Money Tip: When to buy?

When to buy tickets?

Most people who know anything about buying airplane tickets know that Tuesday afternoon (at about 3pm) is the best time to purchase them. This is because the airline companies lower their prices at the beginning of the week to entice buyers. When airline A lowers its prices for a ticket, other airlines will follow suit in order to compete effectively. If there are only 10 people going to Cancun a certain week and Airline A has $20 tickets while the competitors have $300 tickets, guess who gets all the customers AND all the money that there is to get? (hint:Airline A). However, the airlines can’t keep prices too low for too long or else buyers will take all of them AND have paid less than they may have been actually willing to pay. So, eventually the prices start climbing again, that towards the end of the week, they are usually considerable higher than they were at the beginning.

The stealthy game owes its existence to the computer operated ticket-sellers that command the prices during weekends (when workers are at home spending time with families and such). The computers use algorithms that leave prices high to maximize profit until Mondays, when human workers adjust prices for competitiveness.

Of course this game gets trickier depending on demand. Waiting until the last minute can be a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or it could spell disaster for your travel plans and your bankbook!

When to fly?

No one likes waking up early in the morning to catch a flight, making it the perfect time of day in which to fly. Chances are, you may be the only one of 20 people on a 40-seat plane, translating into a more favorably priced ticket than full flights.
Similarly, there are actually good days on which to fly. Tuesdays (#1), Wednesdays, and Sundays are the cheapest to fly on. This is because most business travelers want to get home from their work related travel. So they tend to be more willing to fork over a couple extra twenties in order to fly out on a Friday. Also, the reverse is true for Sundays, when business travelers need to get back to work or college kids or other vacationers need to get back to school from weekend getaways. This makes Friday and Sunday the worst days to buy tickets!
 

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Airlines again :)

Domestic (Foreign) Multi-City Stops

Okay. So, if you are planning on buying multi-city tickets like me for your study abroad trip (

It’s not every day you get to fly 4,000 miles across the horizon, might as well stop by a few places on the way to your final destination), you should consider the type of airline you using. Think about it: major US airlines are probably transporting U.S. tourists or other international travelers, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to be making stops all over the place right? Right. the major U.S. airlines that I looked are charging more for the inter-European legs of my trip. Domestic airlines such as RyanAir.com found me a ticket for about US$ 60 less than what companies like American or United were charging me for the same route. So, I plan to enter the first European city-stop via my trusty U.S. airliner, and for any inter-european flights afterwards, I will use domestic liners.

Miles & Alliances

Another thing to look is for is Airline Alliances. U.S. airlines have partnered up with each other domestically and with foreign liners in the international market. When looking at cashing in your miles for study abroad (like I’m doing), its good to check what companies miles are actually worth more per mile (when flying internationally as opposed to domestically). This is because when some U.S. miles are used with international partner carriers, they count for less than they would at home. Also, some alliances (although having the same amount of partners) are more region-oriented than others. For instance, Oneworld alliance doesn’t have a Chinese partner, and Star Alliance only recently initiated partnership proceedings with two Mexico-related coverage liners (TACA and COPA). For my study abroad in Spain, I had names like Iberia, Air France, British Airways, and American Airlines resulting in the lowest prices. Oneworld alliance, though deficient in some regions, was my cheapest bet to Spain (Iberia, British Airways, and American Airlines are all in the Oneworld Alliance).

Study Abroad: Travel Website

A great study abroad travel website I found is http://www.statravel.com/. It offers a wide range of tools such as an airline search engine that lists discounted  flights for students.

If you were looking at exploring the culture and sights of your study abroad program’s host country, you could search student-discounted rail passes, discount cards, and hostels.

If you are traveling to Europe, the Eurail Pass would probably be of interest to you. With it, you would be able to travel through up to 23 countries in continental Europe such as Spain, France, Switzerland, and Belgium.

Checking prices for travel: Airlines

I found an awesome website for finding cheap airline tickets without having to go to each online travel agency’s search engine. Travel.bing.com was one of the most reliable that I’ve seen so far. It searches all the major airlines and most of the major online travel agency’s such as Hotwire.com, Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Cheapair.com, and Vayama.com. It also has a nifty Price Predictor tool that lets you know if prices have traditionally dropped for the trips you’ve searched for during the time of year that you have selected.

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Video Post: My First Night Train (Prague to Budapest)

Although it would be my last time traveling through the Prague subway, I was so excited that I would be traveling on my first night train! My next stop was Budapest, Hungary, and although there were many earlier trips I could have chosen, I decided to pay the 14 euro reservation fee for a bed in a couchette on the overnight train. I don’t know what the full fare would have been, but I’m happy I had a Eurail pass and didn’t have to worry about that :-). My main reason was to cut lodging costs. I needed to get to Hungary and I needed to sleep: night train solves all. Cheaper than the cost of a hostel stay, I was able to save all around on money and time and I recommend it to anyone who’s interested in backpacking.

The only negative in my plan was the long wait I had in the train station between my last scheduled daylight activity and the train that left almost at midnight. Being closer to the North pole in the summer meant that the “day” was much longer throughout all my European adventure than it would have been in Florida at the time. At least, that sounds like something I remember from high school geography that sounds like it’s right!

Well, after paying to use the restroom and finding that one of them had been closed for the night (I have no idea why, if you have to pay to enter any way), and being offered narcotics while thinking that I had lost my luggage to a closed storage facility, I finally saw my train on the arrivals board!

Given permission to board the train, I searched the door tags for my room and found to my surprise that the other bed would be left unoccupied that night. I made a video of my exploring the amenities offered in the sleeping cabin that I hope will convey the comfort and utter awesomeness I felt that night!

Video Post:The Prague Castle Complex

Parts of this sprawling medieval castle compound, the largest Europe, can be spotted at almost any point in the old city.

 According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m². [1]

Although collectively referred to as “the castle,” the many buildings that make up this mega-fortified mini-town include at least four churches, four palaces, over five gardens, and is home to shops, government offices, and museums. Today, the castle is the seat of the President of the Czech Republic and represents as the historical and political centre of Prague and the Czech state.

One of the churches: Basilica dedicated to St. George

• Main Architectural Style: Romanesque / Baroque (facade)
• Extras: Benedictine Convent
  • Abbess possessed the right to crown the Queen consort of Bohemia
• Royal/Sacred tombs:
  • Prince Vratislav
  • Boleslav II
  • St. Ludmila

St. George’s Basilica, Prague, Czech Republic – See if you can spot it in the video!

The Cathedral of St. Vitus, St. Wenceslaus and St. Adalbert

• Main architectural style: Gothic
• Designations:
  • Roman Catholic Cathedral, Seat of Archbishop of Prague
  • Basilica
• Famous:
• • Biggest Church in Czech Republic
• Curiosities:
  • The church is owned by the Czech government
  • St. Wenceslas:
    • One of a small group of royals to have been canonised by the Catholic Church
    • He is one of the patron saints of the Czech state
    • He is the “good King Wenceslas” mentioned in the 1853 Christmas carol by John Neale
    • He died a Duke of Bohemia, but was raised to the dignity of a king after his death by Holy Roman Emperor Otto I

St. Vitus – Prague, Czech Republic

I didn’t have enough crowns (Czech money) left to purchase a trip up the bell tower and they wouldn’t take credit cards or Euro. Everywhere else took Euro (with a slight fee), but those volunteer girl guards weren’t budging for poor littles tourists like myself. 😦

Video I made of walk through much of castle complex:

Related Articles

• Priceless Prague (goudenleven.wordpress.com)
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Night Wandering

I had made free reservations to see the Bundestag (yes, you need reservations to go inside the cool glass dome). Because I had arrived a few hours later than originally planned, I wasn’t able to take the tour and only got to see the German federal government buildings from the outside. I know I missed something special, but I was not to disappointed, because as I continuously discovered, the Germans sure know how to impress! Outside the Hauptbahnhof (on the Washingtonplatz side) there was a huge area for events that had large photo displays with work from local artists set up like a maze. There were also two outdoor bars with flashing neon lighting (I like flashing neon lights, that’s why I mentioned this). I crossed the bridge near the plaza (Friedrich-List-Ufer I think it was) that had a man-made beach area under it on the other side. It was too packed for me to order anything, especially because everyone there seemed to be in groups.

I ended up strolling down the “pier” and ended up in an open area with two large walls on either side. To this day I don’t know what those two walls were for, but they seemed to funnel your attention, and large crowds perhaps, towards  a really tall building. Not until I went closer did I realize that that building and the others that were emblazoned with light were the ones I had always read so much about. To my right was the Bundeskanzleramt (Germany’s head of state is a Chancellor or Bundeskanzler, his staff are housed in this building). To my left was the Paul-Löbe-Haus, a building associated with the Bundestag (German federal lower legislative chamber) that has extra office space for MPs. In the video, this is the building that is in the final freeze pane. Walking further, I was able to pass over the wonderfully manicured lawn with fountains in front of the majestic Reichstagsgebäude, the German Parliament building for the lower house, the Bundestag. My camera doesn’t take great night video or photos, so I didn’t take that many, but I think the ones I posted didn’t turn out too badly.

As I walked down Dorotheenstraße, I saw the amount of building space dedicated to parliamentary purposes was astounding, considering most office spaces I’d seen for the same before were relegated to one square or block. Now that I’m looking at the Google map, I can see what I was unable to at night: that the building is divided into sections and each section has its own courtyard. Turning onto Unter den Linder from Wilhelmstraße I was able to see what I considered the most beautiful sight of the night: the Brandenburg Gate. A restored former wall of old Berlin the old city.  It reminded me of other triumphal arches around Europe I had seen, but the neoclassical design, sheer size (up and out), and brilliant lighting led me to believe that it must have been a modern creation. Further research proved otherwise: Wikipedia.

As I knew I had an early day ahead of me, and the fact that everything was so quiet in the darkness, I decided to head back to the hotel with no stories of sordid drinking and revelry or the like.

Tips for next time:

1. Don’t rely on tour guide maps being available after dark.
2. Plan out night spots (events or photo ops) so you don’t wander aimlessly in the dark without knowing where the nightclubs or fun spots are.

Below is a very short video of me snooping around the train station outside the Bundestag. Pretty audacious having it so close to government buildings. Also thought it would be cool to show a bit of the opulence dripping off the smoothly polished stone. Standing by my opinion that Berlin knows how to impress!
Also, I uploaded the Germany Facebook album just now. Get it here.

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