It’s time for me to travel over and spend some grandma time with my newest grandson. They have moved to Yankton, S.D. which is too far to drive for a quick weekend trip.
So I got on the internet to find a flight. I know I could use the services of a travel agent. I have some friends who are travel agents and I apologize to them up front. I just wanted to look at what was available on my own.
I first tried to find a flight using the usual travel sites like Expedia and found a few possibilities. What was amazing is that they showed several choices ranging from non-stop to six stops along the way.
The non-stop flight into Sioux Falls, S.D. was not the cheapest. That didn’t surprise me at all. But the flights with four to six stops were upwards of a thousand dollars and lasted close to seven hours. Why would you even think to book a flight like that?
I used to like to fly, but now I just tolerate it. But I can’t ever remember a time that I would endure seven hours and five take off and landings just to get to one location.
As I began to narrow down what I wanted, as far as a flight, I found out I would be going to Minnesota before heading back west to South Dakota. I mentioned that to my mother who lives in Minneapolis who then suggested I just fly to Minnesota and she would meet me there and we could drive to Yankton.
It’s a five hour drive from Minneapolis to Yankton. Not very appealing.
As I started looking into airport shuttles-$150 each way, and hotels at each end of the trip- $90 each night, the thought of the driving with my mom began to have potential.
I got back on the computer and looked at flights into Minnesota. The cheapest round trip flight was $150 more than the cheapest flight to Sioux Falls. The irony is that the non-stop into Minnesota used the same flights as in the Minnesota leg of my flight into Sioux Falls.
I would be charged $150 more for getting off the plane in Minnesota than for heading on to Sioux Falls. No wonder the airline industry is in a mess.
I actually thought about booking the whole trip and just getting off in Minnesota, but then I would end up on some security risk list and have to be strip searched on the way home because I got off the plane too soon.
It makes no sense to me at all. In fact none of my travel plans did. I paid a lot less to rent a car than I would have paid to take a shuttle back and forth.
These are the kinds of things that are making travel a lot less pleasurable for most of us. But in the end I booked a flight, rented a car and will sally forth to see my grandson and buy him lots of stuff and give him lots of hugs.
That is why we still put up with it all.
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