Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Flights To Holland - H E L P ! ! !

Last year KeeWee and I fley from Seattle to Amsterdam and back to participate in the European Steel Challenge Championships in Winterswijk, Holland. Europe is rather expensive, and particularly Amsterdam, and with the weak US Dollar, this year it's even worse. Last year we bought round trip flights for $611 each, but this year the same tickets are over $1,100 bucks each. To make it a bit more difficult, the only non-stop flights are on a KLM route operated by Delta. I don't want to run the risk of losing my suitcase and race guns with a plane change in a gun-unfriendly city or country, so I'm sticking to the non-stop flights.

I've been watching the regular on line travel sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, Kayak, and several others. I've also been checking flight consolidators, all with no good fares. They all are about the same. Interestingly enough, when I check the seating charts, the plane is nearly empty, with less than forty sold seats on an Airbus A-330. The dates I need to travel on are May 12th to Amsterdam, and may 18th or 19th returning.

Do any of you out there have any good ideas? Perhaps someone who works in the industry? I realize once the seats start filling up you better buy tickets or you won't be able to get seats, but so far it's not full. I don't want to wait until the very last minute and have it turn into five grand a ticket, for sure!

H E L P ! ! !


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5 Comments:

At Friday, February 19, 2010 1:39:00 AM, Anonymous Davidwhitewolf said...

I've got an idea: I'll pay $600 towards your tickets as a "thank you" for everything you do and have done (and hopefully will continue doing) for GBR. If that's enough to make it work for you, great. If not, maybe some other GBR attendees would be interested in expressing thanks too....

(I know credit cards can still be used to buy other folks' tickets, and ideally I'd be able to drop the above amount onto the ol' plastic. But if that doesn't work out, I can write a check.)

 
At Friday, February 19, 2010 1:50:00 AM, Anonymous Davidwhitewolf said...

To cover myself with the better half, I think I'll say that the $600 might instead be considered a "happy belated birthday" gift towards KeeWee's ticket.

You two can fight between yourselves as to which it is. :)

Y'all should know this means I value you both more than that Pachmayr Dominator barrel on Gunbroker right now....

Word Verification: calisive (Californian fomenting divisiveness for entertainment's sake)

 
At Friday, February 19, 2010 1:53:00 PM, Blogger Mr. Completely said...

WOW, I'm kinda overwhelmed! What a wonderful and generous offer. Hopefully the fares will drop a bit and we can afford the trip ourselves, but if not,I'll contact you about your wonderful offer.

I have been wavering back and forth between going and not going, with the cost having gone up so much. I think it's important that the US of A be represented in the European Championships, even if no one is willing to put up the money to send an official team. I've decided to do whatever it takes to make the trip. I'll send in my entry right away.


As for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous, I am planning for this year to be even better than ever. It's a lot of work to put it on, but it's also extremely rewarding, particularly when we can give a good sized check to Project Valour-IT.

Mr. C.

 
At Friday, February 19, 2010 3:34:00 PM, Anonymous Davidwhitewolf said...

I too think it's important for the US to have a representative there. I wonder if you might get some other bloggers to contribute a few bucks by having their blog names/logos on the back of your jacket/shirt, as sponsors perhaps? (I'd want RNS' at top, of course!) That way we could all see our blog names in the video as you smoke the course!

 
At Friday, February 26, 2010 6:12:00 AM, Anonymous Jeanette K. said...

I don't have any suggestions as far as airfare, but my sis and her boyfriend had luck traveling through Europe this time last year by booking hotels last minute. Since the travel industry isn't doing so hot because of the economy, hotel rates were always fairly low at the last minute. Then again, you also run the risk of not having anywhere to stay :) Best of luck with your travels.

 

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