Thanksgiving Travel

Seriously, I may cry.

I'm attempting to book flights for My Husband and I to visit my family this Thanksgiving (his family gets Christmas this year).  Of course he doesn't get the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off, so I'm trying to book after 5pm since the closest airport is 2 hours away and return at some point on Sunday the 27th.  Can I do this for under $1000?  I think not.  I may not be able to do this at all.

It's just so unfair.  What gives the airlines the right to jack up their prices not only on holidays, but on the 10 days surrounding those holidays?!  It's bad enough I'm 1500 miles from my family, most of whom I haven't seen since Christmas, but in order to visit them for a measly 4 days I have to take out a freaking bank loan to pay for it.

If I drive, I have to do it on my own since My Husband doesn't have enough time off to make the two-day trek.  And of course every girl wants to be alone on a dark road in the middle of nowhere 5 months pregnant with her first child.

Sidenote: it's military policy that one cannot use one's vacation time in addition to authorized block leave.  So if My Husband were to request Wednesday off as one of his built up vacation days, he'd be required to take the rest of the holiday weekend from his time as well.  So we have the "choice" of using 0 vacation days or 5.

And even my "in" with Southwest is getting me nowhere...my free flight, courtesy of the amount of money I spend on my Southwest Visa Rewards Card, isn't valid for travel during the week of Thanksgiving.  I had to use it on our Christmas flights (which I booked and still cost us $600 with my airtime being free).

THIS IS SO FUCKING STUPID. 

I hate this.  I hate it.  Why does air travel have to cost me a month and a half's rent?  Because the airlines made some shitty deal with the oil companies when oil was $200 a barrel and now that it's way down they're still paying?  Don't even get me started on the oil companies. 

Of course I could forgo Southwest and pay the $100 round-trip bag fee on any other airline.  I could ship our luggage to my parent's house, but the Postal Service may fold before it got there.

So here's my $1500...for a flight with at least one stop in the middle, getting felt up by security, a plane that won't leave or arrive on time and is more than likely overbooked, with a pilot who's on Facebook while flying, no food or drinks for free and a two-hour trek home after we land. Sign me the fuck up.

I'm so very unhappy with this situation.  If I wasn't so stuck on spending THE ENTIRE CHRISTMAS holiday with my family next year instead of splitting it in half like last year and freaking having second Christmas at my mother-in-law's I'd call the whole thing off and just have Thanksgiving here.

But I haven't seen my family since I found out I was pregnant and I miss them something awful.

Love costs.  Frankly, with the amount love has cost me in the past and undoubtedly will cost me in the future, I can't believe I have anything more to give.