Our BetterMost Community > Chez Tremblay
An American Girl in Paris
Kelda:
--- Quote from: ineedcrayons on July 12, 2007, 01:35:22 pm ---Here's something else that's worth trying, Del.
Clear your cookies, set your browser not to accept cookies, then go back to the website and do a whole new search for flights. It's possible you'll see a lower price.
A friend of mine tipped me off to this when we were both buying tickets to Italy. It worked for me then, and I've since had it happen several more times. I've read about it, too. Apparently the airlines figure that if you're going to check a flight twice it shows you're really interested, so they can safely raise the price and still get your business. So they put a cookie in your computer on your first visit, which alerts them when you go back.
But if the cookie is gone, they'll think you're a whole new potential customer and may give you a better price.
--- End quote ---
Thats a TOTAL tip! We should start a money savers thread with this one!
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: ineedcrayons on July 12, 2007, 01:35:22 pm ---Here's something else that's worth trying, Del.
Clear your cookies, set your browser not to accept cookies, then go back to the website and do a whole new search for flights. It's possible you'll see a lower price.
A friend of mine tipped me off to this when we were both buying tickets to Italy. It worked for me then, and I've since had it happen several more times. I've read about it, too. Apparently the airlines figure that if you're going to check a flight twice it shows you're really interested, so they can safely raise the price and still get your business. So they put a cookie in your computer on your first visit, which alerts them when you go back.
But if the cookie is gone, they'll think you're a whole new potential customer and may give you a better price.
--- End quote ---
The bastards!!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrr. >:( Damn sneaky of them. Thanks for this major tipoff, crayon, I'll definitely keep it in mind.
--- Quote ---Del, don't feel guilty for something you can't help. I don't think it was really your fault. Airlines do that. One minute plane tickets are cheap and the next they're over the top. It happens all the time.
--- End quote ---
Thanks opinionista, I'm trying to get it in my head that this is an auspicious little hiccup as Jess says. I don't like to travel together. If something happened...well, those left behind would not be able to deal with our estates very well. So I feel much better if we're traveling separately. Increases the odds, you see. This traveling separately also happened last time, which is also auspicious as our trips then were uneventful. So now I'm trying to see it as a positive thing. Course, my sister may not think so. But, she wanted me to do the ticketbuying for her. I never claimed to be any good at it. :P
Ellemeno:
The cookie thing - is that legal for them to up the price like that? Looking back over the recent past, I've had that experience, "Hey! It was lower a few minutes ago!" Like del said, grrrr. Thanks Katherine.
delalluvia:
I am back from Paris and it was a great trip. I'm going to post my observations and thoughts of my trip in serial format. Some comments will be short and to the point, others much longer. I hope you guys don't mind. :)
I will start with the first, foremost and all important part of any trip I take overseas. I cannot go anywhere without it and am on my knees thanking the gods for its invention:
For those of you who don't know, I'm petrified of flying. Absolutely terrified. I was sick to my stomach and had difficulty sleeping in the days leading up to my flight. To add to my horror, my doctor was very conservative in prescribing the meds for my trip. Assuming 1 was good for 6 hours, she only prescribed four .25 mg pills for my entire trip. The flight was listed to last 11 hours one way.
Considering on a trip taken years ago, I gobbled 4 pills in one six hour period and even that had little affect on my fear when flying, I was in a panic about how I was going to cope when the pill wore off mid-flight and I was paralyzed with the fact that there was nothing below my feet but 6 miles of empty air.
My friend came to the rescue and helped me out in that particular.
You people who are used to flying will laugh at me for my dramatics. The flights there and back - non-stop - were smooth and uneventful. Even when we ran into storms over the Shenadoah Valley area, lightning and black clouds outside, there was next to no turbulence.
Yes, .50 mg of Xanax will knock you on your ass. I'm glad I didn't take the entire thing. Perhaps 75% of it. But it worked and help calm me. I sat there, breathing shallowly the entire flight, reading one book after another.
However, I couldn't hold my water all the way to Paris and had to get up and stagger to the bathroom 1 hour out of Paris. It felt like I was walking on a beam above an abyss, the plane had that little substance to me. I certainly managed to hold my water on my way back to Dallas.
Xanax works, so does denial. My sister managed to snatch standby on our flight back and a few hours out of Dallas, she walked by, wrapped in a blanket and asked, "How are you doing?"
"Pretty good. I'm in serious denial. Right now, I'm imagining I'm on a big bus and it rattles every now and then when we hit a patch of bumpy road."
This dialogue must have amused the very-good-looking-Middle-Eastern-married-with-children-who-works-for-American- Airlines-and-though-based-in-Paris-was-headed-to-a-meeting-in-Dallas-man sitting next to me. A few minutes later, he switched off his laptop and offered to share a packet of cookies with me. We had a nice talk all the way back to Dallas.
Our last words were when the plane hit the runway with bone-jolting bump:
Him: Is that a cowboy landing?
Me: Welcome to Texas, yeehaw.
Post scriptum
For those of you traveling in the future, security at the airport on the way to Paris was laughable. The bored looking security guard looked at my carryon and asked "Do you have any liquids or gels in there?"
"Nope."
"OK." He waved me on without so much as looking in my carryon.
Security at Charles DeGaulle leaving the country was pretty strict. I was yanked out of line and searched to the amusement of my sister who yet again passed through security unscathed.
"You just look dangerous."
I didn't care. Made me feel safer. One lady who was absent-minded enough to have left Swiss Army knives she had bought for her nephews in her carryon was dragged out of line and interrogated in a small room by 5 members of security. She was nearly in tears as she sat next to me waiting for our flight.
However, the staff at Chas. DeGaulle was otherwise very polite and professional. One lady, as she took my passport was looking into her computer to prep my boarding pass and in her heavy accent said:
Her: I zee you have chosen a seet, I can try to get you a better seet, but thees flight is fieeling up quickly...
Me: No, no, that's OK. I don't like flying. I chose the middle seat in the middle section over the wing for a reason.
Her [smiling and sliding my passport and boarding pass back to me}: Then I will do nothing.
Me: Merci
injest:
planes rattle????
jeez.
I can't imagine getting on one...
I am glad you had a good trip, Del...looking forward to the next installment!
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