There is more to this than meets the eye.

A day or two ago I received a email from a good friend. She told me she was beginning to plan a trip to Shannon Ireland for 31 days. She ask me if I had some travel secrets or something to help her plan the trip. Well, I think that's the true reason I wanted to start 'helpmeplananaffordablevacation' blog. I began a simple search for flights on her particular travel calender and found out something almost right away...

Now I am not going to explain her trip story, cause it is just in the beginning phases but I ask her to tell her story on how she did it. She agreed to share it with us so you need to connect with us every day to see what happens. From planning, to the trip itself including pictures, video, stories and more. If you have any tips or suggestions we want to hear from you. She needs your help too! Comment and let us know what you think.

...I put in the dates for her trip, how many were going and where they we going. I pressed the search button and waited about a 30 second for the search to yeild results. All the while, I was thinking “OMG, I am going to get this out of this world, mind blowing price that will make me say, am I amazing or what?” Well, it kind of did. I found one about $210 less than she could find herself (per person). “Wow!” I said to myself I may just have a secret or something. But then I pressed the very inviting button to book now. Then came the truth, besides the extra details for passengers from food preference to an isle or windows, the total (that includes flight fees & taxes) was an additional $195, which became about the same as her search findings. I tried a couple of other travel sites and low and behold, I found better upfront prices. They were even lower than the other. Again I thought, “Now I am on to something”. Once again I pressed book now and this time it was $350 less but the taxes & fees were also about $350. What is going on here?
Almost all these flight deals were practically the same. It was their low initial price that made you feel good about the deal. Until the flight fees & taxes took away the discount or great price. My question is, why are the fees and taxes so different from company to company? Baggage wasn't even included in that price, those are fees the air line charges you. To this point, all the same-same the all.
Southwest has no baggage charges to my knowledge and are the only one, but they don't go everywhere.

Tell me what do you think?
Until next time.

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