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Consultations

On Friday I walked over to the Student Travel Agency and priced out some tickets to Germany. So far, too expensive. There’s a student ticket at $1100 which is flexible for the return date, which is something I need. Then there’s a $900 ticket with a “$200 plus fare difference” fee to change the return date. That could potentially end up costing much more than $1100, because June is a high traffic season, and the “fare difference” would likely be great.

Another option was a $609 one-way ticket to Munich; I could over the course of my stay put money aside towards a one-way back, which, the agent advised me, would run me about $800 or so (because June is high traffic). This seems the most appealing, given that it would let me get off to Munich in a hurry, but the problem is that once I arrive, I will be reimbursed my travel expenses. This makes me want to buy the $1100 round-trip ticket, as I’ll be reimbursed that in full, and then have money to spend in Munich, but I can’t afford that one!

I’ve had a professor who’s spent a lot of time in Germany recommend that I check out flying through Zurich and onto Munich. That’s certainly a route I wouldn’t have considered, and he thinks it might come out pretty cheaply. We’ll see. I’d still want to try to buy a round-trip, so that I get fully reimbursed once I arrive in Munich.

Julia of course encourages me to try Priceline or CheapoAir or something, buy the ticket and leave the next day. That only works when the schedule is flexible, and mine for arriving very much is. She cautions me, though, that this usually works best domestically, and that international flights might now have falling rates as the date approaches. I’m no economist, but I would think they would. Time to roll the dice.