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Nov. 8th, 2006
Win $10,000 and have fun blowing up ships:
http://cinemax.eprize.net/corellianchallenge/
If you need to fly to L.A. for CIV, even if you haven't purchased your pass yet, I'd start looking into getting a plane reservation. Because if everything is booked or the only flights left are $1500 roundtrip, you're going to face the hard choice of swallowing the $110 you spent on the pass and the cancellation fee on your room or taking a four-day excursion on Greyhound. Both of those choices suck.
There are people who swear by flying cheap by booking oddball flights at the last minute or travelling standby. Doing that to attend a scheduled event like CIV is like playing Russian roulette, where you may not be able to get there or leave when you want, especially when it's close to a big travel/holiday weekend. I usually book flights months in advance to save $ and to get better choices on the flights. It also gives you time to look out for specials and promotions. Some will even kick in hotel stays with your plane ticket.
The travel sites like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Hotwire, and Priceline often have discounted fares on even the major carriers. You can also save bucks by taking cheaper/lesser frills airlines like JetBlue, Southwest, and U.S. Airways/America West/ATA. Another way to save money is to fly in on Tuesday or Wednesday and fly back on Tuesday…it'll be more expensive to fly back on Sunday or Monday and it will be a heck of a lot more crowded.
Then there are your cheaper airports that can help you save a few bucks. It's usually cheaper to fly out of Baltimore-Washington International than it is to fly from Reagan National or Dulles. Newark or Islip is cheaper than LaGuardia or JFK. Houston Hobby is cheaper than George Bush. Midway is cheaper than O'Hare. Providence, RI is cheaper than Boston. Ft. Lauderdale is cheaper than Miami. Oakland is cheaper than San Francisco. You get the idea.
Well, in SoCal the cheaper airports are Long Beach, Burbank, John Wayne/Santa Ana (Orange County), and Ontario. The disadvantage of these locations is that most of them are far from downtown L.A.. So whatever money you save you might lose in transportation from the airport to your hotel. Ontario and Orange County are probably too far to be practical; even Long Beach is really stretching it. Unless you're dying to visit the zoo and Sea World on top of your convention visit, it's not worth your while to fly through San Diego...it's two hours or so by car to El Lay. However, Burbank is the same distance from the convention center as LAX, so if you can book your flight there, you might save some bank.
http://cinemax.eprize.net/corellianchallenge/
If you need to fly to L.A. for CIV, even if you haven't purchased your pass yet, I'd start looking into getting a plane reservation. Because if everything is booked or the only flights left are $1500 roundtrip, you're going to face the hard choice of swallowing the $110 you spent on the pass and the cancellation fee on your room or taking a four-day excursion on Greyhound. Both of those choices suck.
There are people who swear by flying cheap by booking oddball flights at the last minute or travelling standby. Doing that to attend a scheduled event like CIV is like playing Russian roulette, where you may not be able to get there or leave when you want, especially when it's close to a big travel/holiday weekend. I usually book flights months in advance to save $ and to get better choices on the flights. It also gives you time to look out for specials and promotions. Some will even kick in hotel stays with your plane ticket.
The travel sites like Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotels.com, Hotwire, and Priceline often have discounted fares on even the major carriers. You can also save bucks by taking cheaper/lesser frills airlines like JetBlue, Southwest, and U.S. Airways/America West/ATA. Another way to save money is to fly in on Tuesday or Wednesday and fly back on Tuesday…it'll be more expensive to fly back on Sunday or Monday and it will be a heck of a lot more crowded.
Then there are your cheaper airports that can help you save a few bucks. It's usually cheaper to fly out of Baltimore-Washington International than it is to fly from Reagan National or Dulles. Newark or Islip is cheaper than LaGuardia or JFK. Houston Hobby is cheaper than George Bush. Midway is cheaper than O'Hare. Providence, RI is cheaper than Boston. Ft. Lauderdale is cheaper than Miami. Oakland is cheaper than San Francisco. You get the idea.
Well, in SoCal the cheaper airports are Long Beach, Burbank, John Wayne/Santa Ana (Orange County), and Ontario. The disadvantage of these locations is that most of them are far from downtown L.A.. So whatever money you save you might lose in transportation from the airport to your hotel. Ontario and Orange County are probably too far to be practical; even Long Beach is really stretching it. Unless you're dying to visit the zoo and Sea World on top of your convention visit, it's not worth your while to fly through San Diego...it's two hours or so by car to El Lay. However, Burbank is the same distance from the convention center as LAX, so if you can book your flight there, you might save some bank.