We weren't sure we'd be able to fit a Spring Break trip to Iceland for all five of us into the budget.
Thanks to our last trip, we better knew what to expect for food costs and other variables. So, we knew being in Iceland we could stay in budget but getting there was shaping up to be the problem.
We could not be very flexible with dates, we had to work within the kids' Spring Break from school. And, of course, there are five of us.
In our first searches for our ideal 8-night trip of Friday-Saturday, airfare was coming in at $6715! That wouldn't do.
The only wiggle room we had on dates with an 8-night trip was to shift to Saturday-Sunday. But that would mean getting home close to 9p and everyone having to wake early for school and work the next morning. Not ideal. However, that shift did save over $1800! So, we'd deal, for sure. Airfare now sat at $4865. Which, still felt a bit tight. But it was only a little more than we'd paid per person for our last trip (and, of course, it is expected for prices to have increased over time). We were, technically, fitting in the budget, now. Still, we weren't sure we could commit.
We looked into other departure/arrival combinations and we could find some slightly cheaper airfares that way but we didn't like the idea of shortening the trip. With airfare being the largest expense, we wanted to maximize our time actually in Iceland.
Then, John suggested we wait to see if they run any sales for Black Friday. I was pretty sure they wouldn't. After all, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Iceland, why would Black Friday even be a thing for IcelandAir?
Well, it is a thing!!! I'm so glad John thought to wait.
It's not even Black Friday, yet, but they are already running a huge "Black Friday" sale! We were just able to book airfare for the five of us for $3356! That is less per person than our last trip! And, now we have enough cushion in the budget to feel comfortable.