Flights!

Well, I took the plunge and booked flights to Addis. Seeing as it's over Christmas, and we don't know exactly when the visa will be ready, we're leaving early and staying for a month. We'd wanted to do some travel anyhow; now we'll have to!

We depart on Friday, 14 December, and get back into Canada on Wednesday, 16 January, flying KLM. Those dates had a combination of the best itinerary and best price available within a given timeframe. Last night when I checked, and briefly again this morning, I saw prices on the airline's website for outbound travel on Christmas Eve / Christmas Day and returning on the 15/16 January for $1600 less than we're paying. But when I was finally ready to make a decision and book the tickets, those prices had disappeared and all that was left was in business class (at a price of some $5000+ per ticket!!!). We could have left 3-4 days later and paid about the same, or even slightly less, but the itineraries were wretched (travelling for 2 full days to get there, with multiple stops along the way) so the 14th it is.

That's only 3 weeks away! Yikes!

I doubt we'll be able to shorten our trip, even if Poppet's visa does get issued before Christmas. While our tickets are changeable (with a fee), we'd also have to pay the difference in fare and I doubt we'd be able to find any seats at fares that were affordable for average joes like us. If, on the other hand, we have to exstend the trip, the farther we get into January the lower the fares get, so we might not have to pay much extra to change.

Giggles will miss about 3 weeks of school (more if we have to extend the trip) but as one of those weeks is right before Christmas, that's not serious (I mean, how many kids can actually pay attention the last week before Christmas?!?). We'll keep working on reading and math while we're over there. And the trip is a valuable experience in and of itself.

Okay, better head off and prepare my packing list...!