[Debconf-discuss] Trying for a US->Banja Luka travel discount?
Hi,
I'm surprised to be able to attend after being certain I had a scheduling
conflict, but I am. Unfortunately, investigating fares from NYC to Banja Luka
in late July that are still available in mid-May is making me even more
surprised about how expensive the trip is. Although I might ask for a bit of
travel sponsorship, that doesn't scale well to everyone traveling from the US
(or nearby parts of the Americas), and if I can find a way to reduce the cost
by the amount of travel sponsorship I'd request, then those funds can go to
peope who need it more.
To that end, I'm wondering if I could get enough people interested in making a
group booking from NYC [either EWR or JFK] on Saturday July 23rd <-> Zurich
[ZRH] on Sunday July 24th, using one of the two Star Alliance flights arriving
at 7:55am or 8:40am, and returning from Zurich at 1:00pm on the afternoon of
Sunday July 31st. The other leg of the booking would be on B&H Airlines
directly between Zurich and Banja Luka on the 24th and the 31st, with 1h55m or
more of scheduled connection time in each direction at the Zurich airport. This
would also remove the need to travel from Zagreb one of the other cities being
discussed, bypassing the ground transportation confusion completely.
Without any group discount, at published fares, this would cost $1700-2000+
even in economy class, based on my searching, or $1500+ if I want to accept an
earlier departure time and an extra 1h10m layover in Amsterdam to save a couple
hundred USD via Delta. For what it's worth, going via Zagreb or Ljubljana
didn't seem to be reliably cheaper or faster from people starting in the US.
If I can assemble a total group of at least 10 people who want to try this
plan, I'm willing to contact some travel agents to see if they can get a better
fare for us. More people will make this more likely to work; I've never done
this kind of attempt before so I don't know the thresholds which apply.
Does this sound appealing? Assuming at least 2 or 3 people say yes, I'll add it
to the wiki tomorrow and reply to this thread with an URL to add yourself to.
See you in July, I hope!
- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy@debian.org
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