“No, I am sorry but I do not want to stay a Saturday night”
“But, sir, it makes the trip £150 cheaper if you do”
“I realise you are doing your job, but please don’t ask me again, I do not want to stay a Saturday night”

You get the idea.

I *have* to go to a wedding in New York at the end of June. Yep, on the face of it this is all very glam and exciting. However, when you scrape the surface you realise that with two pre school children and plans to move house, spending £1500 on going to a wedding that does not need to be 4000 miles away is not the fun idea it should be.

I shall refrain from blogging about the wedding as it could easily get me in to trouble should someone stumble upon it. But suffice to say the idea of getting married in New York was a great one when it was just an idea but poorly thought out now it has turned into reality.

It is my best and oldest friend. Known since primary school and we have been through the lot together. He is marrying a great girl, mother of his fantastic one year old – to whom I am proud god parent. I will be his best man and had he got married n the moon, I would still have gone. And probably with less issues than I have with NY.

The problems started the moment he asked me last summer. The first decision was how many of us were going to go? 1, 2 or all 4? A quick decision was that Pixie and Dixie would not appreciate the delights of that great city so they are going to stay at home. But what about the GLW?

First it was – “Yes, we can spend some time together”
Then it was – “don’t want to leave the kids”
Followed by “I really want to go”
Then “can we afford both?”
Etc etc etc, and so this continued.

All the while we were waiting on the happy couple to get their finger out and actually book something. They did book the actual wedding and some other bits and bobs, like a restaurant and cars, but the small matter of flights and accommodation were a bit behind. They did promise that they would try for a package that we could buy into that never materialised and finally after much procrastination and decisions on Hotels, they announced “This is where we are going, sort yourselves out” Ok, maybe not as harsh as that, but in effect that’s how it was.

Originally this was because the airlines do not release flight until 300 days or so prior to departure. Fair enough. But then it dragged on to the end of Jan and only this week did we finally get a confirmed flight and hotel for them.

I was not going to book anything before they did. That would leave me open to all manner of possibilities.

So last night, the GLW and I had a long conversation about whether she would go or not. The old indecision came back again before finally getting the courage to leave the kids behind.

So on to the web to book.

Now, they get married on a Friday. So my plan was, so as not to take the proverbial out of the in laws looking after my children – to go on the Wednesday and fly back Saturday night for Sunday morning.

And then the trouble started.

If I flew Wed to Sun it was approx £400 with the big carriers. To move to a Sat night was £950!! And the cheekiest bit of all was the outbound changed as well as the inbound price!!

I “webbed” all the usual suspects and they all have the same thing: Premium for NOT staying on a Saturday. Dial a flight could do same hotel and flights £150 cheaper if I came back a day later…..how does that work????

Airmiles point blank refused.

To cut a very long story short, we settled on a decent deal with Expedia for BA and the Novotel for about £610 each. Which was £550 if I stayed another night.

I want to get back to see Pixie and Dixie. Pixie is 4 now and such great fun. Dixie is almost 2 and she is the one I am most worried about. Pixie we can talk to and she will understand. Plus, Grandma is great fun! Dixie will be a bit lost and wonder where we are I think.

Maybe I am being silly. I am sure she will be fine but the guilt won’t go – and it certainly would not allow me to save money and have a longer holiday to boot.

Dan