September 18, 2007
Pinching Pennies - and Getting Bruised!
Whew. Getting to Spain proved to be quite an interesting adventure. The fares are high now, although they are normally much lower in the fall. I was so intent on going that I spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for airfares to save some money. Finally, by sheer luck, I found a fare that was $125 per person less than anything else. So what if you had to stay in London 9 hours? Saving $250 was worth it! That is, I thought it was worth it until things started to fall apart. Why is it that I have such a knack for learning things the hard way?
When we landed at London Gatwick airport I had the clever idea of finding another discount regional carrier that would pop us over to Spain and get us there before dinner. But British Air didn’t much like that idea. So instead we decided to hop the train and go and see the British coast. I had always heard about Brighton, but had never been there. So we grabbed our way-to-heavy carry-ons and headed out. We walked down to the beach and spent a very nice day at the rocky beach where my husband will tell you that I tried to poison him by ordering a seafood platter instead of the fish and chips that we had agreed upon, only to find out that one of the little nuggets that I gave him was a fried oyster — and he is deathly allergic to mollusks. I held my breath all afternoon, not wanting to confess my crime, and hoping that he wouldn’t get sick. By some miracle he didn’t. Maybe it was the Guinness. 
After our little beach diversion we headed back to the airport to discover that our flight was 2 1/2 hours late. So we ordered up more Guinness (OK, I don’t drink much beer, but one of us enjoyed it… ) and pulled out our books and quickly fell asleep. When we finally arrived in Spain it was 3 a.m. But guess what? Somehow with a mere 11 1/2 hours between flights, the airline managed to lose our luggage. Oh well, it was so late that we didn’t dare call our friends to come and get us. So we took a taxi to a nearby hotel and dropped $100 for about 4 hours of sleep. All in all my “discount” airfare that saved $250 ended up costing us $210 for train tickets, lunch, a late night snack, taxi fare, and hotel. We did enjoy our afternoon in Brighton, but we could have been walking on the SANDY beach in Spain with friends. We’ve made a pact. No more midnight flights. No more discount fares.
