An afternoon of travel expoing

So we got this email from our local public radio station, KJZZ, that included tickets to their Travel & Discovery Expo*, and we thought, “Hey, let’s go! Why not?!” Then Phillip and I had a really stressful week and almost skipped it, but I’m glad we went.

We met some really great people, learned a lot of things, and added a whole bunch of places to our “oh, we definitely have to go there” list. (It was already pretty long.)

We showed up just in time for the talk on touring Italy that I had been afraid we’d missed. (Love it when things randomly work out perfectly!) It was given by MariaLaura Boldini Creal of Fantastica Italia. She’s from Italy and had great insights into what makes a great travel experience, as well as insider tips. I planned to just listen but ended up taking notes furiously.

After the talk, we started working our way through the expo hall. I’ve been to some gargantuan, overcrowded expos. This one, however, was a nice, reasonable size – totally doable in an hour or two.

We were there near the end of the day, so the place wasn’t packed out, but there were still plenty of people wandering around. Lots of men wearing Hawaiian shirts and women in very packable-looking travel dresses. I guess going to a travel expo isn’t really enough to signal that you’re interested in travel. You should also look the part. I questioned my tshirt-and-jeans choice.

There were booths for cruise lines, tour companies, various types of lodging, and small travel businesses (I overheard one woman telling the story of following her dream to start hers, and it made my little entrepreneur heart smile).

But my favorites were the ones representing specific towns/regions of Arizona. They just want you to go visit Clarkdale or Bisbee or Globe. Or get out and enjoy the Maricopa County Parks. Or make your way up to the northeast corner of the state and take in the sights and/or shopping on the Navajo Nation.

We met Freeman Fry, who is on a mission to turn Ajo around. He’s working on attracting new development, spreading the word about his town, and giving it a facelift. He organized a team to repaint every building in town. Seriously. We’ve gotta get down to Ajo.

Another booth I was really excited to see (and did not expect) was Arcosanti’s. We were only able to chat briefly with Kate, who was representing, but I’m hoping she can shed some more light on the disparity between the myth surrounding the place and the really nice day we had there (which I’ll tell you more about soon).

Speaking of nice days, from catching up with Phillip on the train ride over to dreaming about future travels on the expo floor to sitting outside afterwards eating granola bars in the shade, it turned out to be a really relaxing, refreshing afternoon. Almost like a teeny tiny trip of its own.

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*Disclosure: We received free KJZZ Travel & Discovery Expo tickets because we’re members of KJZZ. Opinions in this post are my own.

**Additional disclosure: Navajo Nation Shopping Centers, Inc. gave us a really sweet water bottle. But, don’t worry, I didn’t let it influence me.

May 9, 2014

Can you get a refund on airfare if the price drops?

If the price falls on your airfare and you’ve already bought your ticket, does it make a sound? (Cha-ching?)

I had heard that if you booked a ticket and then the price went down, there was some way to get a refund for the difference. This came to mind when I was worrying about how early to buy plane tickets for my BlogHer trip. I wondered if it was a real thing or an urban legend (a la angry naked hippies at Arcosanti).

They do exist (the refunds – not the angry hippies) but only under very specific circumstances, and they’re increasingly rare. Here’s how to increase your chances on spotting airfare price drop refunds in the wild.

Read the fine print (for real this time)!

Here are some things to keep an eye out for:

Is the ticket refundable, partially refundable, or nonrefundable? Policies can vary within an airline depending on what type of ticket you buy. Hint: If it’s a low price ticket, it’s probably nonrefundable.
Refunds are often in the form of a voucher or credit towards a future flight (especially if you’re buying cheap tickets), not actual cash or money back on your card.
Some airlines charge hefty change fees that may outweigh your potential refund or require the price to drop a certain minimum amount before it’s eligible.
The lower fare may have to be on the exact flight you booked originally.
Advance purchase may be required for a refund.

With all this in mind, you may be able to purchase a ticket that offers some kind of refund if prices later drop. This made me feel better about buying tickets earlier than recommended.

Examples from actual airlines

Before I bought my tickets, I checked into the policies of these carriers (because they had low fares for cities I was flying to). Here’s how they apply some of the rules above:

Alaska Airlines: If you book via their site and find a lower fare there within 24 hours, you can request a refund for the difference. After that, lower fares for the same itinerary are eligible for a credit towards a future flight or – if you have a fully refundable ticket – a refund in the original form of payment.
Southwest does not charge change fees, so you should be able to just rebook if you find a lower fare on their site. Depending on the ticket type, the difference will either be refunded to the original form of payment or be issued as credit towards a future flight.
U.S. Airways has a “lower fare guarantee,” but they deduct change fees if you try to take them up on it. Change fees are $150-$200 per passenger for domestic flights, and $150-750 per passenger for international flights. So the lower fare would have to be a whole bunch lower than what you paid for it to be worthwhile, which seems unlikely – even on the best possible day.

How do you know if the fare drops?

You can check online again when you think it’s likely to be higher, sign up for fare alerts from your airline (if they offer them), or sign up for a fare alert service. Although I haven’t tried any of them at this point (and can’t vouch for them), I came across a few services for email fare alerts while I was researching: Airfare Watchdog, FareCompare, and Yapta.

More information

If you want to keep reading, here are a few more resources to check out:

Getting a Refund When Airline Ticket Prices Drop (article)
Airline rules for obtaining a voucher (list of airline refund rules)
Chart: Airline fare drop refund policies (this seems a little out of date, but I still found it to be a helpful starting point)

Have you ever gotten a fare drop refund? Or tried a fare alert service? Leave a comment about your experience – I’d love to hear about it!

Disclosure: This post is for informational purposes only. The airlines can change their policies at any time, so you’ll want to do your own research. I did not receive any compensation from any of the companies listed and am not endorsing any of them.

May 4, 2014May 9, 2014

When to book flights

I started researching the best times to purchase airfare, since I had some flights to book for my BlogHer trip this summer.

While theories on the best window for buying plane tickets differ, most seemed to recommend purchasing 2-6 weeks ahead of your travel and caution against booking your flight too far in advance. (More details at the bottom of the post.)

I learned this 12 weeks ahead of my trip. I really wanted to get my airfare taken care of and move on to the next thing on my list, but this made me worry I’d be purchasing too early and regret it if prices went down later.

However, as I thought about it and did additional research, I realized there’s more to consider.

airfare-infographic_angieslist — Via Angie’s list.

Before you book your flight, think about this:

How low? – Those lower fares during ideal times are less than 6% lower than average. That’s about an $18 difference on a $300 flight.
Averages aren’t guarantees – The fact that research has shown when prices have tended to drop in the past isn’t a guarantee the same will happen for your flight. When to buy is still a gamble.
Holidays – When it comes to holiday travel (and possibly summer travel too), all bets are off and the earlier you book the better.
Availability – You may have fewer choices about when you fly as weeks pass and flights fill up. If specific dates and times are important to you, you might want to book sooner to dibs a seat at your ideal time. (For example, I’m looking at certain flight times to make my upcoming trip itinerary work better. Also, I should watch out for early flights.)
Peace of mind – For me, the relief of having this taken care of and off my plate outweighed the amount of potential savings I imagined could come from waiting.
Refunds – Whether you can get a refund for a fare drop is another topic for another post, which I’ll be writing soon. (Subscribe or check back to see when it’s up.) [UPDATE: My post on airfare refunds is up now!]

In the end, I added all this up and decided to buy my tickets about 11 weeks ahead of my flight. It wasn’t what any source recommended, but it made the most sense for me and this particular trip.

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When different sources say to buy plane tickets:

A 2012 study by the Airlines Reporting Corp. found that airlines offer the lowest fares 6 weeks before departure and the highest 1 week out.
An infographic from Angie’s list compiled information from a number of sources and recommended 6-8 weeks out.
Airfare tracking service FareCompare says to book domestic flights on a Tuesday at 3pm EST – but not earlier than 3 or 4 months out or later than 2 weeks out.
CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg says to book within 45 days (about 6 weeks) of your departure at Wednesday 1 am in your airline’s time zone. (Really.)

April 29, 2014April 29, 2014

The myth of Arcosanti: are there angry naked hippies living in the desert?

You can live in Phoenix and totally forget Arcosanti is there, just an hour outside the city. And then one day you’ll be driving north on I-17 to somewhere cooler, and you’ll see the sign for the turn off with these mysterious concrete structures in the distance.

Then you’ll start thinking about where to stop for lunch, and it will fade again into the fog of your memory.

On the rare occasions it came to mind, Phillip and I both had gotten this idea that it was some kind of New Age hippie commune with unspecified weird stuff going down. Growing up, seeing that I-17 exit sign was as close as I got to Arcosanti. I remember my mom making a vague comment once about people there not always being clothed.

So New Age hippie nudist colony.

And then one day just a few years ago, Phillip and I spotted an entry in our beloved Arizona Family Field Trips guidebook for Arcosanti, which it listed as “suitable for all ages” with visiting hours and a cafe. Not many New Age hippie nudist colonies can say the same.

A little online research confirmed the visiting hours – and left us with the impression that people there were pretty hardcore about their environmental ideals.

Despite this image of the New Age hippie nudist colony improbably populated by militant environmentalists, our curiosity got the better of us, and we planned to stop there on the way back from an upcoming trip.

But we got behind schedule. By the time we stopped for food one exit away, it was dark out and well past Arcosanti’s published visiting hours.

Phillip still wanted to go. I almost choked on my chicken sandwich. “Now?!”

This, of course, is typical of us – his “We’re here, why not?” attitude and my fear of militant nudist hippies.

He finally convinced me we should just drive out there and see what happened.

So instead of safely getting back on the freeway to head home, we passed underneath it and eventually got to an open gate with an Arcosanti sign. With McDonald’s and the freeway now well behind us and an unlit dirt road through the desert ahead, it was like the border between the familiar glitter of fast food capitalism and the murky counterculture beyond. We glanced at each other and then continued into the darkness.

“Do you think they have a lookout?” I felt exposed now that our headlights were the only thing not blending in to the blackness around us. “Will they come out and stop us?”

“Probably not.” Phillip drove on, unfazed.

Finally, we reached an open space near some walled concrete buildings. A dim, eerie light emanated from somewhere in the complex. We stepped out of the car. I tried to close my car door quietly, but it didn’t matter. It still seemed to echo through the night.

It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, since Phillip gave his door a carefree slam a moment later.

We peeked over a wall and to see the top of one of the arced structures.

As the breeze shifted, we could hear this ethereal flute music. It was startling and yet exactly what you’d expect to hear when you sneak up on a commune in the desert. We looked at each other like, “Are you hearing this too?” We listened for a few moments. I was wondered if it was an after-hours concert, spirit-summoning ritual, or just what a lone militant nudist hippie does with his downtime.

The wind must have shifted again, because then we could hear dishes clanking from what must’ve been the cafe. The sound brought us back to earth. Even militant nudist hippie colonies have dishes to do after dinner.

We considered sneaking around a little more, but we knew that people did live there. Whatever kind of weird angry naked hippie mystical flute-playing stuff they were into, they deserve to have their privacy respected. Plus, the setting was just plain creepy. So we got back in the car and drove back towards the freeway lights and then home.

Even if it meant that Phillip was right, I was glad we went. I was still unsure if the place was filled with lonely hippies or New Age nudists or militant flutists or what, but I was relieved that we hadn’t been confronted by anything more than the sound of an otherworldly flute over the silent desert.

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Note: I don’t have photos from this first trip to Arcosanti, since it was so dark. Post photos are from when we went back in the daytime – and got some answers!

I’ll be posting about what we found out soon! Keep an eye out here, on Twitter, or subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it!

April 22, 2014April 17, 2014

Arts and Flowers 2014

For four days every year, flowers sprout up throughout the Phoenix Art Museum. Okay, they don’t literally sprout. But fresh flowers do appear one Thursday afternoon.

Leading up to the Arts & Flowers event, floral designers create works of art from natural materials – flowers, tree boughs, baskets, stones, and even vegetables. Each piece is inspired by and in response to a work in the museum’s collection. This year also included a floral couture show (Savage Botanicals) and a bonsai exhibit.

I’d originally heard about it from my friend Karin, who has participated the last few years, but I just hadn’t made it over there. So I was excited when my Craft Hack group decided to go during Phoenix First Friday. There’s nothing like having a set time and people to meet to actually get you to go somewhere.

I took the light rail over and met the group at the cafe just as they were finishing up there. Then we started winding our way through the museum, enjoying all the Arts, but also scanning for the & Flowers like we were on safari.

Some of them were very literal interpretations of the original work, others more abstractly captured a certain aspect of it. There was also this interesting contrast between the solid permanence of the paintings, ceramics, and sculpture – some which had lasted centuries – and the organic and ephemeral nature of the arrangements, which could only exist for a matter of days.

I did my best taking a few photos, but it was tricky to get good ones with the lighting, crowds, etc. If you want to see more photos, my friend Eileen posted a bunch on Facebook, or you can check out the Instagram hashtag #artsflowers14.

Phillip had planned to meet us after work. By the time he got there and found parking, we were on the second floor. I’ve been to the Phoenix Art Museum several times, but not often enough to ever remember that there are two parts to the second floor, and they don’t connect. It’s a statement on our modern digital lives and the disconnect with past generations – or some artsy reason like that probably. I actually have no idea why the place is so hard to navigate, so I made that up.

Anyway, while I’m on the phone with him, wandering around, trying to figure out where he is, I totally lose the group. I finally flag down a guy in a museum polo, who explains how to get him to where I was. The Craft Hackers probably thought I ditched them for my man. I love Phillip, but that was not my intention. I’m not a ditcher. I am, however, pretty good at getting lost. (Have I mentioned that here before? That could be a post of its own. Maybe more than one. I’m adding a getting lost tag now.)

So I showed Phillip the highlights of my wing of the second floor. I said hello to Karin for the second time that evening and spent more time checking out the details of her miniature Italian garden. Then we worked our way over to the second second floor, where there didn’t seem to be any flowers.

We did find more in the Asian collection on the first floor. We also talked with a couple more of the floral artists. They were eager to chat about their work and answer questions.

Around this time, we decided we really needed food. We’d checked out the menu of the museum ahead of time, and it had some solid, clearly marked gluten-free options. The thing we didn’t realize is they close at 8:30 pm, but they stop serving food at 8:00. From 8-8:30 (when we got there), you can only order drinks and prepackaged cookies. Sad trombone.

We wrapped up at the museum, and then finished off the evening at Pita Jungle, which is open until 11pm on First Fridays, has reverse happy hour starting at 9, and is awesome with dietary restrictions and substitutions. (They’re not paying me to talk about them. I was just super excited to finally eat!)

Anyway, I do wish a few things had gone differently. That’s life, though. It’s not perfect. But any evening that starts with friends, flowers, and an art museum, and ends with my husband, a plate of hummus, and perfect patio weather is not a bad one in my book.

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P.S. If you’d like a heads up on awesome cultural events like this, that’s exactly the kind of thing that goes into our new monthly newsletter. You could have even met up with us at the museum for this! And then I could’ve lost you while I was looking for Phillip. See? Fun times!

You can sign up on the sidebar on the right or on our newsletter page.

Things to know about visiting Phoenix Art Museum:

Photos are allowed (without flash).
First Friday evenings are always free, so they’re especially crowded.
Parking can be a hassle during big events. The light rail is your friend. (Post on this coming soon!) There’s a stop across the street from the museum.
Check the museum’s events calendar to find out what’s going on when you’d like to go. If we’d had time, we could have also bought tickets to see the Hollywood Costume exhibition, which was going on at the same time. Or you might choose to avoid big events and go when it’s less crowded.
The museum restaurant, Palette, has a menu that includes gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options, but they close before the museum and may stop serving food earlier.
The upper floors are in 2 separate wings that don’t connect. Walking from the North Wing to the South Wing on the second floor/upper level is not a thing you can do.
During Arts & Flowers there are tons of museum staff (or are they volunteers?) around, and they are super helpful!