My Honest Opinion: Southwest puts a Spring in my Step

Techy and I are trying to plan a trip to my brother's wedding.

In Michigan.

In July.

Actually, July 4th weekend. 

Do you know how far it is from Delaware to Michigan???

Yeah, me neither.

Even after hours of research.

Apparently, it depends on whether you are looking at the direct mileage from Delaware to Michigan...

Or the flying mileage from Delaware to Michigan

Or better yet, the driving mileage from Delaware to Michigan.

The long and short of it is there is no easy way to get to where we are going.

And more importantly, no CHEAP way to get to where we are going.

I did mention that the wedding is 4th of July weekend, right???

Also known as "Vacationer's Twilight Zone"

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Braver vacationer's than I have succumbed to the craze of such a weekend.

So when Techy and I were trying to weigh our options between an $800 airfare plus 1.5 hours of driving on either end of the flight or an 11 hour car ride, we were torn.

INSANITY THAT COMES FROM BEING STUCK IN A CAR FOR HOURS WITH A TODDLER

or

INSANITY THAT COMES FROM SPENDING ALL YOUR VACATION CASH ON FLIGHTS

We threw around some other options. 

Like driving with the fam.

With whom we could share INSANITY THAT COMES FROM BEING STUCK IN A CAR FOR HOURS WITH A TODDLER!

Sounds fun, huh?

But most definitely would save us some moolah....

And then we began to research flights on Southwest.

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Who, according to my sister in law, is the ONLY airline to fly on these days.

I mean, hello, free checked bags!

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That alone could save me more money than I even want to think about.

And as it turns out, Southwest's prices were more than $100 cheaper than other airlines.

Let's do some math.

Because I like math.

-$100 PLUS -$25 per each checked bag = 1 Confirmation number!

Which I promptly forwarded to said family members.

Knowing they would be oh.so.relieved to not share THE INSANITY THAT COMES FROM BEING STUCK IN A CAR FOR HOURS WITH A TODDLER.

You can imagine my surprise when I received an oh.so.incredulous phone call from my mother.

Apparently, she had been looking forward to sharing THE INSANITY THAT COMES FROM BEING STUCK IN A CAR FOR HOURS WITH A TODDLER.

Bizarre, I know.

Someone please remind me why I live so far from my mother?

Oh, right.

Him....

Anyway, she asked me to check into cancelling our tickets so we could share THE INSANITY THAT COMES FROM BEING STUCK IN A CAR FOR HOURS WITH A TODDLER all the way to Michigan and back.

So I did.

And can you imagine it...the flight was FULLY REFUNDABLE.

As in, I cancelled and got all my money back.

Oh, and these weren't the higher priced "refundable" tickets. 

These were normal everyday "sale" tickets.

Just to prove it, I went to their website where I found this little jewel...

Fully Refundable

If you cancel your flight, you are eligible to receive 100% of your ticket value as a refund to your original form of payment.

Now, please, someone tell me why I am only just learning this!?!

And why have I never flown SW before????

See what they did there???

By NOT SELLING me a ticket, they gained a new loyal customer! 

That takes SKILLZ!