We spend too much. And the flights are covered - once a year - by DH's work.
We live overseas. It's usually two 1 hour flights and then the 9 hour trans Atlantic flight. It's an 8 hour time change. Sometimes we stay with family but most of our family doesn't have room for us so we often Air BnB a place. We rent cars. There are a lot of meals out (DH's family doesn't cook much). We end up spending at least $3000 for a 10-14 day trip home, usually more like $5000, and, again, our flights are free.
DH mentioned maybe we skip going next year. I am so onboard with that idea. Visiting is not a vacation. For the same price we could go to Spain for a week.
DH just spent $1100 on two tickets (for himself and DD) on one of the few direct flights remaining to his parents' city for a 4-day weekend later this month (Rosh Hashanah).its about 3 hours direct.
DH's parents live overseas. Tickets are usually about $1200 each, but I just heard a rumor of $900 tickets.
We haven't been with DD yet and will probably only go once before they retire in 2 years. It will be a pain, but is important to is to bring DD to the country where DH spent so many years.
They have been coming here 1-2x/year and they stay with us way too long each time.
Post by rupertpenny on Sept 15, 2014 18:46:47 GMT -5
We are looking at spending in the $5k range on airfare (3 tickets) to go back to the states to see our families for Christmas. No hotels, but we probably will have to rent a car. It's 24 hour + trip and a 12 hour time difference. It is going to suck so much with a 16 month old, but I know I would be sad if we didn't go.
I hope to go home about once a year, but I don't think we will do Christmas again after this year. The tickets are more expensive and I'm dreading the craziness of it all.
We fly to visit family. It's about a two-hour direct flight and we're lucky because we have three airline options (five if we use less convenient airports). That creates some price competition. We buy three tickets but we've flown with DD as a lap infant before she turned 2. It's a 14-hour drive so we've always preferred to fly. We typically go up there four times a year. We're lucky that our parents and all but one sibling live close together (we fly to visit that sibling only every two years because we try to coordinate our trips home with her, when possible.)
ETA: I LOVE our Southwest card for this reason. We hardly ever pay for these trips anymore; we just cash in miles. (It helps that I travel for work and we like to travel for fun so we get more bonus points that way.)
My ILs get us tickets with their miles. FIL travels cross country every week for three weeks, then international hit he fourth week, rinse and repeat. So they accumulate miles faster than they can use them.
They also have two cars and MIL doesn't drive, so they lend us a car.
We are very lucky. We would not visit nearly as often if you ILs were not as generous as they are. I am very thankful.