JazTrippin

It was Christmas morning when my phone began buzzing frantically with text messages from Jesenia. “Omg Jaz look,” she had written with an attached screenshot of someone posting how they had just booked a round trip flight to Dubai for $180. My heart rate seemed to quicken yet stop simultaneously. This had to be a lie. It sounded way too good to be true. It wasn’t.  It was an error fare! More screenshots began to pour in of others who had done the same but how? Everything ceased as I began to hunt down the deal. Here are the steps that I took to book that once in a life time flight deal.

1. I analyzed the screenshots thoroughly and realized that the people said they had heard about the deal because of Travel Noire.
2. I immediately went to Travel Noire’s Instagram page where they referenced the deal. They mentioned that it had been posted by The Flight Deal via Twitter.
3. I raced to Twitter and searched The Flight Deal. It was there that I found the link with details on the error fare, available dates and how to book.
4. I clicked the link and saw varying dates of availability and called Jesenia to decide quickly what dates would work for us. Neither of us had the time off so we settled for squeezing it into a weekend trip in March. For $200, why not?
5. I also realized that the deal was actually to Abu Dhabi and not Dubai but a quick Google search let me know that there was a free shuttle bus run by the airline which took about 2 hours to arrive in Dubai. Winning!
6. I scoured Google Flights entering in the exact dates that I had seen on The Flight Deal. But sadly, all of the flights that came up did not show that $180 price tag. I was saddened thinking that the deal had ended, however I did not waver.
7. The Flight Deal specifically referenced using PriceLine so I swiftly switched gears and entered the exact dates on PriceLine. Boom! The flights began to show up. Unfortunately, they were no longer $180 but in the mid two hundred range. This was still a fantastic steal for Dubai!
8. I checked to verify that PriceLine had a 24-hour cancellation policy just in case I had been too overzealous and the trip would not work out.
9. Lastly, the magical moment arrived when I was punching in my credit card information quicker than Santa Claus could say “Ho, Ho, Ho!” At last, I received the golden ticket in the form of a confirmation e-mail as a mixture of Willy Wonka songs and Christmas carols chimed in my head.

10 minutes later, the flight prices were climbing back to their normal rates. We had been just in time.

As for accommodations:

1. We researched only to find that as expected, hotels were pretty expensive.
2. My mom’s timeshare was not available for Dubai so we went with the next best option, Airbnb.
3. Airbnbs, however, were also pretty pricey so we decided to do something we had never done before. Book rooms in others’ Airbnbs as opposed to booking the whole home.
4. We ultimately paid a few hundred dollars to stay in the Airbnbs, thus landing us a trip to Dubai for a total of less than $500! Unbelievable!

What we learned:

• Error Fares are fleeting. They can be gone in a second so you have to drop everything and book. Even if it’s Christmas morning!
• Don’t give up if you can’t find the deal at first. Keep looking and plugging in dates.
• Don’t be too good to stay in an Airbnb home while the owners are still there. We had AMAZING experiences with our hosts in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They introduced us to local spots, gave us gifts and loads of riveting conversation.
• Rely on the 24-hour cancellation policy to book now and ask questions later.

Does this all seem like too much to you? Understandable! We’ll gladly book your trip for you with a fee of $50 for domestic travel and $100 for international travel. Contact us with your travel inquiries here.

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