So tomorrow was the day that my niece, Helen, was supposed to arrive from the UK to stay for a couple of weeks and then accompany my mother back to the England at the end of her stay. That plan changed a little yesterday when Helen let us know that she wouldn’t be able to come over.
So that left me with a bit of a dilemma - how to get mum home? She is too frail to travel by herself, and the only option really is for me to travel back with her. I got a little bit of a shock when I first checked with British Airways for a flight - to travel back on her flight to London and then to return the next day would cost $2300. A bit excessive, I thought! The reason for the high price was falling foul of the Saturday night stay rule, which still seems to make a difference. If I stay a couple of more days and come back on a Sunday, then I get the ticket for less than half that price, at just over $1000 (it is the peak summer season after all).
The remarkable thing is that these tickets, even the $2,300 one, are non-changeable, non-refundable. If you want a changeable ticket you pay even more (double the price). Is that something new, I don't recall seeing totally unflexible tickets before. Such variances in ticket prices and such seemingly arbitrary rules are the things that make us love those airlines so much. So many of them are losing money in these high price fuel days, but I just can’t muster much sympathy. I wouldn’t mind paying more money provided their ticket pricing was a bit more fair and logical.
Anyway, I have my ticket now, and, all being well, I am off for a short 4 day trip to the UK in a couple of weeks.
1 comment:
Steve,
I'm glad it worked out in the end. That's going to be a very quick trip, isn't it? Are you going to try to adapt to UK time or stay on California time? I have to do things like this from time to time, so I have a lot of sympathy. Travel safely!
And although I know she doesn't know us, please give our best to your mum!
Janet
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