Rufus - thank you!
 

While surfing the posts regarding airfare (in the midst of frustration over hitting a $$$ing wall on all of the sites for next May), your helpful "reverse your itinerary" suggestion appeared on another thread. While I was happy with my planned itinerary, I was also very happy to flip it considering your simple but highly effective post just saved me $600+ on 2 tickets.

Thank you so much for the great common sense idea!

Don't you just love this website! It's helped us on our travels in so many ways.

Enjoy your trip.

Wow, that's a huge savings! May I ask what your itinerary was and is now?

See, folks, it really pays to be a devoted Fodorite!

What to go, Rufus.

You can be our "play of the week" Fodorite style!

:)

Have a great trip, Chicago Heather (an by the way, I LOVE your great city!)

I'm so glad that you saw this ... you have no idea how grateful I am.

The trip is a surprise for my mom's birthday next year. Part of the budget issue is that she's a teacher, so we have to wait until the school year is completed and travel in late May/early June. With a budget all laid out and (I thought) ballparking airfare in the higher range, it still was way(!) over that amount.

So, the itinerary was:

Madrid - 4 nights
Granada - 2 nights
Countryside (with car near Ronda) - 4 nights
Seville - 4 nights

Literally, all that was done was reversing the trip and the airfare went down $305 per person. I had searched dozens of sites and off and on during 3-4 weeks.

Not only did I save more than enough money to pay for the rental car, but the connections and layover times are so much better.

So, Rufus is very high on my list right now. Every visit to this site(despite that I thought my logistics/planning skills were pretty good), the posters here provide at least one excellent tidbit that proves invaluable.

Tiff, the welcome mat is always out if you're visiting and would like to meet up for a drink.

Rufus, my mom will thank you, too, because this sealed the deal on the trip really happening. We'll be thinking of you fondly over sangria.

CH--Mrs. Fly is a teacher, too. So we're almost always traveling at the most expensive time of the year. Every trick to save a $ helps.

I'm also a big fan of Chicago--I try to worm my way into any business trip we have that includes the Hog Butcher for the World; City of the Big Shoulders. Well, not during the winter season, but any other time of the year.