Flight to New York City in June

That was quick. I had just posted about deciding to make a trip to New York City in June, and already I have a flight reservation for the trip.

I started by going to Priceline to get a rough feel for what a flight might cost and schedules, but boy was I disappointed. First, I see a link for "New York Flight Deals", which suggests that I could get fares "From $289", but the bottom line was that "There are no non-stop flights available that match your search" and even connecting flights started at $389. And, it didn't "hint" that by changing my itinerary I could get a better deal. For example, flying a day earlier, I could get a 12h 45min 2-stop flight for $301 or an 8h 40min 1-stop flight for $327.

That was so depressing, but I thought I would see what Continental had to offer since my travel agent had booked my non-stop flight on them for my holiday trip back in December.

A quick search on Continental's web site gave me some interesting choices, and some schedules that didn't seem half bad. I played with the dates a little and it was offering me a $338 fare for decent schedules. Well, you have to add $20.80 for extra taxes and fees (U.S. Flight Segment Tax:  $6.80, U.S. Security Service Fee:  $5.00, U.S. Passenger Facility Charge:  $9.00 ), for a grand total of $358.80. That sounded quite reasonable and the schedule was quite decent, so I went ahead and took it. This is the first time I bought a ticket from Continental on their web site. It was reasonably painless.

I go out on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 and return on Tuesday, June 26, 2007. That give me six full days.

My outbound flight departs Seattle at 10:45 a.m. and arrives in Newark at 7:00 p.m., which is quite reasonable and should give me plenty of time for dinner in the city and I don't have to get up at some insane hour.

My return flight departs Newark at 5:25 p.m. and arrives in Seattle at 8:45 p.m., which basically gives me half a day in the city and plenty of time to catch the bus home at a reasonable hour.

I basically couldn't have asked for a better schedule.

I do have an extra two days of hotel to pay for, but I may in fact travel to see my mother via Atlantic City and spend a night or two there on the way.

That really was easy and painless, but I don't expect the hotel reservations will be so easy on my budget. I do have options and plenty of time to be flexible enough to find some workable plan.

-- Jack Krupansky