Frustratingly the tickets I wanted must have been sold in the last few days, so I wound up paying more in order to get decent times*, but I now have flights booked for Wiscon!

I'll be landing just before 7pm on the Thursday night, attending the writing workshop on the Friday morning, spending the weekend soaking up panels, keeping the company of many people, and buying a large quantity of books, before flying away at about 3pm on the Monday.

I think, in order to maximise socialising time, and thus justify the money spent on flights and hotel, I will not be sleeping very much. >.>

*Which is, of course, my fault for booking two and a half weeks before I depart. An expert in procrastination am I.

Oh god, I just noticed that my layover on the way home from Wiscon is only one hour long oh jesus fuck.

Oops.

The one on the way in is only two and a half hours, and I'll have to go through immigration+customs during that one, but I can help that partially by not checking in luggage (taking a bigger bag, empty and folded, inside my small carry-on bag). And I intend to plead with the nice people on the airline to help me queue jump at i+c.

On the way back, though, if I want to buy any books, I'm certain I'll need to check in my luggage.

And somehow make a one-hour layover.

Ooooops.

*chews of fingernails hands in a fit of panic*

*moves onto arms*

So, I should find out size restrictions on size of US -> UK carry-on bags. They may be less strict than UK -> US. Anecdata regarding US -> UK, specifically departing Chicago O'Hare and with United Airlines, please? I'm a pretty awesome suitcase packer, and other than books will not be carrying much stuff, and I can wear all my clothes if need be, so I ~can~ cram quite a lot of stuff in. And, I guess, it may be better to buy fewer books than to check in luggage. *woe*

And, obviously, I will be taking out travel insurance to cover costs incurred should any flights be delayed. Ahh, if only travel insurance were useful and gave good cover for this. I'll still get some (medical costs cover!), but it looks like it'll be pretty useless if my connections go awry.

ETA: I've settled on just taking a carry-on bag. The increased likelihood of making my connections kind of outweighs the woe at having to buy fewer books.