Warmer in the Mind

There was quite a lot of melting of snow around here today, but it will freeze again overnight, and we are forecast more heavy snow for this evening. The long range forecast now suggests a possible thaw on Saturday, which would be good because I’m supposed to be going to Bristol that day.

I ran out of fresh fruit and bread today, but in theory the Sainsbury’s van will come tomorrow with more. We shall see. Bean chili for dinner. A good canned meal to have in store, requiring only a fresh onion.

In the meantime I have been cheering myself up by thinking of warmer climes. I have booked my flight to the USA for March/April, and I’ll be booking the internal flight to Orlando for ICFA as soon as I get an OK from Kevin on the times. I have also been looking at flights to Australia. It will be warmer there, even if September is only spring for them.

I’ve also booked my membership in Au Contraire, the New Zealand Natcon. It looks like getting there on United will be difficult and expensive, so I may just fly United to Melbourne and hop back across the Tasman to Wellington on QANTAS, with whom I still have a bunch of points I should use up.

Finally on the subject of flights, I need to get to Dublin for P-Con. As RyanAir has made travel with them so unpleasant I’d prefer to avoid them if possible. I’m looking at the possibility of Aer Arann from Cardiff as that doesn’t seem to require overnight stays and doesn’t involve stupidly expensive train fares into London. Does anyone know anything about them? Their advertising seems very much geared towards saying “We are the opposite of RyanAir” without actually saying so.

14 thoughts on “Warmer in the Mind

    1. I’d thought about it, but either route (Fishguard or Holyhead) is likely to require an couple of extra hotel nights. If I were a lady of leisure I’d take the train up to Holyhead and the ferry from there, but I have clients who expect me to be online 24/7.

    1. I’d happily fly Aer Lingus, but that would mean a fairly expensive train fare to Heathrow and a longer flight. That was the backup plan if Cardiff didn’t work out. (I have a direct train service to Cardiff from here — it is very convenient — and there’s a rail link from Cardiff Central to the airport.)

  1. I’ve flown Manchester to Waterford with Aer Arran. I think the plane seated about 25. Flight was comfortable, reasonably priced and quick, considering the plane was a turbo prop rather than a jet. Waterford airport was, err… quaint.

  2. Hi, Cheryl,

    I haven’t flown Aer Arran, but, as one often says, “I know those that have”. They have all given good reports. It should be a safe bet.

    At least now you have someone to blame if it turns out to be a total disaster. 🙂

  3. Have you noticed the good deals on Qantas to Worldcon ex NY and LA? If you wanted to stop over in the USA anyway it might work for you.
    Also, if you book AKL-WEL flights at the moment, lots of options at NZD49-59 each way, so watch what your trans-continental carrier charges for WEL vs AKL.

    1. Yeah, the QANTAS deal is really good. But my points are mainly on United, as are Kevin’s. He’s already booked his flight, and we are hoping to go back on the same plane.

      1. From a quick look at United’s website, they charge you a lot more to fly on AirNZ than AirNZ do, as well as overcharging horribly for one-way. The random wonders of international airtravel 🙁

  4. We’re planning to stretch our Worldcon trip into quite a vacation so we can see a little bit of Australia and New Zealand. When we discovered Au Contraire a while back, we figured we’d start there. 😉 Take pity on us if you see us at Au Contraire; we don’t expect to know anyone, really. Yipes! 😉

    1. You know me, and you at least know of Jay Lake. If you don’t actually know him, I shall introduce you. You’ll also get to meet my ex-Pat USian pals, Kelly and Daniel, who now live in Wellington.

      1. I’ve seen you on a few panels, I don’t think I’ve ever introduced myself. I shall do so. And I appreciate the introductions. Thanks! 😀

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