Skybus: Montana Via Seattle, Washington

by Jamie Rhein on

A few days ago, I was kvetching and in a quandary about how exactly we would go to Montana. (see post) After checking with every cheap airline ticket site I could think of to see if maybe, just maybe, prices might have dropped since the last time I looked, I did break down and buy four SkyBus tickets. What made me hit the pay button had to do with the calendar that highlights each month with a ticket price listed for a one-way flight each day. Neil mentioned SkyBus price ranges in one of his posts as well. Since we want to be in Philipsburg, Montana on July 28th for the Flint Creek Valley Days parade, the latest we can fly to Seattle is the 26th. That ticket was $150 per person. A ticket on the 25th cost $175, and the 24th was $280.. The tickets over the weekend were even more. My fear was the $150 would jump to $175 if I waited one more day to think about it and we’d be again wondering if we should suck it up and drive.

So, I hit the pay button after deciding that– no, we would not pay the extra $10 each for priority boarding on the trip back and we would forgo the extra travel insurance until I figure out if we actually need it. (That would add $65 to the cost of the total) We’ll still need to pay for four suitcases, maybe five at the airport. This will be $5 a piece. (The 5th suitcase is for bedding since we stay in a teepee in downtown Philipsburg, but that’s another story.)

Once I hit pay, I found out that it’s recommended that we get to the airport two hours early. Because the flight leaves at 7 in the morning, that means 5 o’clock. WHAT!!!! Without assigned seats we kind of need to get there early. There isn’t any priority boarding for people with small kids unless you pay for it, and we didn’t pay for it since the flight from Columbus to Seattle didn’t have any more priority boarding available. There are limited priority passes. Of course, maybe I could just put my five year-old son in between two people, hand them coloring books, crayons and a juice box or two to keep him occupied and hightail it towards a few rows back.

Another reason to get to the airport early is because my husband is a big guy. If he doesn’t get an aisle seat, heavens, that won’t be fun. I’m interested to see if there’s a mad dash for the door when it’s time for general boarding or if they give people colored boarding passes that sort you by first come first serve. I have to say, it does make me a bit nervous that I haven’t actually talked with a person who works for Skybus and won’t be able to until I show up at the airport. I assume they have people who work at the airport. There is not a number to call with questions. The website does have a place you can email questions, but doesn’t promise to answer them in a timely way. I emailed at the end of April to ask why I got a warning in red saying the web site wasn’t secure during one of the times I planned to pay. I have yet to hear back. Back then, we would have spent only $800 plus taxes for the airfare part of the trip. By waiting for an answer, it cost us $400 and priority boarding. When I did break down and whipped out the credit card, I still got the security warning, but decided to take a chance and pay anyway.

Our next travel arrangement involves tracking down a deal on a rental car. Since we actually fly into Bellingham, I hoping it is cheaper than Seattle.

Interested in Air Traffic Control? Watch this.

by Justin Glow on


There are roughly 15,000 air-traffic controllers orchestrating over 55,000 commercial flights per day in the U.S. alone. It’s no wonder the position is called “the most stressful job in the world,” where “one mistake — one slip of the tongue — can lead to disaster.” Check out the short documentary above, which interviews air traffic controllers in Washington Dulles International Airport, “the second busiest trans-Atlantic gateway on the Eastern Seaboard,” scheduling roughly one take-off or landing per minute.

Interested in becoming an air traffic controller? Read this. [via]

Budget Airlines and their $10 Tickets now in America!

by Neil Woodburn on

Finally!

After years of budget airlines ferrying Europeans around the continent for laughably cheap rates, Americans are about to be treated to the same.

Ultra-low-cost carriers, as they are now being called, charge rates for as little as a penny and then make up for it by selling drinks, food, pillows, blankets, seat upgrades, fees for checked baggage, and more. Tickets can only be booked online, and advertisers are free to plop their logos on everything from the seatback tray to the tail fin.

According to a Chicago Tribune article by Peter Pae, the vanguard of the ultra-low-cost carriers is represented by two new airlines on American soil; Spirit and Skybus.

I spent some time checking out both sites and didn’t find any of the penny tickets, but I did find some sweet deals.

Skybus, for example, currently only flies to one location out of my hometown of Los Angeles: Columbus, Ohio. One-way rates are running about $60-110 dollars in the summer. But, if I want to suck it up and fly there in November, I can do so for just $10 each way (plus taxes, of course).

Spirit, on the other hand, flies to about 20 destinations from Los Angeles, some of which are even in the exotic Caribbean or Central America. Unfortunately, I did not find any $10 tickets, but what I did find was much cheaper than any major airline would charge.

Spirit and Skybus are still very new and will continue to grow and open up new routes.

In the meantime, I might just consider flying to Columbus for $10. Why? Why not!

By Air or By Land: Weighing Options

by Jamie Rhein on

This past week I’ve been air fare hunting. We’re heading to Philipsburg, Montana the end of July but I’ve been a waffler when it comes to decision-making about exactly when we should leave and which route we should take. Last week I found flights for $245 round-trip from Columbus, Ohio to Seattle, Washington on Travelocity. This was about the same price as Skybus which flies from Columbus to Bellingham, Washington, but it’s an hour and a half further away from Philipsburg.

Seeing the closeness in price compelled me to weigh options by looking at other pros and cons.

The pros about Skybus is it’s a direct flight and it’s cheaper, even if just by $25 per ticket.

The cons are:

  • The flight leaves Columbus at 6 AM. (With a 5 year-old and a 14 year-old, not appealing)
  • All business is done over the internet and there’s no one or no where to call for information.
  • You have a priority boarding option which costs $10 per person. Since we’re traveling with a 5 year-old we have to make sure at least one of us sits with him. You can’t have only two people pay for priority boarding. It’s none or all.
  • There is a question that pops up right before you book the flight on Skybus hat asks if you want ticket baggage insurance. If something happens to your bag and you don’t have the insurance you are out of luck. Pop up questions panic me a bit since by the time I think over my answer, I might be logged out. The travel insurance added about $64 to the overall cost of the four tickets.
  • You have to pay for everything on board from snacks to drinks. If the airplane staff is walks by with snacks, guess who’ll want one? Like priority boarding, if one peson gets one, I can see everyone getting one.
  • Once we arrive in Bellingham, it’s an eight and a half hour drive to our friends’ house in Missoula. If we fly to Seattle, it’s only seven hours.

The problem is, last week I found these great deals. This week, airline tickets to Seattle from Columbus have gone up to at least $400. Skybus now costs $340 (about with the add-on costs.) I even did Neil’s suggestion in one of his posts and got rid of the cookies on my computer just in case I was being kept from the cheaper rates. (I’d get towards the end of the transaction and right before booking a message came up saying the price increased.)

With the price of flying going up, driving is looking like a more promising option. But, then again, if airline prices drop, I might change my mind.

Bose Noise-Canceling Headphones no Longer King?

by Neil Woodburn on

I’ve been salivating for a long time now about getting myself some noise-canceling headphones. From what I’ve been told, flying with one of these babies on is supposed to be simply divine.

Up until just recently there was really only one manufacturer that popped to mind when considering such a luxurious gift for yourself: Bose. Bose pretty much cornered the market with a superior, albeit expensive, product. Walk through First Class on your next flight and you’ll notice that nearly everyone has a pair.

Wired Magazine, however, recently did a nice little review of the competitors in the marketplace and according to their detailed gear review, “Bose is no longer king of the ring.”

Four models are reviewed, all with varying pros and cons, but the new usurper who has dethroned Bose is the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7. With an impressive 9 out of 10 stars, the Audio-Technica not only beats out Bose’s 8+, but comes in at a much cheaper $220. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!