I love MS Money. I was taking a few minutes to look at my travel expenses this year. Basically, I took several short vacations of 3 to 5 days, and one long vacation this year.

I was particularly interested in how much I paid for my short vacations to York, PA where my expenses were really limited to my flights, my transportation to and from the airport, and meals.

My 2007 AirTran Flights

1. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - February 2007 - $120.80
2. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - April 2007 - $149.40
3. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - May 2007 - $122.80
4. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - July 2007 - $113.80
5. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - August 2007 - $158.80
6. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - November 2007 - $138.80
7. Roundtrip from Boston to Baltimore - December 2007 - $134.80

Total 1 way flights: 14

Total $pent on AirTran: $939.20

Average $pent per flight: $67.06 (Rounded up to the nearest cent)

My AirTran $avings

It is difficult to calculate the true cost of savings because of the increase in the airfare during 2007 due to the price of oil. For the purpose of calculating my savings, I will be using the lowest regular coach fare (from Boston to Baltimore and vice versa) as of December 7th, 2007. $169.00

If I use $169.00 for each flight to calculate my savings, that means the total “retail” cost for flying from Boston to Baltimore was $2366.00.

By planning and taking advantage of the AirTran discounted program, I managed to pay only $939.20 which translate to a savings of $1426.80. (Check out my article about the AirTran discount program here.)

My AirTran Membership Benefits

Enrollment in the A+ membership program is free so I signed up for it immediately after my 2nd round trip flight realizing it was a good value. AirTran rewards you 1 point for each one way flight you take.

So to date, I have accumulated 11 A+ points. I recieved 1 bonus point for one of my flights in August. I need to contact AirTran to make sure they credited my bonuses properly. (They usually credit bonus points 4 to 8 weeks after the date of your flight.)

With 8 A+ points, I basically earned a free 1-way flight anywhere in the U.S. aboard AirTran.

My 2007 Peter Pan Fares

It is far much more economical for me to take the coach from Falmouth to the airport and back than to drive and park for more than 1 day. You can read more here about getting from Boston to Falmouth.

A typical one way fare is $27.00 unless you purchase a round-trip fare then it would cost $47.00 which is a savings of $7.00. It doesn’t sound like much but it adds up when you factor in my flights to Baltimore.

• 7 Round-trip Coach = $329.00
• 14 One-way Coach = $378.00

Because of the online savings, as you can see, I saved roughly an equivalent of 1 round-trip ticket or $49.00.

The only downside to Peter Pan Bus Lines aside from no routes to Never-Neverland is no frequent traveler program.