There is the theory and there is the reality.
I wrote extensively earlier in the year about how we go about planning travel and making our decisions. I will say, without reservation, no matter what decision and trade-off you make during the planning phase, you will be second guessing yourself after the fact.
To review (remembering we are primarily referring to international, business class air travel) your basic tradeoffs are:
- Time
- Money
You can save money, often times a lot of money, if you are willing to put up with longer travel times, and inconvenience...sometimes a lot of money saved and a lot of extra time and inconvenience.
Conversely, you can save a lot of time and inconvenience if you are willing to spend more money, often way more money.
This year we have been on both ends of the spectrum. Our Spring trip to Sweden, the first since Wife's blood clot incident, we were definitely going for convenience and we paid a lot for those tickets. (They were also bought rather late which reduced affordable options).
That colored our decision-making for this trip to Spain. We used our various planning skills and saved a lot of money. Now we are paying the price as we slog our way back to Albuquerque. (We are currently in Chicago, waiting for our two leg flight back to Albuquerque). The primary culprit was our Turkish Airlines flight back to the United States which had a 13 hour layover in Istanbul. That effectively added an overnight stay. Plus the timing of the flight across the Atlantic, meant we had to get up early in Istanbul but will be flying late into today to finally get home due to the contingencies of the self-transfer.
We've already made our reservations for the Winter/Spring which will be on the money saving, time inconvenient side of the spectrum. However, there will be not long layovers within flights that really gum up the works. It will be interesting to see what we can find for next year fall when we return to Spain again.
