Originally Posted by
kyunbit
The problem is: you can get to your destination free of cost but the free ticket may delude you into thinking that your trip is free. Its not.. By the time you add up your other transportation, meals, visit to attractions etc, you would have spent a significant amount.. more so if you are going to an expensive destination like Japan.
I find the item I routinely underestimate these days is rental car + gas, typically for U.S. destinations. That's probably because my mileage-game career spans 21 years now and the car + gas part didn't bite nearly as hard before as it does now. Cars are ridiculously overtaxed, and in some situations (like PDX and MSP in summer) it seems as if they're gouging. We know what's happened with gas. The combination makes that much more expensive than it used to be. It's also a negative for sprawler cities that otherwise aren't bad on costs.