“Save money” is a near-universal mantra in the travel business—suppliers constantly shout about how much you “save” if you buy their product or use their service, and we writers continually post “money-saving” tips. But to me, that’s a bit off-target. You can easily “save” 100 percent on travel—just stay home. That’s not what you really want to do. Instead, your objective is to buy an enjoyable or useful product or service at a price that represents a good value to you. I don’t mean to be pedantic; my point here is that although there are times when the lowest possible price is your best value, at other times, paying a little more makes a big improvement in your experience. In short, don’t always “cheap out.” Some examples:
Airline
When I fly on a low-fare airline, or on a giant line that acts like one, on a trip with a suitcase too big to qualify as a “personal item,” more often than not I resist the temptation to cheap out and schlep my bag, and instead will pay the usually extortionate fee to check the bag. That decision has been made easier by the practice adopted by many low-fare lines of adding extra fees to put a bag of any size in the overhead bin.
Granted, I’m a senior and not as spry as most travelers today, but it’s a great relief to be able to negotiate those endless treks through big airports without having to schlep a heavy bag and to get onto a plane without pushing and trying to ferret out a place overhead for my big bag. And at some big airports, the ability to curb-check a bag at the terminal door for a $3 tip is a no-brainer.
Rental Car
In my experience, the cheap-out more travelers regret than any other is reserving a rental that’s too small to accommodate the entire travel party comfortably. Up to the “midsize” range and even up to “standard” size, the rear seat isn’t really comfortable for even two adults or large children, let alone the three that rental companies include to call these cars five-passenger. Paying hundreds of dollars for a few hours of extra comfort on an airline can be a tough sell, but paying a few tens of dollars for a full day of adequate rear-seat room in a car often seems like a good idea.
Fortunately, the solution to this problem is actually getting easier: Because SUV models have become so popular to used-car buyers, rental car companies are loading up their fleets with SUVs. And fitting four adults into a small SUV is a lot easier than fitting them into a conventional sedan.
Although the SUV eases the problem of rentals for family groups, a new challenge has emerged that the rental car companies haven’t solved: electric cars. Whether you agree or not, the U.S. automobile market is going electric, but as far as I can tell, the rental companies still haven’t decided how to react. Here at my small home airport, Medford, Oregon, Expedia shows no electrics available for rental, and none at my biggest nearby airport, Sacramento. TBD.
Hotel
Before COVID, I booked a small hotel on Lake Como, checked the box for a single, and took the best deal. When I arrived, I found a perfectly adequate room in a perfectly adequate hotel. And it faced the highway. This was low season, so I asked if I could move across the aisle for a lake view. “Yes. Almost everybody does. It’s an additional $10 a night.” And what a view: The clear waters of the famed lake with a backdrop of the high Alps. Easy sell.
At many hotel stays, a view (or some other feature) doesn’t matter much and the low-rate room is fine. But with that blockbuster view, I’m really glad I didn’t cheap out at Como.
Overall, you can’t go “better” on everything and still stay frugal. But pick your spots where a small extra brings a big dividend.
Send email to Ed Perkins at [email protected]. Also, check out Ed’s new rail travel website at rail-guru.com.
©2022 Ed Perkins. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
