where should i fly using the free round-trip ticket airtran gave me for delaying my flight home by five hours?

San Juan, PR

Seattle

new orleans

does "early summer" mean after memorial day or after june 21?

it means some time after mid-may

San Juan. Next time I go to PR, I'm spending at least 10 days, but you can do a very lovely trip in as little as 4.

san juan sounds like the way to go, but a vegetarian friend of mine took a trip to puerto rico this past year and said it was very very hard to eat veggie there, fyi. she still had a great time!

puerto rico is interesting. i don't really know anything about it but it might be nice to go somewhere outside of the country. would it be crazy hot in the summer?

seattle is definitely an option too, sarah and i have talked about traveling there for a while

Seattle is very, very nice in the early summer.

Could you just be an asshole and fly from Ohare to Midway and back?

you could definitely catch some good grunge bands in seattle.

I picked Seattle because that's next on my list of domestic cities to visit. Also, it's not hot there. Also, they proudly serve Starbucks coffee!

also grunge

DISNEY WORLD

if you get to mpls/stpl i will buy you a drink.

probably some cheap tap beer, but hey, free drink right?

Seattle is an awesome destination, but afaic it's a little early to go there until late June if you want optimal weather and mountain snowmelt. By the powers of science (my homemade chart of where to go when) (and filtered slightly through my preferences), I'd say your best bet is one of:

- anywhere on the I-95 corridor between Boston and DC
- Pittsburgh (Fallingwater?)
- Charleston*
- New Orleans (hot)*
- STL (or KC and the Flint Hills)
- Denver
- Vegas (for Bryce/Zion)*
- SF*

* = better on the earlier side

pretty easy to train/drive to STL, tho

i might favor the place that is furthest in air miles (and doesn't require a connection?)

I voted for White Plains in an ironic fashion.

sure it's a touristy place but I can't believe no one has said cancun

wouldn't be caught dead there outside chance of hurricanes

puerto rico and nola are the obv front runners tho could be wicked hot there then - why not go in april eh

KC should probably be struck from my list, and maybe Denver too, at least until June

and SF might not need the asterisk - when in June does the fog start rolling in?

i have 2 free r/t trips from airtran due to their intense incompetence, but i'm so fed up with them that i doubt i'll use the tickets.

That's a good time to go to Miami. I've never been in June, July, August.

depending on how you look at it, either a free ticket is an incentive to go to a more expensive place like NY or SF, or its advantages are canceled out by such a destination

Denver is a underrated gem of a town, but you'll probably need a car to get around.

or to Trail Ridge Road

i can go later than may but i can't go earlier (have classes until may 6)

if you can go anytime in Summer, I'd say go to Seattle, but wait til at least mid-July

akron/canton
someone had to vote for it

also you can fly into cancun and get to a lot of pretty awesome places by bus. i wish i had a free ticket to cancun.

It's cliche, but Las Vegas was a great, cheap trip: Great food and I recommend the Fashionistas live show, and one of the Cirque ones. It's also one of the few expanding cities in the country, so if you decide to move there, you might find a job. We drove to the Grand Canyon, but that's a long-ass day trip. Worth it, though. But Vegas also strikes me as a cheap ticket anyway, and I went in winter not summer.

Otherwise I've had many memorable trips to Baltimore (great museums, theater, architecture, music), D.C. (ditto, and more fun to walk around, plus national monuments), Branson (Vegas of the Midwest), Vermont (this is going on childhood memory but very pretty), Cleveland (great music scene, radio, Rock Hall), Detroit (actually Dearborne, but wonderful Arabic food, lots of nightlife), Kansas City (MO--though just passing through to family, seemed cool), Los Angeles (actually San Pedro, which was great, Viva Minutemen), Memphis (Stax museum and Sun Studios, etc.), New York (everything), New Orleans (best food anywhere, still beautiful), Orlando (actually St. Pete's, which has nice beaches), San Diego (the Casbah, plus Mexico right across the border), San Francisco (everything), Seattle (lovely), and St. Louis (for hip hop and the arches, though I was there purely for family once and passing through once).

I'd come here to Minneapolis in May or September, not summertime, though we do have lots of movies and music in the park, and that huge State Fair, which I've finally started going to every year. May is a lively month here, and there's always lots happening here in September-October, tons of music and film festivals.

My vote: Puerto Rico. I've never been.

I left out Boston, my birthplace, but it seems easy to get trapped in a super touristy cycle there. I'm sure it's a cool town if you know where to go.

What I would do is fly into Denver, rent a car, and then drive south down I-25 to New Mexico, eating lots of Mexican food and stopping about halfway down to poke around the town where I grew up. I don't remember you growing up there too, but if you did, you might enjoy this as much as I would. Actually, even if you didn't grow up there, you still might enjoy it, although I would recommend skipping the part about stopping where I grew up. Unless you find me, really, really interesting, in which case then you should stop again.

There is a live show of Fashionistas?

With cocksucking and anal?

It's mostly the driving through Colorado and hanging out in New Mexico part that I'm in favor of, is what I'm saying. Also the Mexican food. And maybe some Sonic along the way. Do you like things that are flat and dry? Because if not, you'd want to skew west a few miles, and then it wouldn't be flat anymore.

Wow I just talked right around Abbott being way more interesting than me

New Mexico is a bittersweet place.

i'd probably head for PR, just 'cause.

nola is still fairly bearable in mid-may. my only trip to Seattle was may '06 and the weather was (unseasonably?) amazing.

We drove to the Grand Canyon, but that's a long-ass day trip.

a good idea, esp. if you've never been, but better before Labor Day, and unless you want to go to Havasu or via Rte 66, maybe better to go via Phoenix (read: Flagstaff/Sedona), which is pushing it, temp-wise, by this time of year.

Vermont

not until late June/early July

Cleveland (great music scene, radio, Rock Hall), Detroit (actually Dearborne, but wonderful Arabic food, lots of nightlife)

alternatives to Pittsburgh, I suppose, but n/a lives in one great lakes city - why go to another?

Kansas City

if you don't mind a lot of rain and maybe a tornado

Los Angeles

better than San Diego, but still some May Grey/June Gloom, no? SF better at this time.

Minneapolis

not that far by train/car

my only trip to Seattle was may '06 and the weather was (unseasonably?) amazing.

the southern oscillation at the time was neutral trending towards El Nino. this year La Nina conditions are forecasted thru early 09, such that it may be cooler than average.

What I would do is fly into Denver, rent a car, and then drive south down I-25 U.S. 285 through the San Luis Valley, stopping to check out Great Sand Dunes National Park, to New Mexico

I miss Mexican food/green chili and Sonic!

Hi, kate, are you me?

MAYBE

sand dunes/NM is not a bad idea.

esp. if you had a lot of time/roadtrip inclination, instead of NM, you could go west to Durango/Mesa Verde, then up to Telluride (the bluegrass festival's 6/18-21), then loop back over the Rockies on 70.

there may be a seasonal mountain pass somewhere in there whose dates/surface are problematic

Haha is n/a a fan of NARROW-GAUGE RAILROAD?

STL (or KC and the Flint Hills)

I will buy any ILXor who visits the Flint HIlls a beer, as they are presently my home, but I wouldn't vote for it here. Probably PR would be my choice.

i hope to get there some day, but some day is probably a long way down the road

Seattle certainly would not be a bad place to go in May/June, but in many years it takes until late June/July for it to get really glorious and in some years it's not until August that Summer really comes to the mountains.

(side note to kate78: There are 2 Sonics in the tri-cities now, and one in Spokane - I'm planning a late spring/early summer trip to Pasco for foot-long chili cheese dogs, tots, and limeade. With extra bonus wine tastings thrown in. You should come too.)

There can be some unbearably hot and humid days in Seattle in July and August, but if you are planning on getting out of the city to the ocean or the mountains it's not bad.

there can be unbearably hot and humid days anywhere in the US in July and August, and if you want to be outdoors, Seattle is among the best places to spend them, plus its climate may be cooler than most places this year.

i am, as Jaq says, tho, using Seattle to refer to the region, including islands and mountains

You know, you go on and on and on, Mr. Self-acclaimed Expert, on the place I've actually chosen to live out of everywhere else in the country, and I get really tired of it. Go fuck yourself.

It's cliche, but Las Vegas was a great, cheap trip: Great food and I recommend the Fashionistas live show, and one of the Cirque ones. It's also one of the few expanding cities in the country, so if you decide to move there, you might find a job.

Sooooo not true, unemployment is horrible there right now.

But it's actually a great time to go if you do have some money to spend. You can get a good room pretty cheap.

You know, you go on and on and on, Mr. Self-acclaimed Expert, on the place I've actually chosen to live out of everywhere else in the country, and I get really tired of it. Go fuck yourself.

whoa, Jaq. I go on and on because I've spent a lot of time there. I don't proclaim myself an expert, only share what I know.

and i think you meant self-proclaimed

i have a similar question only confined to the lower 48 states. I've been to south florida and found it "lacking."

I would say visit SF. If you don't trust me cuz I live hre, I would say visit San Juan or Seattle.

Jaq, they're opening a Sonic this winter in Bellingham, but I'll totally go to Pasco for chili-tots. If they open a GoodTimes here, I'm in fast food heaven.

I like "self-acclaimed" a lot! It's clever.

I worry that Sonic is no longer as good as I remember it being back when I last had it in, like ... 1993 or something.

Don't base your vacation on whether or not the city you are travelling to has a Sonic.

In-n-out, on the other hand

Spoken like someone who has had sonic since 1993

Hi-Lo-Precip averages for May thru August:

Chicago: 70/51/3.7, 80/61/4.3, 84/66/3.7, 83/65/3.9
Seattle: 65/48/2.0, 70/53/1.6, 75/56/0.9, 75/57/1.2

ok stfu abt seattle now

sadly, no

I've been to south florida and found it "lacking."

as a self-acclaimed expert, i have independently reached teh same conclusion w/o ever having been there

I'd go to Washington DC because I like seeing monuments and going to museums and such.

NICK & SARAH

GO TO SAN ANTONIO AND RENT A CAR AND DRIVE NORTH A BIT AND GO TO SXSW IN MARCH.

CHICAGO WILL STILL BE GRAY AND AMBER, BUT FLOWERS WILL BE IN BLOOM THERE AND BIRDS WILL BE MIGRATING.

JUST GO TO FREE DAYTIME EVENTS, DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE CRAZY HYPED STUFF.

If you haven't been to New Orleans, definitely go. Even if it's going to be hot and yucky.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

fuck these fucking douchebags

san juan not all it cracked up to be?

the highlights:

* spend like a month arguing with airtran over whether they gave free round trip tickets to everyone on my delayed flight (my (correct) view) or $10 off each ticket (their (incorrect) view)
* after i fax them the card they handed out that has literally no information on it except the confirmation number i had already given them over the phone, they admit we get two free round-trip tickets
* my wife and i decide we will use our free tickets to fly to my sister's wedding in d.c. this summer. she calls, only to be told that we have to wait until the airline releases the seats for purchase with credit tickets. they cannot tell us when this will be, or even give us a rough estimate
* my wife and i take turns calling airtran every other week in hopes of being told the seats we want have been released
* finally, today, they tell me that booking this far ahead of time, we can only fly on tues., weds., or saturday. if we want to fly on friday or sunday (the days we want), we have to wait until no sooner than a month before we want to fly and call in to see if those seats have been released for credit purchase (essentially gambling that the flight won't sell out before they decide to release the seats). no one thought to mention this to us at any point before

sorry your flight was delayed for 5 hours and you didn't get home to chicago until 2:30 a.m. in exchange, here's six months of aggravation

we can only fly on tues., weds., or saturday.

this is a pretty standard restriction

man that sucks n/a

on the other hand: god gabbneb is fucking insane on this thread

Airlines seem to be annoying by definition; British Airways pulled similar shit with me where they offered me 50 pounds off of my next flight after flying us across the Atlantic on a plane with no A/C, then turned around when I went to book my tickets and said, "oh actually we meant 50 pounds off of a price 100 pounds higher than any price you can find online, was that not obvious? you can use that voucher on the in-flight mall tho"

fuckers

yall need to get like a gabbneb and buy yr own planes only way 2 fly ~"~"~"~"~"

u should send an email to the consumerist and they will find u airtran's ceo's home phone number and stuff

Lamp, i'm a simple man of the people - only have a 40XR

there are some cheap fares out there right now, including on AA to (but maybe not from) chicago