Off to Switzerland!

Well its official. I booked two tickets to Switzerland today.

Melissa and I will depart from Ottawa on the 17th of December (from the Ottawa Via station, for a quick train to Montreal) and then we will return on the 22nd.

This should be fun!, now to decide what kind of car to get, time for a poll!

What kind of car should Melissa and Mike get in Switzerland
(I will go with National car rental as I have an emerald club with them so I should get special treatment)
1. Mini 3-Door/Manual/No Air Hyundai Atos 1.0 or similar $234 SFr
2. Economy 3-Door/Manual/No Air Smart Forfour 1.2 or similar $250 SFr
3. Compact 5-Door/Manual/Air Peugeot 307 1.6 or similar $263 SFr
4. Compact Wagon 5-Door/Manual/Air Peugeot 307 Estate 1.4 or similar $289.44 SFr
5. Compact 5-Door/Automatic/Air Renault Megane 1.4 or similar $295 SFr
6. Intermediate 4-Door/Automatic/Air Mercedes A 1.8 or similar $335 SFr
7. Standard Wagon 5-Door/Manual/Air Citroen C5 Estate 2.0 or similar $361 SFr

Cost is not really an issue, because the company will reimburse me, should I try and push it and go big and get an intermediate? or should I go for the fun and get a smart car!


Oh P.S, for really cheap flights to Switzerland check out www.swiss.com. they have packages from about $580.00 return (if you book in time) hint hint nudge nudge for those that will come visit us!

More work than I expected

So this morning I receive an email from the guy in Switzerland. It is a reply to an email I sent on Friday indicating my plans, and that it is not finalized yet, but close. This is the reply:

Mike,
It sounds like a good plan. Please let me know when you have confirmed your
itinerary.
We will reserve and pay for the hotel; and reimburse you for the cost of a
rental car and coach airline seats.
I look forward to seeing you.
..Ray


hmmmmmm okay, hotel booked, and reimburse for a rental car and..... and what airline seats!, hmmmmm according to my last post airline seats are almost 5 grand! Well that's a lot, I sure hope I can trust these guys to reimburse me. From what I know about the company and my feeling on them it is legit, but still .... A leap of faith? Or what?

So I am having a hard time with Mel's 850 return, I am sure it exists but where is it. So far I have found a few flights for 2k from Ottawa, and 1500 from TO. I can get a bit cheaper if I segment it, say Chicago to Geneva and then separate flight from Ottawa to Chicago.

As for car rental, I did find a smart car for four that may be fun to drive.

So I just sent an email to my contact asking for more details, lets see what the response is.

now time for bed, as its close to 2 am!

M

Our trip to Switzerland

So as you all know by now this company that I have had two telephone interviews with has invited Melissa and I to Switzerland to check it out. Now aside from two heavy suit cases stuffed with Ryan and Matt here is my dilemma.

The suggested date for me to have the interview was the 19th of December (Monday).

I am not sure exactly how this is going to work, I sent an email back just now saying that I am looking at flying from Ottawa or Toronto on either the 16th (Friday)or the 17th(Saturday) and then returning on the 20th Tuesday. Not alot of time to look around, I may want to push this back a day and leave the 21st so we can look at apartments.

So I decide to research good old air Canada’s web site. What I found was that a flight from both Ottawa or Toronto to Geneva Switzerland is a staggering $5553.00 per person! Wow, I am glad I am not paying for this. If we select Executive the price does drop to $3499.00 per person (go figure, only in Canada).

As I said, we have a couple of options. Leaving from Toronto. Most flights that I checked out go from Toronto to Frankfurt or Munich, then a second flight to Geneva. Once in Geneva it would likely be a train to Lausanne. The flight typically leaves Toronto in the evening 5-9pm and would arrive in Geneva in the afternoon the next day. If we decide to leave from Toronto, Mel would have to come here and we would likely fly out on the Friday to arrive in the afternoon on the Saturday.

The other option is from Ottawa. This would mean I would have to go to Ottawa, likely after work on Friday and fly out on Saturday. but I may want to consider taking the Friday off... not sure yet but here are my options according to the air Canada site.

On Friday
Ottawa - Montreal- Frankfurt - Geneva or Ottawa - Toronto - Munich - Geneva. Both options are leave early Friday afternoon (~3-4pm) and arrive in Switzerland around noon on Saturday.

On Saturday
mostly just Ottawa - Toronto - Munich - Geneva. leave early Friday afternoon (~3-4pm) and arrive in Switzerland around noon on Sunday.

Now the Ottawa side of things would be good as well because I may be able to take some extra time off and stay in Ottawa for the rest of the week to spend with my family. If I do this, it will be hard to ask for the Friday off as well as the entire week. Plus most of the trips go through Toronto, and that will just suck taking a bus to Ottawa only to fly back to Toronto the next day.

The only other option is to have them split our tickets so that I fly from Toronto, and Mel flies from Ottawa. That is always an option, but seems strange asking for it.

There may be other international flights, that I do not know of that air Canada does not show me, but likely they will buy the tickets for me and I just pick them up electronically at the airport.

I need to get back to these guys soon, any advice? Some of this depends on what time I can book off from work (technically I only have 3 days left for the year so....)
MikeG