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About Me: My grandparents were born in the Indian Territory / Oklahoma. My parents were born in Oklahoma, as was I, my wife, my children and my grandchildren. I was an irresponsbile teenager (it was the 60's, what can I say?) but managed to mature a little. I attend the University of Oklahoma and got a BA in History and went to work for a Fortune 500 company where I was unhappy. Eventually, I went back to OU for my MBA and PhD in MIS (ABD). I became a contract programmer because I programmed much better than I published. I also became a VAR for a firm selling accounting software written in a computer language called dBase that was designed for the Intel 8088 processor. I stayed firmly seated at the grindstone and in the first years of the new millenium I decided I needed a change. I figured that if I was ever going to to do all those things I said that I wanted to do, I'd better get going. In 2005 I sold my house and business and went to truck driving school. I now drive a Big Rig - mine - and I try not to work more than 6 months a year. I make an effort to spend at least 3 months a year outside of the U.S. I'm married. My wife and I have 6 kids and 9 grandchildren. Maybe that's why I like to travel so much.

Postscript: In December, 2010 I hung up my Driver's cap for good. The road had taken its' toll. I was no longer willing to drive 180 days a year, regardless of the money and the ability to work when I wanted. I had seen America. I was tired of being gone from home for 9 months a year. I needed a rest. In 2011 I sold my truck and trailer and was unemployed for the year. However, I wasn't inactive. I traveled overseas to Asia and South America for several months. In the fall I enrolled in an online course to to become certified in Oracle, the world's preeminent database. I want to go back to work sometime in the near future as a software developer or administrator. Even though I programmed for 20+ years, my skills are dated. Fortunately, I have a little flexibility as to my future.

RollingOkie OKC, Jan 1, 2012

Benchmarking Airfares

Benchmarking Airfare Pages: 1 2 3 4

Kayak Flexible Dates Kayak also has a feature that is worthwhile. They call it their Flexible Date Search. It allows a user to explore a map of the world and it shows airfare to various destinations. You have the ability to enter a budget and it allows the user to look at different months. The problem with the Kayak screen is that it only shows deals that Kayak users have found in recent searches. While this is a good benchmarking tool, it doesn't assure that the prices are currently available. This implies that locations which are not heavily traveled will not show up as much on a search. Kayak is, however, another good option in your toolbox of airfare searches.

Travelocity Flexible Dates Another place I go is Travelocity. They have a Flexible Date option that allows me to see the best airfare deals for an extended period of time. In the first screenshot you see a picture of the Travelocity web site and I'm booking airfare from OKC to London, England. I chose Flexible Dates and it is giving me the option from today through October.
Travelocity Flexible Dates










On the next screen shot I have the results and they are good. I can find some very good airfare deals this way. The problem with Travelocity is that many of the deals listed on the screenshot will not be available when I select them. They have been sold out. Often, many of the others have a very, very limited selection of dates that are available. This means a lot of iterative searching and time consumption. It can, however, produce some very good airfare bargains.

BA Cheapest Flights This Year

British Airways has a nice little feature at their web site that will help you benchmark airfares to Europe. You start off by going to the cheap flights section of their web site. Pick a city of departure. The default destination is London. It's British Airways, after all. Click on Show All Months and you will be presented with a graphical display of the lowest fares by month. Once you have arrived at the graphical display, you can change your city of origin and your city of arrival. Note that BA does not fly from everywhere. Note that not all cities of arrival are available for graphical display. The lowest fares that will be on display will be the major market routes.