I don’t know why I keep putting myself through the same misery again and again just to save money. What I am referring to is what many students at my university and I imagine at other universities do in relation to their travel plans for the sake of saving cash. There is a bus that drives from Vancouver to Seattle so that Vancouver travelers can benefit from the less expensive flights that fly through SeaTac. This Shuttle, ironically named “Quick Shuttle”, has a reputation of always being late. Last weekend, on my way to a conference to New York, I took advantage of the service in hopes of saving a few bucks.

I was booked on the 10:45 “Red Eye” flight to Philadelphia and I found myself with two options when it came to the bus schedule. I could either get to the airport five hours before my flight or one hour before. This clearly, was not a great selection of choices. I hate waiting and I hate being late. In the end, I decided that I hated waiting more and booked my bus so that I would arrive at the airport one hour before my flight (I realize that it sounds idiotic doing that but I had done the same thing twice before and made my flight). As I was standing, waiting fro the bus to pick me up in Vancouver I was approached by an older woman.

“Excuse me, are you waiting for the bus to Seattle”

“Yes, I most definitely am!” (okay maybe I didn't say that)

“It seems to be late and I haven't ever taken it before, is this normal?”

“Oh yes, very normal but don’t worry you will make it. It's going to be pretty close for me to make my flight but I’m not worried”

“Well, that's because you're young and still have luck. As a matter a fact you should not be wasting your luck on things like this or you will loose it all.”

After that the woman walked away and I felt her words settle on me and I shuddered. It was as though my Youthful “travel luck” was lost forever. I hate that woman to this day for jinxing my trip.

Eventually the bus came, late of course, and I began my cursed journey to the big apple. Surprise, surprise I arrived late at SeaTac, where my flight was delayed till midnight and I felt overjoyed that I might still make the flight. It turned out however that because I bought the cheapest non-refundable tickets my seat was given up long before I had arrived. I had to take the morning flight. Damn.

As I looked across the listings of hotels trying to find a place with a reasonable rate I found a place that I remember from an earlier trip to Seattle. I waited for an hour until the shuttle came and headed to my hotel. When I arrived, I realized very quickly that this was certainly not the same place I had stayed at before. It was disgusting and cost me 58 dollars with tax.

I slept in my clothes out of fear of catching crabs and headed to bed, but not before I took a picture of myself with my room key which included “dominos pizza room service” and posted it on Facebook (yes I'm a true addict).

After the hell that was that night, I bought breakfast at the airport and caught my flight to Philadelphia. In Phili I rushed across the airport to the other terminal to catch my flight to New York. When I arrived I found out that my flight was delayed for two hours. Needless to say I was not happy (It's a 30 minute flight and a 1 hour thirty minute train ride to NY from Phili). I decided to buy some food to feed my hunger while I waited and spent 15 bucks. When I finally arrived at my brother's house in NY I had been traveling for 30 hours!

So, why am I telling you this story? Well, the point of the whole thing is that if you're a student and you're traveling on a route that is supposed to save you many, you had better make sure it does because it often will cost the same or more and be a lot more stressful.

By booking my flight out of Seattle in stead of a direct one from Vancouver I saved 200 dollars. Or did I?

• I spent 69 dollars on my bus to Seattle.
  
• I spent 58 dollars on the hotel in Seattle.
  
• I spent 8 dollars on breakfast in Seattle.
  
• I spent 15 dollars on dinner in Philadelphia.
  
• In total this adds up to 150 dollars which means I actually only save 50 dollars and spent 20 hours more time traveling!

Feel free to ask yourself whether it is worth it to go the apparently cheaper way with the risk of experiencing hell. Thanks for listening...