Cheapskate post

Malaysia airlines is on sale now and i am contemplating to buy ticket to go somewhere. Most probably its gonna be a second trip to Australia, Western Australia specifically Perth, to accompany my parents, as the ever dependable all in one tourguide. Not that I mind.

They somehow have this romanticised fantasy of this foreign land with rolling hills and mountains in the background, with acres and acres of vineyards and grasslands and what not. And the weather is just sunny and pleasant and the markets selling the freshest local produce like apples, oranges, grapes etc. So far for me the closest thing to that is Stellenbosch in South Africa. Such a strange place where you have outragiously photogenic landscape with a shantytown in the foreground.

I am not sure if I can afford all these travelling. It certainly is not sound financial planning. But all these airfare deals are really working for the airlines. I have been buying cheaper tickets, but at the same time Ive been traveling around more, so that sort of evens out. Air asia had a huge sale a few weeks back, and all of a sudden I was buying a return ticket to Hong Kong. No planning what so ever. Who needs planning when a return ticket to Hong Kong is 200 bucks?? And a return ticket to jakarta costs 75 bucks. Thats like buying a bus ticket to penang or something.

I have my tickets booked for this whole year, since two months ago. If not for MAS's "Get the Deal" scheme, I would have booked tickets for half of next year on Air Asia. ("Get the Deal" offers last minute cheap but limited weekend tickets)

Not sure how these airlines do their accounting, but I assume their current cashflow includes advance purchases. I remember not too long ago buying ticket 2 months in advance is considered early. Now people are buying one year in advance! And I notice airlines are selling tickets much further in advance of the actual travel date. Not sure if thats ok, but for me it just does not seem right, even if I cannot explain why.