Epic Tuna Adventure Don’t let your assumption of last minute travel prices foil your adventuring spirit.
Epic Tuna Adventure
by Shelton Boggess
Whenever I heard about someone having a last-minute opportunity to go on a cool fishing or hunting trip and they jumped on a plane the next day, I really thought they must have unlimited funds. I assumed that purchasing these steep, last-minute ticket prices must not affect them like they did me. Now I’ll be honest, I really don’t like flying, and so for quite a few years, I was content to stay in my home state of Arizona or to drive to the places I wanted to go. Now, I live in Alaska, 3,500 miles from my closest hunting and fishing buddies, and travel via commercial jet is about the only way I get to continue to go on adventures with my best friends.
This past November, I woke up one morning with a call from my dad saying that they couldn’t pull the trigger on an incredible fishing trip without me. They wanted me to get on a plane the next day and meet them in San Diego! I thought this was insane, but when we checked ticket prices, I realized they were cheaper than ever. In less than 24 hours from making the decision, I was in Sunny San Diego–with one of the cheapest flights we’ve ever bought–about to go on an adventure of a lifetime. This “Epic Tuna Adventure” would require a book to detail, but here are a few travel tips that I discovered on mine.
In my opinion, ticket prices are initially set medium-low to begin filling that plane. Depending on how quickly the seats are filled, they will either raise prices because they don’t need many more people or they give great deals away to ensure that they don’t lose money on the flight. At a certain point though–usually less than a week out–they have nothing to lose, so it seems that if there are seats available, they drop the prices again. If this happens, prices can sometimes be crazy low. This is what happened for me on this trip, and I grabbed some fantastically cheap tickets. Obviously, this isn’t always the case, but it has proven true for me the last several flights I’ve booked.
A few other tips to save a few bucks is to always book directly on the airlines website. I always shop on the big sites like Travelocity or Orbitz so I can compare airlines, but once I see a flight I like, I go straight to their website, and that saves a good amount in fees, along with fewer hiccups. Another thing I do is regularly is check back on the prices of a flight I have booked. If the price drops, most airlines have a simple way to get a refund for the difference as long as you ask. At times, this can be a huge saver.
The next time you are faced with an opportunity to go on a last-minute adventure of a lifetime–or an epic tuna adventure–but are afraid that airline prices are going to be in your way, the least you can do is check. I am a huge advocate for doing as much as you can, when you can. If you are young and won’t go into debt doing cool things, my advice is to do it, because it’s only going to get harder in life to do the things we love.
