Thank you, Xin Fu (or Welcome to my cheap world)
Anne Marie this week was accepted into her post-graduate nurse practitioner program. Congratulations, of course! So, we're vacationing in Philadelphia this Summer. Well, vacationing may be a bit of a misnomer for as Anne Marie will be spending most days in orientation and classes for her post-graduate program. But, Lauren and I will be enjoying the children's museum and Sesame Street Place in the sweltering heat, which is fair to call a vacation. 
Now, is it possible that some of you who haven't figured out how cheap I am from my description of my in-car GPS navigation system, camper, bar stools, and DVD player? If you haven't figured it out yet... here's how it is...
Of course, I could have gone to Orbitz.com this week and selected the cheapest air/hotel/car package for $2,636 with amazing features like two overnight flights and a Howard Johnson hotel in charming, (kind of) nearby Bellmawr, New Jersey. Instead, based on my confidence in Anne Marie being accepted (it's like wagering on the sun rising, in my opinion), I have been watching for deals and shopping around for months.
The flight was the easy part. Prices (currently $360 a person at best) dipped to $250 a person about two months ago. I went beyond that by opting for a red-eye flight there (leaving Portland at midnight and arriving at 11:30 Sunday morning) and getting $229 a person. With all day Sunday to recover before classes on Monday, I think it'll work out. Anyhow, the Orbitz deal included flights across midnight both ways.
The car rental was only slightly trickier. I set up a handful of email addresses so I could repeatedly underbid myself on a car rental deal on priceline.com, which is normally not allowed. As a result, I was able to get a Compact class car for $13 a day. Sweet!
But the real hard work and the real coup was finding a place to stay. Anything in Philly above one star (that is, not riddled with drug deals and hourly room rental customers) is $71 a night plus tax (that is, at least $85 a night, if you don't know just how bad the room taxes are). Staying a bit away in New Jersey saves you $10 or $15 a night, but New Jersey has always failed to sound charming to me. Maybe I'd love it... maybe I'll never know. After working priceline.com, checking for deals on dorms and student housing and trying to cut a deal with bed and breakfast places, you'll hardly believe my creative solution.
Xin Fu is a Chinese PhD candidate in statistics at UPenn's Wharton College (of Business). He'll be away for the Summer from July 15 - August 15, so he posted to craigslist to see if someone would sublet his apartment during that strange and limited period. Happily, I had been watching craigslist Philadelphia and swooped down on his offer with my greatest speed, charm and persuasiveness. Despite having gotten "a lot" of people interested, by the end of the day, he agreed to rent it to me for $515, even though he's never met me or spoken to me. In fact, we probably will never meet, which is curious. But, it'll give him some money for the Summer and gives me a furnished apartment for about $39 a day with no room tax. Thank you, Xin Fu!
Final price for my cheap travel package... $1384... about half price and better all around! After having my eye on this for months, I just had to gloat. I love the creative solution. I'm sure that Anne Marie is just happy that the creative solution didn't involve a cardboard box and ramen noodles.
A compact?
For the love of God, why, man, why?
-ajb
Comment by ajb — 05/26/2005 10:29 PM
ajb, I'm going to presume you are confounded that I didn't choose a better class of rental car. However, given how cheap I am, you have to understand that I even had to cringe in deciding on a Compact (Dodge Neon-esque) instead of an Economy (Geo Metro-esque). After I totally beat them up on the price of the Compact, they would only offer to upgrade me to the new class (Mid-Size) for an additional $15 a day (more than double). In actuality, I have discovered that they often run out of Compacts, so you end up getting a free upgrade to Mid-Size anyhow. Stay tuned in July to see how much of a coup or a disaster this becomes.
Comment by Michael — 05/26/2005 10:40 PM
Having been in Philly in the summer, I predict disaster, as the A/C in a Compact will utterly fail to cope, leaving you drowning in a pool of your own perspiration as you curse your frugalness (see pevious comment for a good starting point), wishing in vain for a v-6 Full-size (which, as we all know, is 4 cylinders to run the car, and 2 to run the air conditioner).
But that's just me.
heh.
-ajb
Comment by ajb — 05/27/2005 12:14 AM
Once again Craigslist saves the day. I've found my last two apartments, and last two jobs on Craigslist. Gotta love 'em.
Comment by m/a/z/e — 05/27/2005 11:26 AM
I'm guessing this means there will be no weblogger meetup in July. This is a good thing, because it means that, when I'm in Indiana over the summer, I'll only have to miss two meetups rather than three.
Comment by Tvindy — 05/28/2005 12:17 PM
My girlfriend advises me that UPenn isn't a very good area, but that it really can vary from block to block. Of course, I have heard that there are few good areas of Philly. Caveat Emptor
Comment by Chris — 05/31/2005 12:01 AM
[...] One week from today, we'll be on our way to Philadelphia for 2 weeks. In case I start to miss farm life while we're away, I will, hopefully, remember to look back at this entry. [...]
Pingback by Following Edge » Farm and Pheasant — 07/10/2005 8:38 AM
[...] We do have quite the adventure in front of us. First, we'll go to Palmer's birthday party. He's a friend of Lauren from school, and I've come to like his parents quite a bit. Then, we'll drive 2 hours to Portland, meet up with my mother (who is the angel who will take us to the airport), and have dinner with Barry, a blogger, cartoonist, and artist from Portland who I'm excited to have working on some artwork for this blog. It should be neat to meet him. Then, we'll have a brief break before we head to the airport and catch our 11:45PM flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth. Then, after breakfast, on another flight to Philadelphia. By that time, I expect we'll have just enough energy to drag ourselves to the rental car, stop at the Greyhound to pick up a box of bedding and personal stuff (that I shipped to myself on Tuesday), pick up a key from Juntian Xu, and collapse at Xin Fu's apartment for some serious sleep. [...]
Pingback by Following Edge » On our way... — 07/16/2005 11:17 AM
[...] We have safely arrived in Philadelphia and settled ourselves into the studio apartment. The trip was avoided any major disasters, but the last 36 hours has involved only 2 hours of sleep, vomit, diarrhea (thankfully not mine), laundry for moldy pillows, thunder, lightning, pouring rain, and serious cleansing of a very dirty bathroom here (thank you, Anne Marie). [...]
Pingback by Following Edge » Arrival — 07/17/2005 5:43 PM
[...] We spent the morning today packing and cleaning Xin's apartment in preparation for our flight back to Oregon this afternoon. [...]
Pingback by Following Edge » Goodbye Philadelphia — 07/30/2005 7:03 AM
[...] In a move that would cause Michael’s wallet to seal itself shut, I went looking for a luxury/premium car rental today. Cruising the usual suspects (Avis/Budget/you know the rest) I noticed they all seem to have tacked mileage charges onto the cars. Some folks gave you 350mi, some 450. Enterprise was generous enough to give you unlimited miles…unless, you left the state, in which case your whole trip reverted to a mileage charge. Nice, eh? [...]
Pingback by thebucks.net » Car Rentals — 03/04/2006 3:22 AM