Ah the dilemma... is it better to buy now or later? Do you want to have lots of stops and long layovers or just one stop but the cost is higher? Where can I get the best deal? When it comes to traveling what is the best possible option? Should you get travelers insurance or just hope that nothing goes wrong in regards to airplane? These were the questions that I was faced with.
I scoured the websites in order to find the best possible price. I tried Kayak and thought that by using them I was getting the best deal... I was wrong. On Saturday (February 2nd, 2013) one of my classmates pointed me towards another direction... Airfarewatchdog.com. This website sends alerts for best deals and searches 10 different sites for the best price. This is far more than what Kayak does and I don't blame Kayak for not listing certain websites because the fares tend to be $100 cheaper. That $100 is enough to pay for travelers insurance on most international travel so trust me... that $100 savings one place makes a huge difference in another.
After searching website after website I started to doubt myself. Why am I buying a ticket this early in the game? What if the prices go down? Should I wait and hope that there are tickets later that have seats near windows or should I just take what they are able to give me? I haven't followed the trends for plane tickets in the last year and normally Kayak has a neat tool that tells you if you should buy or wait and the confidence if prices will go down or not. Well since this trip is so far out they don't have that available. The only other option I had? Talk to a co-worker that buys tickets there often.
Her question to me was this: How do I value my time? Do I want to spend time in airports for long layovers (there was 1 layover that was 8 hours long) where if I leave the airport I will have to go through customs all over again? Or do I want 1 simple short layover (2 hours long) and get to my destination with only 20 hours in the air and on the ground or 54 hours if I go the other route. She also explained to me that with international airports there are normally hotels attached in case I want to get a room but they tend to be far more expensive than if I were to stay the night.
As much as I thought it would be great for the cheaper ticket and being able to see more of the world the fact is that once you leave you need to spend more time getting back through security and customs. In the end there probably would be little or no time to explore past the airport and that didn't seem worth the time that I would be stuck in limbo. I decided to go with a short layover that would cost $1,770. This ticket has a layover in Amsterdam that is only 2 hours long both to and from Tanzania.
Now the next question is: Do I want to buy travelers insurance? Seems like a dumb question to really thing about. Travelers insurance helps to insure against the following: Loss passports and visas, loss of luggage, delay of luggage, delay of flight, cancellation of flight (to include if there are terrorist acts in any country you are flying into that would cancel flights), illness when you are on travel, death or dismemberment while you are on travel... there are just a lot of features that seem really nice. Basically if anything goes wrong I can get money back for it! I, of course, turned to my local travel guru and asked her again if I should fork over the $85 for the travel insurance. She said yes... so I spent the money.
Overall my flight cost me $1,855.00
What my flight looks like:
To Africa
Leave Seattle at 1:20PM PST on Sunday, December 8th 2013
Arrive Amsterdam at 8:15AM CET on Monday, December 9th 2013
2 hour layover
Leave Amsterdam at 10:15AM CET on Monday, December 9th 2013
Arrive Kilimanjaro Airport at 8:50PM EAT on Monday, December 9th 2013
From Africa
Leave Kilimanjaro Airport at 9:50PM EAT on Saturday, December 21st 2013
1 Stop Over (1 hour long)
Leave stop over
Arrive Amsterdam at 7:35AM CET on Sunday, December 22nd 2013
3 hour layover
Leave Amsterdam at 10:40AM CET on Sunday, December 22nd 2013
Arrive Seattle at 12:10PM PST on Sunday, December 22nd 2013.
Overall that means I only have 1 layover and it isn't all that long. I even get to be home in time for Christmas! Question is... after the heat of Africa... will I want to be?
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