Visiting California!

So I just made my reservations for my second trip back to California this year. It's the last "free" trip I'll get for a while, using up the last of the miles I've accrued on my card. I even had to "borrow" some miles from Logan in order to make it as free as possible. Of course, the airlines charge for that transfer, but that is just a small percentage compared to what I would be charged for a full price trip. Even through all those travel websites that boast lower prices. Yeah, lower prices, but lousy bookings.

This is the first time I checked out some of those websites and I wasn't too impressed. Yeah, I would have saved about $300, which is nothing to sneeze at, but the long layovers and the weird destinations for flight changes steered me away. Why the heck do I need to fly to Denver and change planes to get to Portland and then to Sacramento? Ridiculous.

The bookings for my award flights were only slightly better; the layovers are much shorter and the destinations are more reasonable, Anchorage to Seattle to Sacramento and back. But they're late-at-night flights. I'll be leaving at 1 am from Anchorage, and when I return, I'll be arriving around the same time. Not very convenient when hubby and I have to get up early to go to work after my return. But that's what I get for being a cheapskate, right?

It's all worth it, though. I miss my family, I miss my friends, I miss some of the old haunts. I only get to see them twice a year at the most.

Gotta remember to bring presents for all the birthdays that will be coming up or that just passed. Goody, I get to shop!