Fun With Flights

With having two visits to the UK in the next few months (one at the end of April for my friend Phil's wedding, one in August/September for my cousin's and brother's wedding - not to each other i add), i've spent an awful lot of time recently browsing the numerous travel websites out there in search of a reasonably priced flight back over the Atlantic and have come to one conclusion. These days, there just aren't any. Actually, that's not strictly true, if you hunt around a lot, then you can get good deals but, to be frank, i haven't got the time or the energy to do just that. Okay, well maybe i have the time on occasion but it's such a grinding task that leaves you with your head tangled in knots over airport changes, times, different time zones, connections and any number of other things. Of course, the fact that i've now joined a specific Air Miles program doesn't really help matters much, despite the fact that it doesn't really limit my choice of airlines (there is some Skyteam alliance thing whereby a number of airlines all give air miles to the other's members as well as their own).

Anyway, after spending much time going cross-eyed and banging my head against a brick wall, i finally managed to sort out flights for my trip back home in August (the flights for April were booked sometime ago and were a bit less of a headache). Some reasonably extensive searching and cross-referencing allowed me to book flights separately from Charleston to Boston and then to London Heathrow (instead of my usual Manchester) via Paris Charles De Gaulle (which should no doubt be an experience). Okay, so there's an extra change in there but it gives me a couple of extra segments for the air miles (they're important) but also a few extra miles as well. Plus, it was $200 cheaper than the best alternative i could find through the various travel websites. I guess it just goes to show that shopping around doesn't hurt. Now all i have to do is survive my brief stay (a couple of hours) in France. Shouldn't be TOO difficult for an Englishman!