Originally posted on December 13, 2006:
Booking flights to get to Nassau
Since I'll be at my parents' house in Pennsylvania over most of the winter break, I researched prices for how much it would cost to fly from Philadelphia to Nassau on January 30. To get a nonstop flight (which I want to reduce the chances of my luggage getting lost), it would cost something like $400 one way from Philly to Nassau (if I remember correctly). Flying out of Newark, NJ, is FAR cheaper and really not too much longer of a drive to get to. I believe the flight costs something like $115 one way. Needless to say, I'm flying out of Newark on January 30. My parents will fly down with me for a mini-vacation in the Bahamas and I'll stay in their hotel room the night we arrive. The next day (January 31), I board the ship for faculty orientation. The ship leaves on February 4. My parents will hang out at their hotel and go on the beach through February 3 before flying back home.
Booking flights from San Diego
I need to book my flight from San Diego to Philadelphia for May 14 (the day the ship arrives in San Diego at the end of the voyage). The ship will get in around 8:00 in the morning and when I asked an administrator for the ship when I should plan on booking a flight home, she said that most people fly home later in the day once the ship gets in. She informed me that I should probably try to book a late afternoon or evening flight to allow for all the disembarking and customs procedures. Faculty are apparently one of the first groups to get to disembark, but given that advice, I will likely try to book a red-eye flight back to Philadelphia on May 14, to arrive very early on May 15. A preliminary search for ticket prices indicates it will only be about $200 or so for a one way ticket from San Diego to Philadelphia with a short layover somewhere like Las Vegas.
Update on January 7, 2007: I booked a flight a few weeks ago that I found by searching on Orbitz.com - it was only $103.84 (that's including the taxes and all those extra fees) to get from San Diego to Philadelphia! Actually, I even saved more money on the flight because I have an account through Mrrebates.com and since I clicked through that site first before making the Orbitz.com reservations, I am going to get $4 back through Mrrebates.com - can't beat a cross-country flight for less than a hundred dollars! It is a price that covers a nonstop flight from San Diego, CA, to Newark, NJ on Continental Airlines and then an Amtrak train ticket that would take me from Newark to Philadelphia. However, instead of using the train ticket, I think my parents will end up picking me up at the Newark International Airport since it's only an hour or so drive from their house in Pennsylvania. It actually doesn't take them much longer to get to the Newark airport than it does for them to get to Philadelphia.
