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.
Well, I’m betting you’ll be just fine. Saving money and avoiding bedbugs are good things. Especially if you can do both in one swell foop.
If you sleep in your car, you save money and avoid bedbugs. The airport parking garage is pretty safe.