This sucks. I had no idea bonus tickets were only allotted "so many" seats per plane and that I should have booked my Christmas trip, apparently, six months ago. I got my free ticket back in July, and apparently I should have booked it right then. I had no idea. I thought I was supposed to wait till it was closer (and I didn't even know in July what dates I'd even want to travel).
So now I have this free plane ticket and no money to pay for a plane ticket home at Christmas. I was so excited to be able to go home for Christmas--Christmas is big in my family, and I really wanted just to go to a place where there was real winter, to have all the fungi be DEAD. After living in a perpetual non-freezing/rainy/dreary winter one year, I just NEED it.
Any ideas for how to find a cheap (and I mean CHEAP) plane ticket to Chicago from Seattle? Travelocity's reporting the cheapest at $400 (which would involve 12 hours of travel each way, and that's just $400 I don't have. Unless I want to spend my freelance money on that, but I was thinking perhaps I should spend that on winter shoes, oil changes, a haircut, and all those other niceties I never have the money for normally. Plus, by the time I get paid for the article (first week of November), the prices will have shot up way past my capability.
Sigh.
I was so excited for this. I've never had a free ticket before. How am I supposed to know stuff like this??
And I just can't stand having another Christmas away from home. Especially not here.