Getting Booked

in #hive-1962332 days ago

Hi fellow Hiveians,

Today I wanted to rant about how expensive some travel is these days!

IMG_5686.jpeg

Hive Divider Bar Text.png

Getting Booked

Booking travel is both a fun but stressful experience!

IMG_0767.JPG

We aren't ones to not take vacations or trips, but instead we typically just drive around to the places that we want to go. That wasn't going to be possible this time, so we had to book flights and rental cars and shit. Man was that way more of a hassle than we remembered!

My wife and I have been traveling around for a long time, as many people who are in the millennial age generation. We don't go a lot of places that require flying for various reasons, and one of them is because of how fucking expensive the shit is! I know it's an old dude type of shit, but when we booked flights years ago it was 2-250 dollars a person. These days it's absurd how fucking expensive it is. It was about 500 dollars per person just for the god damn flight! What the fuck is that noise!?

I know that driving to places isn't the easiest, but jeebus. We spent 75$ in gas driving 1,100 miles! That is fucking pennies compared to the absurdity that flights cost. I guess you pay more because you get there a hell of a lot faster, but damn that's absolutely insane.

We are certainly glad that we don't like to fly all over the place. I don't know how people afford that shit, honestly lol. I look back to when I was a kid and I think I took maybe 3 flights in my lifetime before I was an adult. I've only taken a few since then but still. I was shocked how damn expensive that shit is.

IMG_2337.jpg

One of the things that we also learned years ago, that seemingly doesn't apply anymore is to book flights and things like that on a Tuesday. They said that was the cheaper day for whatever reason. Sadly that's not the case anymore LOL the package we had to buy this time around ended up costing us 300$ more because we waited a few days and did it on a Tuesday instead of the Sunday that we originally looked on.

We are looking forward to the trip for sure because it serves a few purposes. One of the good ones is that it's to a place we've never been to before so we get to do some added exploration which is always fun. I would eventually like to travel to all 50 states with the fam, though some of them are likely going to be a little challenging to get to and do. It's not a bad goal though, to visit them all!

I think that's one of the most fascinating things about the United States. People don't realize how fecking big the thing is! The US fits over Europe then some, and people in some small European countries think that their country is big or something. That's an average state in the US LOL. I know it seems a little arrogant, but it's fun to see when a country like Italy is about the size of California. It really puts things into perspective!

An added bonus with the whole thing is that I got a bit of a discount through work for the rental car. We do have people that work and do a lot of travel and car rentals and stuff so thankfully we have access to discounted rentals. Let's hope that the car, because it was a sizable discount compared to a different car rental company, isn't a scam and fucks us over at the end of the day. Time will tell!

IMG_5686.jpeg

What about you, are you surprised at how ridiculously expensive travel has become for flying? Let me know in the comments what you think!

Hive Divider Bar Centered.png

-CmplXty. Real human written content, never AI. All pictures are mine unless otherwise stated

Hive Divider Bar Centered.png

Connect with me!

Do you want to get paid, in crypto, for searching the internet? Try using and signing up for Presearch to earn some great crypto! I've currently got 2,900 PRE tokens, with a market value of $180.27. It doesn't sound like a lot but when you search using sites like Google you get paid $0! Join Presearch to break Google's stranglehold on the internet searches. If you'd like to sign up, use my referral link below and spread the word!
https://www.presearch.org/signup?rid=513043


Image source

Sort:  

It's inflation I guess. That's why we need BTC. Hahahaha. :P

Yeah inflation is a bitch! Lol

For flights I highly recommend getting a debit/credit card that offers air miles. My Revolut debit card has a 1:1 redemption point system for 30 airlines and that's 1 point for every 2 GBP that I spend. So just buying food or coffee gets me a few miles. There's also larger banks like AMEX with their various tiers. Some of these banks also offer discounts on certain locations for accommodations if you book with them.

Yeah we've got a card with rewards on it and thankfully have been able to use that for what we needed it for. It’s certainly the best way to help offset the travel related expenses!

I think one of the other challenges we ran into is that it was difficult to figure out when to get the best price for flights. It used to be on Tuesday evening but that wasn’t the case anymore lol.

I think that era is mostly gone. The only thing I see actual price differences in is flight times. And even that can be relatively thin depending on how much of a popular destination it is. Travel is such a big thing these days and social media has led to such an increase in demand for air travel that the airlines know people will pay these prices. Even if it's a flight at 4AM they know there will be people happy to pay up to get on.

My main problem with travel these days is seeing how utterly insane accommodation is. Good prices on things like Booking (ESPECIALLY Airbnb) are a rarity. Most places are charging 60+ a night for something that doesn't even have the same quality of most 4 star hotels. Even here in Georgia I see places that are trying to get that foreigner spend in. It's insane to see when you realise the average salary in a place like this can be $400 a month and the most basic Airbnbs are asking for that for a week.

For context the apartment I'm renting in Tbilisi is $400 a month. The place we stayed in for a week through Airbnb when we arrived and started apartment hunting was about $300. And that was one of the cheapest options I could find.

Travel is just nuts for sure. Flying especially is basically selling your vital organs to go anywhere. Plus if you want to do it comfortably you have to spend even more. It's like herding cattle and I hate it. Hotels aren't much better either. That's part of the reason I invested in Travala last bull run. The prices are a bit higher, but it's a perfect real world use case for your crypto. Don't want to move it to fiat and pay all those taxes? Just use it to book a trip!

I hear your gripes I'm about ready to be raped for a trip to Vegas in February. The last time I went there $100 one way tickets and a hotel a night was $59. Certainly not that any more. I wish we had a good and fast rail travel like in Europe.