My sister and her husband are taking my dad on a trip to Florida in a couple weeks so he can see his sister. Though they planned this trip months ago, it just dawned on me yesterday – how come I’m not going with them? Before I retired, I often thought how great it’s going to be to have a free schedule to do things such as this. When I told my sister, she was ready to beat me over the head to remind me I’m retired. When I told my husband, he said, “Here’s my credit card. Go look at flights.” I was awed by the idea that I could actually do this.
I began to get excited and started my flight search, with a $300 price tag in my head. Reality showed me $550. Searching the $500 range lead me to see that the times for those flights wouldn’t coincide with rides to and from airports with my sister. The next step was to try to get on their flight. Now we were talking $653. After taxes and fees, the total cost was up to $707. Then when I went to pick seats, they were in short supply, so now for one of the flights I had to pay $15 more dollars for one of the last two seats on the plane. Since I purchased non-refundable tickets, I had to pay $25 more dollars for ticket protect insurance, just in case I break something or get sick and cannot go on the trip. Hit the payment button and final cost was now $741. I entered the credit card info and sat and stared at the screen for a few minutes. I really did not want to spend that much right now, but something wouldn’t let me hit the cancel button. I realized this was a unique opportunity for a trip with my dad. Having my sister and her husband along too, made it even more unique. Then I started picturing us all sitting around talking with my aunt and my cousin that I haven’t seen in many years, and I suddenly got the meaning of “priceless”. A few hundred extra dollars was a small price to pay for a trip I may never get to recreate again, and I would’ve regretted that.
Family. People you can count on to stick by you through the years no matter what. Family – the ones who welcome you with open arms in both sad and happy times. Many times the people closest to us are taken for granted, while we’re out there looking for “the next best thing”. Hmmm….sometimes you just gotta fly….Pay Now.
And so, as another day goes by, sky miles would’ve come in handy today, and….. I have written.
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