Flights are Booked!

I am happy to announce that our flights are FINALLY booked.  Boy was that a chore.  You see, we signed up for the Continental Airlines Master Card when we started the adoption.  We have been charging EVERYTHING on it to earn miles to use for the adoption.  Well.....lets just say it took a lot of work to find the perfect flights where we could use the points.

Our adoption agency had a travel agent who sent us flights that they had on hold.  I did not like the flights.  So we contacted another travel agent. He came back with the SAME flights but more money. So of course Bill was online doing his own research.

One problem is we needed to book the girls flights ourselves because we had the points.  We were nervous to have someone else book our flights separate.

We went to bed last night praying we would wake up to cheaper/better flights.  No such luck. They were MORE money.  We were stressed out.

So, we knew we had flights on hold using our adoption agency's agent so we tried seeing if we could get the girls flights using the points.  Online kept saying none available.  But if we changed the airport to Orlando they showed up.  Bill called.  They said they don't see it. But if we pick Orlando then they will change it to Tampa.  That made me nervous.

About 10 min later a lot of flights opened up.  And there is was.  The flight we wanted.  It was not there yesterday or even earlier this morning.  The flight from Newark.  You see, the 2 agents had us flying home Hong Kong to Chicago to Tampa, with a 7 1/2 hour layover in Chicago. And landing in Tampa after 11 PM.  I did not want that.  The Newark flight is Hong Kong to Newark with a 4 hour layover. Then landing in Tampa at 9:30 PM.  Much better.  So we booked it.

We were able to get the girls 1 way tickets home using the reward points.  So they were "FREE"!  Then Bill saw that upgrading to economy plus was not that much more. So we did it.  The flights are no where the cost they were in the winter, but they are not that expensive considering it's summer. (we've been them even higher, just for coach seats).

So here is our schedule.  We would love to have an airport welcome if you would like to be there.  My kids will be there.

United Airlines
August 2         Flight 675  6:18 AM.  Arrive Chicago 8:08 AM
                       Flight 851 12.05 PM.  Arrive Beijing   2:40 PM Friday afternoon Aug 3rd

August 16      Flight 116 10:25 AM.  Arrive Newark 1:55 PM
                     Flight 1637  6:20 PM.  Arrive Tampa 9:28 PM