My wife and I are going to fly to Holland around Easter because her brother is getting married April 14 in the north of the country. She is from there and so there is the big family...

Although flights are usually dirt-cheap at this time of year (about $300+/- for RT econ right now and in the weeks prior to the holiday, as well as just afterward) we are finding nothing under $650-700 for the dates we want to fly! That's too steep for us--for econ!

When we go, we usually take United or Iceland Air and do not care about connections. At least the normal ones, which are one-stop or something. Now we would even go with another stop if necessary!

We are flexible with our dates and though I should know more about this, I am worried about when or with whom to book my flights. I feel, for some reason, that there may not be so many of those "last minute tickets" available this year. I think it is because more people are taking to the skies again. This works against us this time around.

I want to spend no more than $500 RT including most taxes to fly each of us and as I said above, we are a bit flexible with our dates:

We could go out on April 8, 9, 10, 12 and we could return April 16, 17, 18, 19 and maybe even the 20th.

Of course, the earlier we fly out, the earlier we need to fly back. Easter is the 11th so we would rather either be there already or be here in the US until later that night. I would fly on the date but would rather spend it with one half of the family or the other, and not some airline staff and luggage takers. The wedding is the 14th so we need to be there on or before the 13th and be able to stay at least a couple days afterward with family. Yes, we should have done this a while ago but I did try booking mile award seats 5 months out and was not too happy with the results, so we let them go with no regrets.

Nothing with miles seems available any longer as of now--at least not that we have found. And I don't have many left on most majors. Those flights that had award seating when I last checked also had pretty lengthy or bad connections (like one I had found that would have required a stay in London for 2 days and one of them was Easter Sunday. The return had a 7 hr layover. Not good).

Thus, as I said, I did not go with the miles gig. I will pay cash but need to find something soon, I think. Was going to wait a bit longer to see what Smarter Living.com has in the coming weeks (Iceland air posts lucky fares on their a lot) but I do not know if I should risk it or just drop coin and get our tickets and get it over with. We ARE going regardless.

Thanks for any ideas, tips, tricks, coupons, codes, vouches or that unused anytime award that you have no use for!! Trades anyone?

Anyway, We are wondering if, despite the fact I think I am savvy in this area, we may have missed something!

MM

I want to go to this wedding but why do they always seem to "get in the way" of a guy's life?...