Monday, March 5, 2012

Two Weeks ... Two Less



Above are two of my most favorite people in this world, my husband, Nick, and our oldest son, Jake.  And, while that may be a tropical island they are photographed on, it is not the island of Oahu ... at least, not yet.  For days I've been saying two weeks from Monday, two weeks from Monday and, here it is, Monday, and my boys leave for our new life in just two short weeks.

Booking their airfare was another adventure in this whole 'let's move to Hawaii' reality.  I Kayaked, I Orbitzed, I Pricelined, I Cheap Ticketed.  And then I finally found the secret of booking backwards.  I'm not sure if I coined this terminology, or maybe picked it up along the way, but in booking backwards I started with the last leg of the flight, and found connections from our home base that worked within the time allotted.  

Need me to clarify?  Nick is flying Southwest from RI to CA, and Hawaiian Airlines from CA to HI.  Yet, I started with flights that came into Honolulu on Hawaiian Air.  And that's where I found her - a $171 flight from Los Angeles. Such a steal, I signed up for frequent travel miles and considered it booked! Next, I needed to get Nick into LAX from Providence. Hello Southwest, where bags fly free and typically get to their final destination at the same time you do.  Working backwards from when Nick would fly out of Los Angeles, I found him another steal of a flight, getting him in with plenty of time to pick up his checked bags, find his way back through airport security, and catch his Aloha flight to Oahu.  Great.  Booked.  Super Savings $$$.  Done.  

Or so I thought.  After we secured our rental in Mililani, we gave Jake the choice to travel with his dad ... note the operative word, with ... wrong again! Four days later, and the same flights had more than doubled, and we were back to square one, booking backwards for the same great deal.  With a little finagling, we managed to find a flight we were happy with from PVD to San Diego and then off to Oahu.  Great, grab the credit card and book it, right? Not so fast ... in less time than you can say 'hele mei hoohiwahiwa', or 'come celebrate', the deal was gone.  But no one said this process was going to be easy and, an hour later, we successfully booked Jake on Southwest to CA and Alaskan Airlines to Hawaii.  Yes, you read that right.  Alaskan Airlines to Hawaii.

And, as I sit here, blogging to an unknown audience with google's autosave feature constantly reminding me that my two weeks are slowly making their way into one week, six days and twelve minutes until my boys are finding themselves in an Aloha State of Mind,  one thought keeps running through my state of mind -  as we learn to live without them here in the bitter North East, where spring is often just another word for winter, and my boys enjoy life with their toes in the sand, if she knows what's good for her, Mother Nature will hear my not so silent prayer ... I better not see snow!     

1 comment:

  1. Mother nature best not get in the way of this mother, who wants to see her son and grandson before they are in the Aloha State of Mind! Robin, the only thing you will see, is your favorite MIL at your door this Thursday :)

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