angeles? Because I plan to fly LAX-LHR, LHR-YVR after my break! Such arrangements were less than $900 all-in, minimizing my overall cost.
While I could go on at length on why I made specific choices, overall I was satisfied that I wouldn't have been able to book a better ticket, baring foreknowledge of pricing changes, or actually learning more travel-agent specific tools.
So with the flight done, I booked a car rental, and some of my accommodations. I went the priceline/hotwire route for hotels for my first night in Montreal and a side trip to Ottawa, but so far have a reservation with Hertz. From my take, they're the least evil care rental firm, and a couple of different locations have offered good service, so they're worth the $30 or so premium for the week.
So what's left? Well, I'm either going to couch surf, or need another couple nights, and will also take a side trip to Quebec City. Despite all my travel optimizing, I'm certainly spending more in net for all these excursions, but I tell myself it's worth it, to have the chance to meet up with friends, see some sights, and grab some favourite food.
For example, I can re-use my description of what to order when visiting Schwarz's. But I'll head to bed this evening for today instead.
I've already sorted out my student visa, which was a straightforward but deep dive into my past travel history, family, nationality, and finances. No surprises there.
I'll be staying in residence, so I expect I won't be doing a lot of shopping or set-up upon my arrival, which is a considerable relief from the house-related travails (snooty phrase for work) that has been taking up my recent evenings.
No, what occupied my time an inordinate amount was buying my plane ticket and otherwise booking travel. Those who know me personally likely have witnessed my tendency to over-analyze.
My objectives for the flight were straightforward:
*attempt to fit in a stopover in Montreal
*minimize total cost
*prioritize Star Alliance
*avoid unnecessary connections
*maximize overall mileage
Using tools such as ITA (http://matrix.itasoftware.com), expedia, travelocity, and airline specific sites, I made some general discoveries:
*adding stopovers has negligible impact on overall price in the same fare class
*aggregators came up with airline/fare combos airlines or even ITA wouldn't
*flights originating in the states are invariably cheaper
*adding too many segments on a multi-city itinerary breaks good routing
After about three days of solid searching, I ended up booking:
Vancouver-Montreal
Montreal-London (after a week)
London-Vancouver (in later March)
Vancouver-Los Angeles (early April)
In all, this was $1400 and change, maybe $100 more than a round trip from Vancouver to London for the same overall dates.
The rest is all well and good, but why the "one-way" leg to Los Angeles? Because I plan to fly LAX-LHR, LHR-YVR after my break! Such arrangements were less than $900 all-in, minimizing my overall cost.
While I could go on at length on why I made specific choices, overall I was satisfied that I wouldn't have been able to book a better ticket, baring foreknowledge of pricing changes, or actually learning more travel-agent specific tools.
So with the flight done, I booked a car rental, and some of my accommodations. I went the priceline/hotwire route for hotels for my first night in Montreal and a side trip to Ottawa, but so far have a reservation with Hertz. From my take, they're the least evil care rental firm, and a couple of different locations have offered good service, so they're worth the $30 or so premium for the week.
So what's left? Well, I'm either going to couch surf, or need another couple nights, and will also take a side trip to Quebec City. Despite all my travel optimizing, I'm certainly spending more in net for all these excursions, but I tell myself it's worth it, to have the chance to meet up with friends, see some sights, and grab some favourite food.
For example, I can re-use my description of what to order when visiting Schwarz's. But I'll head to bed this evening for today instead.