I have a spreadsheet (surprise, surprise) for flights. As I’m trying to figure out an upcoming trip I have to keep track of so many options. We have three flights to deal with. We have two potential departure dates. And it’s crazy making! (Warning: this post is crazy making too … I’m not sure how understandable it is!)

I won’t divulge where we are going or the dates (you know me — those must remain a surprise!), but I just printed out all that I’ve put together for Dan and here are the basics he has to go over:

[insert date of first flight here]

Option One: I do legs one and two together, saving the third leg for later
First group of three options includes one class of seat for leg one, and a different class for the second leg. I always list things for one ticket only.
Paying with:
Option 1: ALL $$ — I list the cost and I list the PQP earned
Option 2: Money & Miles — I list the cost, miles needed, and the PQP earned
Option 3: Miles — I list the cost (they do have to charge a small fee of $5.60), miles needed, and the PQP earned

THEN I do that same thing with all the same seat class rather than two different ones.

After that I have to list the third leg of the trip, again doing the three options. It’s a shorter flight so I only go with the basic seats.

Finally I put all THREE legs in one, doing, again, the same three options, and doing two combos of seat class.

Are you confused? I sure am!

I repeat all of this with a different starting date (just one day later in this case, and the preferable departure date but it’s so much much more we’ll probably have to opt for the earlier day).

From there I have to do math. Me. Math. Ugh. We have options and I want to figure out the very best one. Here are my options at this point and I have to do them all for both starting dates I’ve done:

For the two leg + one leg bit:
Both of us pay $$ for the first two legs and then use miles coming home
One pays $$ and the other uses $ and Miles and we both pay $$ coming home
One pays $$ and the other uses $ and Miles for both legs
One pays $$ and the other uses All Miles and we both pay $$ coming home
(We don’t have enough miles for both of us to do the miles bit so I do get to skip that.)

Then I have to do the math for the three in one leg data:
Both of us pay $$
One pays $$ and the other uses $ and Miles
One pays $$ and the other uses All Miles

Of course the cost of flights changes nearly every day, so I play this game numerous times. Some days the price has changed by thirty cents, sometimes by thirty dollars or more. You just never know and I’ve yet to make any sense of it.

At this point I’m still playing the plane game, but I hope that ends soon.

If you’ve read all that and made any sense of it you should get a gold star, by the way.

Trains are, in many ways, so much easier. There are price changes on some trains, so it’s good to book at the right time — too soon or too late and you pay more. Finding that middle spot isn’t always easy. Some train prices (regionals are usually this way) never change price. And I always have to remind myself to tick the box that says I want to choose my seat: why that isn’t automatic is a mystery to me!

Once our flights are set I will work on trains that are most important first, and then move on to the ones with a ton of options. I try to choose a train that departs shortly after the check-out time at a hotel, hoping it arrives in the next spot about when we can check in, but I also always check to see if the next hotel will allow us to leave luggage if we are too early.

Okay … now then, what about elevators?!

Dan and I had our fair share (more, really) of stairs on our last trip. We had no choice, and of course we dealt with it, but this time I thought I’d be sure and see if elevators were in as many places as possible, so on my spreadsheet I have a box to tick for that. I had also read, though, that the star system in European countries is state mandated and if it’s a three star in at least one country we’ll be visiting it must have an elevator. So I found a hotel that works well, with strong recommendations, and it’s three star. With no elevator! Say what?! I thought it was state mandated. So more research ensued. (I really enjoyed using the word “ensued” … you don’t know how satisfied I feel right now!)

It turns out that if it’s an older, historical building, they can ignore that elevator requirement. Heh. Go figure.

Ah well … at least we have no boats or cars to schedule on this trip! At least not to my knowledge.

And now, please enjoy a flower from our last trip. (For those who don’t know, I post a flower every day on my photography site and this one is today’s flower.)

Episcia cupreata , 5.8.26 (Inverness Botanic Garden, Scotland)