The only reason I’m doing this is because I was offered a $250 flight voucher to fly from Florida to LAX with the airline due to a cancelled flight and having to spend a night at the airport. The voucher has to be used before the end of the semester and has blackout dates during normal school breaks. I plan on sleeping in my rental car, and I estimate total costs will be $150 for the whole trip.
I don’t have classes M,W,F, and I scheduled this trip at least 2 weeks away from the nearest exam.
*Its also a week before my birthday, so I guess I consider this my birthday gift 
Sleeping in the rental car is a terrible, dangerous idea.
Hotels in LA are extremely expensive. I heard you can sleep at rest stops for 8 hrs in California.
I might do some car camping like go to Joshua Tree or Yosemite
Why not go somewhere where you can stay with a friend or relative
What’s the benefit for you? It takes an entire day to fly from Florida to LA, and it takes an entire day to fly back. It’s exhausting. You’ll have 1-2 days there, you’ll have to rent a car. What are you going to do? Sure, it’s free but will it be fun?
I would not do it. This sounds like a free way to get exhausted, fall behind in class, and harm your grades.
You will have enough “free” trips at some point in the future when you have a job that requires travel.
Can you give the travel voucher to a relative or friend? If it is non-transferable, I would just throw it away.
You may not be old enough to rent a car. Do you have a credit card?
Growing up includes learning to properly assess opportunities, not just jump at whatever.
Does it have to be FL to LA? Do you know people in LA?
When o you have to decide - can you wait til you have syllabi (you can’t be sure there won’t be exams!)
How old are you?
Personally I think that would be dangerous and not worth the money. One of the worst mistakes college students do is go on poorly planned/cheap trips and some people literally don’t come back from them.
If you can’t afford safety and the ability to stay longer than a weekend, you really shouldn’t go on the trip. Youd be better off saving your money and doing something during one of your breaks.
I don’t reccomend ANYONE going all the way across the country on a cheap and poorly planned trip. It sounds like a lot can go wrong. Even if you do bring people along, walking into a new city with a tight budget and poorly a planned itinerary can definitely increase your chances of things going terribly wrong.
If you HAVE to take a trip, I’d obviously reccomend flying instead of driving over and I’d recommend maybe finding a hotel outside of LA, you can invite other people and share a bed OR get a sleeping bag and camp out on the floor or like someone mentioned above, plan on doing normal camping at a site… You can catch public transportation to key spots in downtown LA for cheap, basically bus fair.
I mean if ANYTHING you can find a cheap motel. It might be gross but you’ll at least have a locked door.
Someone can see you parked and decide to take advantage and rob you.
But if you HAVE TO stay in your car you should definitely go the camping route and pitch a tent/sleep in your car. There will at least be other campers and perhaps some on call security.
Is it a one way ticket? How much will it cost to get from LA back to FL?
I think $150 sounds low for a 2-3 day car rental, food, gas, campsite fees, and spending money. If that’s all you can afford to spend then you can’t afford the trip right now, especially if the ticket is only one way.
Getting a small discount off the price of an unaffordable vacation is like getting a $3500 grant toward a $15k tuition. If you can’t afford to cover the balance then the discount is worthless to you. I’d give the voucher away or toss it. If you have $150 why not get a couple friends and take a road trip in FL for the weekend?
If you were my child, I would tell you your focus and job right now is school and grades. You already get lots of vacation during college, this one is completely unnecessary. Anything that takes this much (time, energy) from school had better be worth it (worth it: attending a research conference where you are presenting e.g.) not some ill thought out, potentially dangerous and expensive (to you) trip. Spend the weekend studying! Especially if exams are 2 weeks away.
You’re being lured by the alleged FREE aspect of your flight voucher. But it won’t be free, and renting a car for three days, filling it with gas, and eating will absolutely cost more than $150. You are almost certainly under 25 and may be forced to pay for mandatory excess rental car insurance, if they even rent it to you, which they won’t without a major credit card. Your FREE trip is gong to cost you hundreds more than you expect. And you’re going to be totally exhausted in that short amount of time. I think you are best off ignoring the free ticket. Nothing is free.
Also, you do realize that Yosemite is at least 4.5 hours drive from LAX? Depending on when you plan to do this, snow chains will be required some months. Joshua Tree is 3 hours from LAX. Joshua Tree will be dangerously hot for several months of the year. You will not be allowed to sleep in your car inside a national park, which both places are. You are not thinking things through.
Here’s an idea. Try to call the airline that issue the voucher and ask if they’d be wiling to convert the voucher to some miles. Airlines are generally happy to issue miles instead of vouchers for delays and cancellations. Depending on the airline, miles have longer expiration date (some never expire) and can generally be extended easily.
I already have the syllabi
I think I’ll still go for it. Its my senior year and I didn’t spend a night sleeping in the airport in vain :). The $250 covers the round trip ticket. I’ve already asked the airline to extend the expiry date of my voucher by one year, so I don’t think they’ll do it again . Plus, I can study (and often study better), on the 12 hour total plane ride, and was planning on studying at Starbucks during evenings/early mornings, easily making up for at least half of my missed weekend studying. The rental car company I’m renting with has a 21 minimum age, which I am (not a conventional rental company)
All ok except don’t sleep in your car (except possibly when camping in the parks)