Noticed something a bit strange this afternoon (friday 5/9), wondering if it's an anomaly/mistake or usual:

playing around with bookings EWR-SFO leaving 5/9 (only 7:30pm available at that point) returning 5/12 or 5/13 I found plenty of U fares offered on co.com for $318. Also available for 5/10 returning 5/12 or 5/13. Planes were pretty empty in both economy and first fwiw.

Couple hours later, they are back to the H fare at $1200 or whatever.

Is this normal behavior or some kind of fare mistake?

Not to sound obstinate about it, but it could be both or it could be neither. I've noticed some huge fare swings, posted about it, and then get told that the more fare-obsessed posters see it a lot and they're shopping at a time when the inventory is being massaged, for want of a better word.

I'm not the thread police, by any means. However, thought I might just point out that commenting on other FTers or certain disciplinary actions violates the TOS and can itself lead to undesirable consequences. Good thing FT has an "edit post" feature...

Thanks for the input. It doesn't look like there have been many NW domestic 747 flights in the past year or so, but I will keep my eyes open. I am open to doing an International flight as well. It looks like NW is running a 744 from DTW-AMS this summer but I don't have much interest in visiting AMS.

I heart National Rent a Car. The Buick Lucerne is a fine automobile (well, it beats the Grand Marquises and Lincolns I used to drive to LFT when renting from Hertz). If I hadn't already downed a 32oz. "Orange Octane" daiquiri from the drive-thru down the road, I'd be out enjoying a ride.

For no real reason other than because it's The Box and there seems to have been a run of this recently, I hereby choose to make my 800th post here.

And your 800th marks the 3200th reply in The Box. Congrats!

I'm looking to come back in here in about 35 posts for a milestone post of my own :)

I wanna know which CO Forum smarty-pants is gonna congratulate CO Insider on his 1,000th post by asking how it feels to be a 1K. (rimshot...)

Am I the only one that doesn't want an upgrade at this time? With the price of fuel, I am happy to get a Japanese 4 cylinder econobox. Mind you, when I rented from Sixt at TXL, I was happy to rent a MB E220 CDI. :D 225 kph on the autobahn was fun!

For 180 mile drives along I-10 with all the crazy truckers, I just don't feel safe in an econo-box. Full size only for that run. I rent small when staying in a city.

I had a rental a couple years ago where I was livid about the upgrade I got. I arrived in SAN with my wife (having started the day in LON and not sleeping) and met my in-laws at the airport. I was there for pleasure then business, so I arranged the car. Hertz gave me an upgrade from a mid-size to an SUV. I hate SUVs in general, and this was in California where the gas is more expensive anyways. Plus, the in-laws are closer to the tree-hugger side of the world than not, so the SUV was a very bad thing to be picking up. It took an extra 20 minutes for me to downgrade my reservation back to a normal car, rendering the #1 Club Gold benefit incredibly useless. I've actually started talking to the agencies about how to permanently decline the upgrades so I don't have to deal with this sort of thing.

Then again, there was the day I arrived at DCA ~10pm and was at my hotel by IAD in under an hour, including visiting the counter and negotiating the HHR to a Mustang with no up-charge, so I guess it isn't all bad. And the Mustang on the Dulles Toll Road was phenomenal, especially late at night with noone else out there... :D

As for the autobahn, my one experience was driving a Dodge Shadow that belonged to a friend of a friend serviceman stationed over there. I was uninsured and not suppsed to be driving it, and it topped out at a hair over 100 MPH. Not good.

Speaking of Dulles, I got to go to the air and space museum annex outside of the airport today. It is very cool and very worth the cash ($12 to park, no fee inside except for the simulators and imax) to go see. They have prototype 707, a concorde (piety they don't you inside it), a WWII german jet bomber, OV-101 Enterprise, A-6, F-14, the new joint-strike fighter, a observation deck over looking 1R w/live ATC feed, oh yea and a Cessna 152 among tons more. :p

seriously very cool.

I've heard the Udvar-Hazy Center was something to behold - it's next on my list now that I've done the USAF Museum. Also on the to-do list is to go out to the Ronald Reagan Museum/Library. There's a 707, a Marine One (designation escapes me), and one of the F-14's from one of the Libyan shootdowns on display there. The gift shop also sells a phenomenal book detailing the efforts needed to take apart a 707, truck the parts, and reassemble it within the pavilion dedicated to it, which is built on stilts extending down into Simi Valley.

IMO, the A-6 Intruder is the prettiest ugly aircraft ever...it may well be a prettier shade of ugly than the A-10.

^ Definitely on my list of places to visit as well. I know people who have visited and they thoroughly enjoyed it. Some very nice wineries in that area as well.

If you think the Lucerne is fine, check out the new Malibu. It's the best handling American sedan I've been behind the wheel of in ages. Granted I haven't seen a fully loaded one at National yet, but it's a real pleasure to drive. And the LT trim that National seems to usually have isn't bad — my only real complaint is it doesn't have the 8-way power driver's seat, and the older LTs don't have XM.

But yes, the Lucerne is a much nicer car than the Grand Marquis.