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Traveling mid-week to beat the high cost of airfare...


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16 replies to this topic

#1 WreckWench

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 04:05 PM

Hey everyone the buzz in the industry is to travel mid-week to cut the cost of travel.

Duh!! We've all known that traveling on Tue or Wed is cheaper but NOW many airlines have cut travel to various destinations especially in the Caribbean to Wed and then Friday & Sundays or Wed, Saturday and Sunday.

So what do you think?

Would you do a trip Wed to Wed and burn an extra day of vacation in order to save money on an airline ticket? Would you consider doing a 10 day trip vs a 7 day trip so you could fly (1) day on the weekend and perhaps (1) mid-week date?

Its time to plan 2009 trips so this information would be very helpful to us! :tears:

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#2 pir8

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 04:29 PM

Wed - Wed would work for me
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#3 bowjunkie

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 04:46 PM

as much as it looks like it's going to cost to fly for me anyway 10 days works well .. :D get your money's worth :tears:
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#4 ScubaPunk

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 05:09 PM

Wed to Wed or a 10 day trip is fine with me. I like the 10 day option.

#5 WreckWench

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 05:11 PM

Thank you all for replying so far...

I really appreciate the feedback as I will be making decisions on trips for NEXT year...in the next couple of months! :tears:

Contact me directly at Kamala@SingleDivers.com for your private or group travel needs or 864-557-6079 AND don't miss SD's 2018-2021 Trips! ....here! Most are once in a lifetime opportunities...don't miss the chance to go!!
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864-557-6079 tel/celfone/office or tollfree fax 888-480-0906

#6 Scubatooth

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 06:06 PM

I would second punky as at this point 10days is becoming the point to go especially with airfare. Then again this is based off my shift schedule right now it doesnt matter as Im gonna burn two weeks at a time for my main vacation, and then a day here or there for smaller trips like FG or NC for diving as well as the photo and family trips i take each year.

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#7 timalso

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 08:04 PM

The best trip I ever took was a ten day trip which allowed me to do some other things after the diving was over. As long as your travel takes you someplace interesting where there are things to see and do I,m all for that. Tim

#8 shawnabbott

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 09:52 PM

mid week could work for me, longer trips are harder (i.e. 10-14 day) as I have child custody issues...

#9 SeaSeeker

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Posted 23 June 2008 - 11:11 PM

I like the idea of 10 day trips - the extra days make me feel like I'm getting more value out of the airfare. Midweek flights work for me, so either way is fine.

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#10 ASDmike

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 06:09 AM

There are a few of us that mid-week trips won't work better. When you are limited by total vacation days or when you can take off, starting and ending vacations mid-week makes it harder.

First if you have only 15 days of time off and want to do three trips a year, it may end up as two 8day/7night trips and one long weekend trip. This situation may save some dollars, but for dive trips it could total up as two less dive days over the three vacation trips.

The other thing is if you take a Wednesday to Wednesday vacation, in many places you are actually blocking two weeks. Other folks can't get time off in either week or maybe you can't take off since somebody else already requested time off in one of the weeks. Also related to mid-week trips, I have had bosses that treat this like two weeks off. HR doesn't care, but the bosses don't expect you to work "much" on both the Mon/Tues before and the Thur/Fri after. So just the idea of asking off for Wed-Wed vacation annoys some bosses and they "act weird" about it. Speaking of it the idea not being received well, I have never blocked rooms with resorts, but I would imagine a destination resort would consider a Wed-Wed group to be a bad thing too.


So what will I do?

Maximize-- Like other folks, maximize trips. That means 9 day trips [Sat to the 2nd Sun] or 10 day trips [Fri-2nd Sun] [Sat-2nd Mon] and maybe an 11 day trip [Fri-2nd Mon] where one of the bookend days is a holiday.

Choose Carefully-- I will look much closer at the total price for the trip versus the value in going there. Places with so-so diving will not make the cut. And the resorts are feeling the pain too with much lower bookings. So some are raising prices to cope with their higher costs, but others are working hard to fill rooms and thereby offering great sales / incentives. So much higher flight costs can get softened by some savings on the land part-- I will carefully choose the whole trip. That also means looking only at dive destinations that still have competition with more than one "major" airline flying on my travel days.


BTW, SD did offer mid-week trips this year. I was interested in both the FG and Tortugas trips. The only reason I did not sign up was since they were mid-week trips.

So one last thought regarding doing more mid-week trips... There may be some pain involved if you pick a place like Dominica and then find out that the airlines serving the island lower frequency. It will not be the Sat / Sun flights that are dropped.
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#11 WreckWench

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 06:21 AM

Thanks Mike...most of what you've said has been our traditional sentiments.

However I am finding many places in the Caribbean are offering only Wed, Sat and Sun flights so that means 7, 8 or 10/11 day options will become more the norm.

The first test of this will be the Bonaire trip we are setting dates for next year.

Thank you all for CONTINUED feedback. It will help me tremendously!

Contact me directly at Kamala@SingleDivers.com for your private or group travel needs or 864-557-6079 AND don't miss SD's 2018-2021 Trips! ....here! Most are once in a lifetime opportunities...don't miss the chance to go!!
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864-557-6079 tel/celfone/office or tollfree fax 888-480-0906

#12 georoc01

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 07:05 AM

I think midweek is fine, the challenge seems to be finding those flights. It seems to bounce around and be really seasonal. And since many of the trips seem to be offered off season in order to get the best deal, that limits the flight options as the airlines cut back.

So that really becomes the dilemma. Do you travel during high season where you have more options or go for a lower cost trip during off season with less options?

As far as longer Caribbean trips go, I think it would depend on the location. Like maybe a combined Roatan/Utila, or a liveaboard+land package or something like that.

Getting that much time off can be a challenge, and lately I have been trying to save that for the trips where multi-day travel (like Australia) almost requires it. Especially if the trip is not arranged around a holiday, which I can maximize my days off.

Edited by georoc01, 24 June 2008 - 07:24 AM.


#13 WreckWench

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 09:43 AM

Thank you Georoc01...also great insight!

Contact me directly at Kamala@SingleDivers.com for your private or group travel needs or 864-557-6079 AND don't miss SD's 2018-2021 Trips! ....here! Most are once in a lifetime opportunities...don't miss the chance to go!!
SD LEGACY/OLD/MANUAL Forms & Documents.... here !

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"Imitation is the sincerest flattery." - Gandhi
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Kamala Shadduck c/o SingleDivers.com LLC
2234 North Federal Hwy, #1010 Boca Raton, FL 33431
formerly...
710 Dive Buddy Lane; Salem, SC 29676
864-557-6079 tel/celfone/office or tollfree fax 888-480-0906

#14 Parrotman

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 10:31 AM

I am all for the 10 day trips. In fact one of the things that keeps me from going on some trips is that they are only Sat to Sat and I don't want to pay the airfare and take the time to go all that way for a week, and in reality most Sat to Sat trips really only give you 5 days of diving.
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#15 diverb0b

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Posted 24 June 2008 - 10:38 AM

I have found over the years that flying and booking trips south for 10 days worked better on weekdays than on weekends .Also found that people get bored if its for 14 days.But then thats my observation :cool1: :cool1: :cool1: :banghead:
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