Planning A Trip

[I'm a little later than usual getting my weekly blog published. Last night we had the family fantasy football league draft so I was busy collecting players for my team The Lean Mean Blog. I think it's going to be a successful season.]

It's time for my wife and I to take our annual fall vacation. Wendy and I like to travel in the fall to avoid the summer crowds and to hopefully take advantage of off-season pricing at hotels and resorts.

Last year we made it all the way to the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula. The year before it was Savannah, Georgia. The year before that we drove to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Good thing I love the road (and hate to fly).

This year we had thought of doing something more exotic, like California, but the logistics of arranging a vacation there in the limited amount of time we had proved to be too difficult. So we decided to take advantage of the fact that this year we both have passports. We like Maine. Why not Nova Scotia? Hopefully, that's where we'll be two weeks from today.

On the way we'll stop off at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, to check how number two son Scott is doing in his Master's program there. He left for there a couple weeks ago but we thought he might need us to bring some things he forgot to pack. We were right. In fact, he's making a list.

I'm trying to do all this as cheaply as possible. I search the internet for the best hotel rates, AARP and AAA cards in hand. But I'm finding a lot of chicanery going on this time around. I made on-line reservations at a Super 8 in Ithaca and a chat box appears immediately afterwards.

"For making your reservations on-line, you have qualified for a $20 rebate," a text message read. I was supposed to type an answer to indicate I received the message. I did. Then another message came on saying that I actually was going to get a $30 rebate. Wow, sounds too good to be true.

It was. Eventually after a few text messages, it became clear that if I accepted the rebate I would be enrolled in a program whereby I would get discounted rates at all Super 8 and affiliated hotels. They would simply charge me a monthly fee on the credit card I had just given them. I could cancel at any time.

"No, thank you," I responded. They insisted that I could cancel at any time and still keep the rebate. No thanks. I don't trust anonymous messages on the internet.

So I had one night's lodging all set. We would have to stay somewhere between Ann Arbor and Ithaca the first night however. No problem. We stayed at a Red Roof Inn in Erie, Pennsylvania back in May that seemed reasonable. And Red Roof Inn has been advertising heavily on the internet, touting rooms as cheap as $39.95 a night. We might even get the room for less in September than we did in May.

But when I pulled up the price for the room in Erie, it was $99 a night now. Huh? That seemed like a lot more than what I paid before so I checked my credit card statement and, sure enough, I paid $69 in May. So I tried punching in an AAA discount. That got me to $89. I even collected a corporate discount card from the company where I work. That got me to $84. Hmmm. What's going on here? Is there a big convention in Erie, Pennsylvania a week from Friday?

Anyway, I found another Red Roof Inn down the road in Buffalo for $59 a night. Ha! I just hope their rooms have private lavatories. And a shower or bath would be nice too. You never know what you're getting on the cheap.

Whew! Lodging reservations for two nights secured. Only about eight more to go. Wendy was ordering a couple books from Amazon.com. After she put two books in her shopping cart, a message appeared saying that if she spent $6 more dollars she would qualify for a special discount.

Hea, I could use a travel book for Prince Edward Island in Canada. So I picked one out and she put it in her cart. She was about to hit the "PLACE ORDER" button when I noticed something. We didn't get any discount. The book prices were the same as were the shipping charges. Another crooked hook. Dang!

I said forget the Canada book. Take it out of your cart and put it back. Easy to do at the store; hard to do on-line. There were "PLACE ORDER" prompts and buttons everywhere on the screen. One false click and our credit card would be dinged. Nowhere was there a "Cancel Order" or "Change Order." It was buy or else, it seemed.

The only thing I could do was hit the 'previous page' button several times until our order finally appeared, with a "delete" next to the book I ordered. Heck, I can get it cheaper at the local Border's anyway.

So tricky buying on the internet. I went to the Nova Scotia ferry page, ready to make reservations there for passage across the Bay of Fundy. They advertised an AAA and an AARP discount. But the ferry service also had a toll free line in case I wanted to talk to a live representative. Oh yes I do. I want to make sure I get my discount.

When the lady quoted me the full price for a one-way ticket to Nova Scotia, I explained that I have an AAA card AND an AARP card (maybe I would get a double discount).

"I'm sorry, sir. Those discounts only apply to round-trip fares."

*sigh* It didn't say that on the internet.