I hate the part of a trip that involves finding the flights out and back. It's easy enough to have decided on where we are going and for how long, but then, which exact flights? There are so many things to think about: Does it leave at a time that we can reasonably get to? Does it land late and in the dark, so we would be disoriented and homeless in a strange place. How long is the total flight? - Brainless algorithms of booking sites think nothing of proposing 18, 24, 36 hour flights for distances that would actually take a jet that put its mind to it 6 hours. The difference is in crazy detours to hub cities, or extensive layovers. And if there is to be a transfer/layover, is there actually enough time provided for two doddery old cyclists to make it from gate to gate? 

All this can be put down to the vagaries of routing algorithms, plus the raw facts of where our origins and destinations actually are. I mean, on a long flight it may simply be impossible to leave and arrive comfortably in daylight.

But slathered on top of all this is the greed/profit maximizing calculations of the airlines. Depending on the day of the week and hour of the day, the same distance in the same class of seat can cost six times more.  But its more than that. On the very same day and  physical plane, the airlines will be trying to sell the seats for the most they can get. They put them in groups, and may sell off one group cheaply before jacking the prices on the remainder. Exactly what they are doing is (deliberately) mysterious, but one can find various "conspiracy" theories online.

So here we find me, scrolling through the listings of Expedia, or Priceline, or CheapOAir, or something, discarding wildly overpriced, over long, or badly timed flights, while getting more frazzled. I am searching on the assumption of one passenger, because I do not want to be confused about whether the quoted totals are for one or two. This marketplace is so bizarre that one can not obviously see that a price is double because of two people. It could be double just because. 

Finally, I am astonished to find a flight on some certain day (just one certain day) that leaves when we can get to it, takes a believable amount of time to arrive, and that we can mostly afford. OK, book it! But wait, to do that it's necessary to go back and stipulate two travelers. I do that, and whaa? the per person price went up 33%! Back to one traveler, the price drops back.

This particular example came from Westjet. So I decided to phone them to find out if they were serious about this latest form of ripoff. Their phone system graciously offered me a call back time - a week away!

This created a dilemma. If I booked one passage, at the lower price, perhaps when I would come back in for the second one, the price could have changed or worse, there could be no tickets left. Dodie had the idea of running two computers at once, teeing up two purchases, and hitting "pay" simultaneously.  I tried that, but got too muddled dealing with first one and then the other computer to answer the myriad of questions needed before you can actually pay. So we gambled, booking one and then the other, and this time it worked out.

People on the internet have different theories about what is going on here, but apparently booking group flights one by one to save money is a "thing".  One person described the steps by which booking should be made for five people,and it was mind boggling.  This, as I say, after  you have already waded through the 30 hour duration  and the vastly overpriced offerings. 

It makes me long for the tours that just begin by cycling directly from home. We've tried that for a few, but of course the paths are always smoother on the other side - of continent, or probably the world.  I am so glad we got the flights figured out this one more time. Now all we have to do is to cycle a few thousand kilometers somewhere - no stress, by comparison.