Many people think that traveling is expensive. I hope they are not thinking of the tour packages that bus them in air-conditioned coaches and put them up in nice Holiday Inns. It's not hard to keep costs down if one is willing to forego some luxury, to be flexible, and to arm oneself with knowledge.
There could be a time in the future when I might long for that fruit basket on the table and that piece of minty chocolate on the pillow, but for now I like Motel 6. Although I have neither had a room in a five-star hotel, nor pitched a tent in a parking lot, it's hard to say what my exact standards are. Maybe it's because I am more value-oriented than price-oriented. After all, my parents and I did get a room with complimentary fruit basket, minty chocolate on the pillow, plus complimentary breakfast, all for $80 a night in a very nice hotel in Bangkok. Then again, about a week before that, I slept on my luggage at Chiang Kai Sheik Airport. The airport is quite far from downtown Taipei. A taxi ride would cost about $40. There is a special bus to the airport, but it only starts at about five in the morning. I had unfortunately failed to anticipate this, and had to be on a flight that departs at 7 a.m. I figured that if I had to be at the airport by 5 a.m., I would have to leave from the hotel at 4, and get up at 3. I was planning on having dinner with some relatives until 10 or 11. Four, maybe three, hours of sleep for $60? I decided to catch the 11 p.m. bus to the airport and rough it there. I have to say that that night seemed like the longest night I had ever lived through. Yes, worse than the all-nighters in school. I was tired from a week in Taipei for the Power Electronics Specialists Conference; the seats had low backs; I had no where to lie down (save the floor); and I was pretty much the only person in the nearly deserted waiting hall. (The cops didn't bother me.) The funny thing is that this $100 that I saved was my advisor's money, but because he's paying it out of his discretionary account, I thought it'd be nice to save him a couple of bucks. To this day, I can't decide whether that $100 was worth it.
Of course, everyone has a different idea of what luxury is, how flexible he wants to be, and how much knowledge he wants to gain. There are levels of details one's willing to bother with, and correspondingly there are inversely related levels of expenses. A friend of mine told me that she planed all the things on her family's vacations. They'd fly into a city, take a taxi to the hotel, book for a tour of the city at the hotel, and shop. I suppose that this could be a wonderful experience, but for somebody else, not me.
Airfare is usually the largest component of all the expenses, and a lot of money can be saved if one's diligent in searching for the best deal, but don't count on the travel agents. They either don't have the incentives to find the cheapest fare, or are simply not knowledgeable enough to know better. Go ask about airfare to Cancún. If your travel agent starts typing on the computer, it's usually not a good sign. At least the woman at Council Travel in the student center also thought of the tour operators. Airfare-only for charter was $399, I was told. For reasons I never found out, the tour operators only sell to travel agents and never directly to consumers. The nice glossy booklets I got had no telephone numbers in them, except a stamped address and telephone number on the back for Council. I called 411 and got to one of the tour companies. They told me that they had a sale going on for Cancún at $299.
The next time I went to Council, I said I wanted to book for three tickets for Cancún. I was quoted $399 from the price printed in the booklet. "They have a sale for $299," I said.
"How do you know?" she sounded surprised.
"I talked to them."
"How did you get the number?"
"Directory assistance."
She called the tour operator to make the reservation, and asked about how much commission she or Council would get. It's 10%. Not bad, $90 for a phone call and an hour of my work. I guess sometimes it pays to make the extra call, ask the extra question, and be pesky in general. I don't know how displeased the travel agent was, but I just saved me and my friends a handsome $300 for that one call.
For this South America trip, Ed did quite a bit of work locating travel agencies specializing in South America. There seems to be a fairly large concentration of Brazilians near Somerville, so most of the agencies are Brazilian. Council Travel might be good for some things, like domestic or European student fares, Eurail passes, or maybe even Cancún package deals. They just can't compete when it comes to specialized regions. For Asia, I use a Chinese agent in New York. For South America, we looked for ticket consolidators specializing in that area. We spent a few Saturdays in July talking to them. What's a little discomforting to us was that they all seem to be doing something else on the side, like selling phone cards and cashing checks. The second place we visited had huge floor space, with only two desks and a huge counter, behind which sits a cash register and a copier. Ed thought they are also into the cleaning business. The agency wasn't even on our list. We just happened to walk by as they were closing. When the guy told us that they are closed, Ed was ready to leave. I nevertheless told them that we were looking to buy tickets for South America, and we did get to talk for a bit. As it turned out, of all the other places we visited, this one had the best deal, and the guy who booked tickets for us was quite nice. Like I said, sometimes, it pays to be pesky and not take "no" for an answer. Of course, we did pay our tickets with credit cards, just in case.
We will be flying VASP for the international leg to Rio and Buenos Aires, and using an Aerolíneas Argentinas airpass for the domestic flights within Argentina. We were carefully warned that these tickets are not returnable, exchangeable, or transferable. Well, I guess for $1366, I can't complain too much about it.
This is it. This is the point of no return. "Don't let anything happen to you between now and Christmas," Ed cautioned.
By now, all the flights are fixed, although there is still a lot of flexibility for the ground portion. I drew up a new itinerary.