Travel Junkie - An Addiction Not to Be Resolved

As most people know, I am a travel junkie. Not that I am always on the go, I would like to be, but in the meantime, I read everything travel related. Through the years, I have learned to filter what I subscribe as pertinent information, leaving the fluff pieces behind.

Yesterday, Ron came across a New York Times article that held merit, so he forwarded it on. It is titled Crunching the Numbers to Find the Best Airfare and you can find it here. 

The crux of the article explains what many have suspected; there are a number of outdated ideas on which day of the week is best to buy airline tickets. Airlines change their rates hundreds of times a week, depending on the competition and capacity load.

This is where the article really strikes gold. The author, Seth Kugel, points the reader to a new online service called Hopper Research. Start on their research page, but continue on to the Tools page. 

Just playing with a trip from Budapest, Hungary to Quito, Ecuador I was able to retrieve this information.
Market summary report for Budapest (BUD) to Quito (UIO)

The cheapest flights from Budapest to Quito are selling for about $1777 round trip. The cheapest round trip flights we've seen for any dates in the next six months were priced from about $1753-1753 (with stops) .

Last week's weighted average round-trip ticket price from Budapest to Quito dropped by -0.1% to $1777.07 as compared to $1778.47 the prior month.

The average demand rose 1.6% to 1 flight searches per day compared to 1 daily searches during the previous four weeks.

Flight route map for Budapest (BUD) to Quito (UIO)
Background:

Ferihegy airport (BUD) near Budapest, Hungary is 6587 miles from Mariscal Sucre Intl airport (UIO) near Quito, Ecuador, as calculated by great circle distance. Typical flights with stops take about 18h00m.

Budapest to Quito is the 123824th most popular route overall, with Quito the 201th most popular destination from Budapest. Budapest is ranked 188th of all origins arriving in Quito.
Current market popularity and price:

The calendar summarizes the trips that other travellers are currently planning. It shows the best prices we’ve seen to put you in Quito on any given day (not necessarily departing on that date), as well as the dates that are most popular with other travellers. The cheapest dates are more darkly shaded, and heavily circled days are when more people from Budapest are planning to be in Quito, averaged across all of the flights we’ve analyzed. (Days where we have no data are shown in white.) To give a true picture of the relative popularity of future dates, we adjust the data to account for the fact that people tend to book their flights nearer to departure.

Tons more information is waiting for your exploration through the various pages of this site, more than I can summarize. You will be amazed at the valuable information they are able to collect to save you money.

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Sign of My Times

Yesterday, I was walking across the street from us on the way to the place where I buy DVDs, so I happened to pass the Old Man's Pub. This is an institution in Budapest for music. What caught my eye and made me do a retake is what was in the outside display. My review from my book. If you had not noticed, all of Frommer's books are republished in the New York Times Travel section and now in NileGuide.

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Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover

I had a preview of what the cover of my new book was going to look like and I did not like it. I had hopes it was just a big mistake, since it looks like an electri-FRIED version of the current cover. After seeing some of the other covers from other country editions, it is comforting to know it is not just mine. 

Frommer's was running a photo contest for quite some time. Winners were selected for future book covers as well as pocketing a $5,000 prize. The absurdity of this prize compared to writing the book is beyond description. If I had been eligible, I would have snapped my heart out. Multiple submissions were encouraged. What I should have done is sent it out to all of our photographer guests with a contract stipulating a finder's fee. We have had a few professionals, so my chances would have been fairly good. Regardless, the end of the contest was after this edition went to print.

Supposedly, this edition was to be released on April 16th, but after checking with Amazon.com and Frommer's online bookstore, it is still classified as Pre-order. Frommer's shows it as May 3rd; I do know it will come out 6 weeks later in the UK and the rest of the English speaking world. 

I do love what Frommer's put in their online blurb. You win some, you lose some, but I did not have any control over either the cover nor the blurb. Pleased I am with their marketing foresight.

Whenever you read the New York Times travel archives for any country, it is Frommer's you are reading. Thus, if you were to search the NYT for Budapest restaurants, what you will find are the reviews from my book. 

Frommer's also teams up with a number of other sites. I have seen my writing in other places. Strangely, I used to write some for Nile Guide and now they are incorporating all of Frommer's books onto their site.

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• Frommer's travel tools provides nine handy iPhone apps in one (gadling.com)
• Photo Contest: Win $5,000 plus your photo on the cover of a Frommer's guide book (trueslant.com)
• Founder of Frommer's Travel Guides (timesunion.com)

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Freaky Human Psychology

This happened to be one of those flow of consciousness days via the Internet. Google Alerts is set to send me a list of articles on "Budget Airlines", "European Airlines", and "Budapest". Once a week, I receive a list of stories to check out on the desired topic.

Today, I started with an article describing the cat fight between the owners of RyanAir and easyJet. On that page was a link to the Times Book Review, so I wandered over there to find three books to add to my Amazon Wish List. While hitting the browser back button, I came across this article on free drinks in NYC, which I read, posted to Facebook, and moved on. 

Another tap on the back browser button brought me to a page where I spotted in the sidebar "An Airline Pricing Puzzle", which grabbed my attention, so CLICK and I am off into no person's land on the Internet highway once again. Interesting little post it was, but without a conclusion or resolution, there was no satiated feeling. That did not stop me from clicking on the other links there from "Discrimination Against the Thin" to "How Much Is Your IPhone App? What has not bypassed my attention is that all of these are posted under the NY Times, Opinion section entitled Freakanomics: The Hidden Side of Everything. I know the book named Freakanomics, but the authors of the book are not the author of these opinion pieces. There did not seem to be much about Daniel Hamermesh, the opinionated blogger of these freakishly short quips of financial puzzles. But I would place bets he is earning a tidy sum for these 30-minute observations, sit at the computer to type, and e-mail to the editor little rants. Am I jealous? You can bet on it! E-mail me an offer.

More on Freakanomics and SuperFreakanomics later. We are meeting friends for a coffee soon. With any luck there will be some crazy dismal economic freakish event when we are at the cafe so I can e-mail it to the NY Times Op-Ed editor and see if they want to hire me.

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David Brooks: Sarah Palin "Represents A Fatal Cancer To The Republican Party"

For those not in the know, David Brooks is a conservative Op-Ed columnist for the NY Times. David Brooks: Sarah Palin "Represents A Fatal Cancer To The Republican Party": "[Sarah Palin] represents a fatal cancer to the Republican party. When I first started in journalism, I worked at the National Review for Bill Buckley. And Buckley famously said he'd rather be ruled by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the Harvard faculty. But he didn't think those were the only two options. He thought it was important to have people on the conservative side who celebrated ideas, who celebrated learning. And his whole life was based on that, and that was also true for a lot of the other conservatives in the Reagan era. Reagan had an immense faith in the power of ideas. But there has been a counter, more populist tradition, which is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely. And I'm afraid that Sarah Palin has those prejudices. I think President Bush has those prejudices."

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Thank you, Eleanor

Ryan,
I've have enjoyed your comments and travelogue tremendously. I know that I've seen you either on Travelzine or WWtraveler. I've been to Budapest twice. Once was in 1967 and the other time was 2003. I hope to return again and will certainly try to stay with you. I feel that I missed most of Budapest, after reading your Blog.

The first time we had a government guide, so saw what she wanted us to see. The second time I was so exhausted after 4 weeks in Europe that I only saw a bit. Next time it will be my primary destination and I hope to see much more. Keep writing the wonderful things you write.

Eleanor Donohue

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