Focus, sion! Think of ‘Face when the tummy thinks it’s the boss!! ;o])
Getting on my preferred airline had been proving to be quite difficult this week, and I was slowly resigning myself to travel on one where I have no status at all, not even for preferred coach seats.
My one guarantee of preferred carrier required an airport 4 hours' drive away. Too much.
This morning it all fell into place. The 40 trips ahead of my carriers' trips (in terms of price) had schedules from lousy to totally unacceptable: the best had 6AM departures, but some had connection times under an hour and many departures home began before my meetings ended.
Not cheap though. I'd estimated $550 for airfare, so $574 was not too far off. But when I actually booked it, the price dropped $100! The fancy conference hotel showed up on BedbugRegistry.com, so I booked a nearby Hilton Garden Inn, rate negotiated by Corporate and $40/night less than the conference special rate. That more than offsets the car I had not originally planned to book.
So all in all, I'm saving the company $150 - $200 on this trip while staying in a nice, clean and comfortable hotel, with a car, AND I'm able to get home the evening after meeting's end.
It was approved.
Now I'm waiting for details on the meetings in Atlanta the week before that so I can request then book that one.