Over the next few days I will be finalizing my dates for the upcoming UK trip and this trip is being governed by shipping delivery dates. This morning I was looking at our shipping schedule for container deliveries and as one would expect this time of the year is hectic. It seems like I have travelled quite a bit over the last 18 months and this will be my fifth overseas trip which is kind of crazy, but in this case there is no other choice and is a must do.
I cannot go after the first week of November as the shipping container deliveries are due for Black Friday and we have 38 x 40 ft containers scheduled for the first two weeks. This is then followed by 23 more containers up until the first week of December so there is no time for any type of leave. This is a lot of work involved and as much as I would like to skip this it would be unfair on my kids and staff. There are no other real gaps left up until Christmas so it gives me a time frame for travel of this month only.
The plan was to have travelled 2 weeks ago, but those prices were astronomical with tagging on UK tickets with the Dubai trip. I am not one for connecting flights so this has to be direct for me and taking it as one 11 hour flight with no sleep. The hope is I will find a spare bed once everyone is asleep like last time otherwise I will suffer in silence. Long haul flights are not fun and why I do not envy those living in Australia.
Making this an extra trip on it's own the savings are massive with this UK trip including hotels and car hire plus including the Dubai trip saving more than 50%. Basically if I had paid the Dubai and UK trip as one which was the plan doing it this way I save an entire ticket which was R52K ($3K). Money does not grow on trees and I am very happy to have the extra $3K in my pocket.
The above screen shot is the prices you would roughly pay for cattle class and I know already I will have to pay a little extra on top of these for emergency exit seats guaranteeing some leg room. Virgin is a non starter as their arm rests are permanent and unless you pay for upper economy which is R26K ($1.5K) you are in for a very uncomfortable flight. I just cannot justify those prices and the business class is R50K or $3K each and the bed is too small so the price does not equal the comfort. On a short flight of 6 hours you do not really care, but 11 hours your bum does complain an awful lot.
I have travelled so much in the last 18 months since we found out my mother was ill and we know this will continue with more trips required next year. Like I have said previously there is no budget when it comes to family, but one still has to be smart making sure you don't over pay finding the cheapest, quickest route possible.