I got my plane ticket yesterday. I paid $1,324.29 for a round-trip from Des Moines International Airport. Hahahahaha, that's funny. Des Moines International Airport. They must have a UPS plane that flies up to Winnepeg or something. I feel very lucky to get that price on 2 weeks notice. That is only $125 more than I paid last January (2007). Not bad, considering the hefty increase in the price of fuel. Have to leave on Monday or Tuesday, though. Any other day is $300 to a whopping $2,100 more expensive.

So I got to playing around with the fare search on Orbitz. It turns out that if I could somehow get a ticket within the next few hours, and leave at 10 a.m. tomorrow morning, I would still pay $1,324.29. But if I left on Wednesday, April 30th, one day after my actual departure date, I would have paid more than double. How do they come up with these pricing schedules? It boggles the mind.

From LAX (Los Angeles airport) before this month, April

Asiana $800
Eva $ 950
China $1050
United $1005

I know what you mean!!! I always have to end up using "Flexible schedule" as it's called on United.com to get a good idea of where the best fare is...... Even then you don't know...... My brother's daugther is getting married in June and we're going to the wedding. I spent about 3 days looking for a cheap domestic flight vs using the United coupon I got when my flight was 6 hours late last March. I ended up giving up trying to find one and just used United. Here's the crazy part...... I kept looking for the cheapest non stop morning flights to leave to Seattle from LAX. United.com said there was only one at 6:10AM. (I also used the automated phone system and it came up with the same flight). It didn't matter what day we flew, the 6:10AM was available and the cheapest. It did that for 3 days. So I finally started to book it but then decided to due another search using schedule. It showed the 6:10AM flight and another one at 10:43AM both at the same price. Getting to LAX at 5AM isn't fun so I booked the later flight. Why didn't it show that flight before? I checked and found that flight was available on other days too.....

Have a great time in HCMC and get the pink.

Peter and Thi

I-129F Sent : 2007-05-26
I-129F NOA1 : 2007-06-11
I-129F RFE(s) :
RFE Reply(s) :
I-129F NOA2 : 2007-10-26
Touched: 2007-11-02
NVC Recieved: 2007-11-16
Consulate recieved ??????
Packet 3 sent 2007-12-11
Packet 3 received 2007-12-24
Packet 3 returned 2007-12-28
Packet 4 sent 2008-1-14
Email Reply with Interview Date 2008-1-23
Interview Date 2008-2-27
Passed Interview 2008-02-27
Visa Pick Up Date 2008-3-05
Received Visa 2008-2-29 (called to pick up earlier)
POE 2008-3-05 Los Angeles
Wedding 2008-4-26

I ended up paying $1154 from Minneapolis using United which isn't too bad I guess . That's leaving on Wednesday 4-30. The prices appear to jump dramatically one day later

Dave, did you use the travel agency in BP?

No, I didn't think about using an agency because I have miles with United and the price looked about right.

just wanted to tell you about my experience. i have found it seems to be cheaper when using a travel agency. we usually use vietnamese travel agency out of dallas and its usually 200 -300 cheaper than most.

The other option is to book the domestic and international flights seperatly. Just need to make sure you leave enough time between flights.

Melrose Plant, are you from Des Moines also? When's your wife's interview?

Indianola. May 9th. Another Iowan (gasp!)?

If it is a slow travel day, week, month, or a less than prime departure time, they will incentivize by charging a bit less. If they expect to fill 100% of the plane, then they will hold the price high (as longh as they can) with the expectation that they will in fact still fill the aircraft with people willing to pay the high fare.

yes, another Iowan...... my wife's interview gonna be May 15. =) I'm goin back there May 8.