Friendly Skies



Frequent Flyer Miles on Frontier

Summer is coming to an end even though our temperature is still in the 90's. I decided to take one more trip this year and began searching for an economical airfare to the east coast. I would visit my brother and sister-in-law and their menagerie of animals, plus travel to Niagara Falls, which has been on my "bucket list"for a few years. I have enough frequent flyer miles to travel on Frontier for free but when I checked I found out that Frontier does not travel to Boston or Buffalo.  For two whole days I typed in airlines, search engines, travel companies and just as I thought I was finding something I liked I found something better, cheaper, or faster. If I left a site with the information I thought might possibly work, I would check one more site and then never find the first one I liked or the prices would change.

Finally, I found a flight to Toronto, Canada in Ontario which is not too far from Niagara Falls and I thought it might work.  I put in Toronto, Canada and Ontario, Canada came up.  It was only $200.  That certainly was the cheapest I had ever seen so I purchased a ticket to Ontario, CA and began planning a trip to Canada.  A blurb came up asking if I needed a hotel in Ontario.  As I looked at the hotels I noticed they were near Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and places in California.  What had I done? I called the airline and after a few attempts I was able to cancel without any additional fees. Okay, Ontario CA does not stand for Ontario, Canada.

My search began again. I could fly free to New York City and land in LaGuardia Airport. To visit my brother in Boston I would take a flight from LaGuardia which cost about the same as if I had flown from Denver to Boston. It didn't make sense because one is 1770 miles away and the other is 182 miles. Go figure! Yet, if I could fly from JFK to Boston,the fare was about $160 less. My brother suggested taking a shuttle from LaGuardia to JFK and fly out of JFK. Looking for a train, shuttle or taxi to get me to JFK seemed too complicated for a one hour drive just to save some money. It was back to the drawing board to find a fare from Denver to Boston.  Or Denver to Buffalo. Or NYC to Buffalo. Or Denver to Toronto. Boston to Niagara Falls. Denver to Niagara Falls. The combinations were endless as I looked on Trip Advisor, Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, Hotwire, Cheapair, and Kayak. At the same time I was looking for airfare, I was checking tours at Niagara Falls, ground transportation and hotels. If one part of the trip seemed to work, another part did not quite fit into my plans.

My eyes, fingers and mind were exhausted with all the data so I decided to have AAA help me out. After about the third combination of how and where I wanted to go, the travel agent suggested I come in for a map and book. He also told me that if they planned a trip for me they could not redeem my Frequent Flier Miles and I would need to pay full price for where ever I was going!  I hung up more dejected than ever.

By now, I decided to prioritize exactly what I wanted to do.  1.)  Save Money  2.) See my family
 3.) See Niagara Falls.  Instead of using my free miles, I would fly to Boston for the same amount as flying from LaGuardia to Boston (hard to understand those fees) see my family, and take a bus tour from Boston to Niagara Falls.  At last, everything seems to have fallen into place and I am happy!! I still have my free miles....anyone want a visitor? Of course, you have to live somewhere near the Friendly Skies of  Frontier!