Travel, airlines, and being a cheapskate

I am always thinking about traveling. One of the fun things to do most days is to get on Google Travel and have it find a week-long trip six months out. Fun to get ideas. But then you start to look at the prices. A few are quite cheap. But look at the airline you are flying on. A lot of the cheap flights are on Spirit and Frontier, both have low prices but kill you on fees. 

It’s a thing.  Junk fees are piling up from airlines and rental cars to accommodations.  The price looks cheap on the initial booking site, but as you get closer to paying the tab, the fees start to pop up.  I was looking up AirBnB’s in Steamboat Springs.  The price looked good per night, but once you added in the resort tax, local taxes, and cleaning fees; the price almost doubled.  No thanks, I’ll sleep in the van.

But the cheap airlines all have the worst ratings for customer service.  I pity the folks that have that job.  Sure that most don’t last long.  Or they just become tough as nails.

You don’t know how nice a free beverage and a bag of nuts is, until you don’t get it. If I was running out of town, never to return, taking nothing with me, I might choose one of these airlines. But then again, they are both known for canceling flights, so the cops will get you at the airport.

I flew Spirit once to get back to Chicago for my mom’s funeral. I packed super light, only a personal bag. That made it a basic fare. I had to reschedule the flight once, which was even more expensive. I think the round trip still cost me over $200. They barely gave me credit for the flight I had to change. The flight had the worst, tiniest seat ever. The four-hour flight lasted too long (two hours was just being stuck in the plane).

I am one of those people who has said, “one and done.” When you add up the fees, you can get a flight on a better airline that includes a checked bag and free seat selection. (Plus an in-flight snack.) Cheap is not worth it, and everyone is pissed off on the plane to top it off. Look up any Karen airline moment; nearly all seem to be on a budget airline. You will get the person that wants you to move because they refused to pay for a seat choice.

I might be cheap, but I’m not stupid. I can stand a cheap hotel if it lets me stay longer, great. It will tend to be myself and maybe someone else in the room unless I pick a dorm-style hostel.  But you expect that there will be someone to snore and fart all night, keeping you awake.  There is only so low I want to go on airline service.

I’ve noticed that even the major airlines are adding junk fees.  Is it a basic economy, economy, or premium economy?  Even they are trying to pull you in with the low-ball price gimmick.  Most of the time, you can’t tell a shit bit of difference between economy and premium economy.

But what I have noticed is that there are a lot of airlines that are not letting their flights and prices get to Google Flights. Sometime in the last year, they changed the flight status computer thing, and it has been different since. You need to be a lot more specific too. I feel that Google tries to push you into budget airlines.

It might be that the time for Google flights to find the best deal has passed.  Shame, but I would like to find other options anyway. It’s starting to feel better to go to the airline’s website. Or it might be that you are stringing together different tickets on different airlines to find the cheapest route.

How much am I willing to string together connecting flights? Really, I’m not, and that makes me pay more. I still can deal with one connection, maybe two, if the price is amazing.

But prices are way the fuck up compared to pre-pandemic. I’m not getting a $500 flight to Europe until mid-winter. (I did look at Icelandair going back to Oslo.) I’m expecting $1500 for an international flight and $700 for domestic flights.

Save money living the rest of your life and save it to travel. Travel cheap but not to the point where you make yourself sick or too tired to have fun when you get somewhere.  If you are willing to have a long line of layovers, then you can save even more.  Willing to travel with a lot less stuff, maybe even just a personal item?  You might save a boatload.  But still watch the fees.

I wish that I had listened to that advice a lot more when I was younger. I’d be a lot richer and more traveled. Past is done, I just focus on the present and move on. But it might not be by plane this summer.