For those who know me, you know this is an area of much "tinkering" I have been known to peruse airline and booking sites to look for the best deal. I hate to pay much for a flight since often there are so dang many of us that I pay to fly.
This time though, our options were narrowed by the fact Zoe was going to lose her Alaska miles. This gave me one airline to choose from.
The long holiday weekend during which I WON'T be working narrowed my time frame down.
Once I looked at fares and reward travel, I quickly saw my dates. 7/6 (a friday) to 7/10 (a tuesday). Now to figure out how to pay as little as possible....
First there is Zoe.
almost enough for a rt ticket.. but the cost to buy the remaining points is almost as much as the ticket itself.
Then I notice that she can use the points she has (without buying extra) for a one way. This meant that we would need to buy her a one way down. This wasn't looking too bad. Flight down was just 115.
That left 4 of us. Steve and I each hold an alaska card (we need to scrap though since the annual fee has gone up and the once $50 companion fare is now $100) Perfect! That would mean rt plus a companion for $360 x 2. That wouldn't be too bad. That essentially means I would get an average of $167 pp rt.
Then I noticed something else. Zoe could use only a portion of her miles to buy a half price fare. So how much is the half price fare? $125 That seemed worth the extra $10 because she would keep half of her miles.
THEN I realized both Steve and I had that same amount of miles and we could do the same thing.
so now we have 3 of us with fares of just $125.
That left the boys who could still use one of the companion fares. (I some how missed an email stating their points would be lost and so their accounts are at 0
)
This now has us at $125 x3 plus the $360 for the boys. And the drum roll for the totall....... $147 pp rt plus we saved a companion fare for another time in the year (have I mentioned my mother and I are going to my db wedding in the fall?
) I know that doesn't seem like a huge savings, but add up that $20 for 5 of us and I saved $100.
I had to make 4 reservations to accomplish this, but I did pick seats all next to each other. (although, those who read my TR from December might just laugh at that
)
I think I am stuck in planning trips from the west coast to the east coast though. Our flight out is at 6:50am. This means we have to leave our house at 3am. (hmm.. kinda hard to surprise kids at 3am and get them to just casually go to the car) This is where Steve volunteered up some input. Just wait to hear what he has suggested.
As far as the return flight.. it too is much more like what I would schedule from MCO. 7:55pm. I suppose we can make it work.
I do have one thing left to do with the flights though. Since we opened these mileage accounts when the kids were young and before all the "exact name" TSA restrictions. I need to call to have our names changed. My mileage plan account has my name as Ann. Well, my drivers license reads "Ann-Marie". Zach is actually Zachary... Steve.. Steven... etc. The only one who is ok is Zoe. Once I change our names I can associate our accounts with the upcoming flights so that we can get credit. (although, I am not certain of how much credit we get when using points and or companion fares) It doesn't hurt to add though... and we have to change our names anyway.
And... one last thing. Should Kira decide to go, she too could get her airfare for the $125 (at least last time I checked...but we all know how much fares can and do fluctuate)
with little to no encouragement. (who is this man???)
It has been a while since we have been to CA. I am pretty excited. 
