Joana and Pedro lived in Odivelas. Odivelas is a city near Lisbon. Joana and Pedro wanted to take a trip. They had two children. One child was eight years old. One child was six years old. The children wanted to go to Orlando. Orlando is a city in Florida. Orlando has many theme parks.

Joana sat at the kitchen table. Joana opened a laptop. The laptop screen was bright. Joana looked for flights to Orlando. Joana found two options for the flight.

01

The Eighty Euro Dilemma

The first flight was direct from Lisbon to the United States. The first flight cost one thousand four hundred and twelve euros for the family. The second flight had a stop. The stop was in a large airport in Europe. The stop lasted seven hours.

The difference was eighty euros. Eighty euros is the price of a good dinner. Joana looked at Pedro. Pedro looked at the screen. Pedro thought about the eighty euros. Pedro told Joana to book the second flight. Joana clicked the button for the second flight. Joana felt she had made a good choice. Joana felt she was smart.

The Grey Purgatory of the Hub

Three weeks later the family went to the airport in Lisbon. The flight to the European hub took three hours. The plane landed at noon. Joana and Pedro walked into the terminal. The terminal was gray. The terminal was crowded. They had to wait for seven hours. This is a long time to wait in an airport.

The children were bored. The children had a tablet. The tablet battery died after two hours. The charger for the tablet was in the checked luggage. The checked luggage was on the plane. The children could not use the tablet.

Pedro bought a sandwich for the children. The sandwich cost twelve euros. The sandwich was dry. Pedro bought a coffee for Joana. The coffee was hot. They sat on metal chairs. The metal chairs were hard. The metal chairs were cold. Joana looked at the clock. The clock said two o’clock. They still had five hours to wait.

The Hidden Tax on Focus

“I am Riley K.L. I design virtual backgrounds for video calls. I work with computers every day. I made a mistake yesterday. I sent an email to a client in London. I did not attach the file to the email. I forgot the attachment because I was tired. I was tired because I took a flight with a long connection.”

– Riley K.L., Designer

I wanted to save fifty euros on the ticket. I spent the whole day in an airport terminal. My brain did not work well the next day. I lost the focus I needed for my work. I saved fifty euros but I looked unprofessional to my client. This is a mistake that people make often.

The Logic of the GDS

The problem is mental accounting. The price of the ticket is a visible number. The eighty euros is a number on a screen. People can see the number. Time is not a number on the screen. A day of a holiday does not have a price tag in the search results. People think the day of the holiday is free.

But the day of the holiday is not free. Joana and Pedro paid for the hotel in Orlando. They paid for the rental car in Orlando. They paid for the park tickets in Orlando. They paid for the whole day. But they spent the whole day in an airport in Europe. They paid for a bed they did not sleep in. They paid for a car they did not drive.

I will explain how the travel websites work. A travel website uses a computer system. The computer system is a search engine. The search engine connects to a database. The database is called a GDS. The GDS stores the prices of many airlines. When a user searches for a flight the search engine sends a query.

The GDS returns thousands of rows of data. The website must sort the data. Most websites sort the data by the lowest price. This is the default setting. The computer follows a rule. The rule says the lowest number goes to the top. The computer only sees the eighty euros.

The Cost of Arrival

Joana and Pedro finally boarded the second flight. The flight was long. The plane landed in Orlando at 01:20 in the morning. The airport in Orlando was humid. The air felt heavy. Pedro walked to the rental car desk. There was a line at the rental car desk. Pedro stood in the line for forty minutes.

Pedro held the eight-year-old child. The child was asleep. The weight of the child was heavy on the arm of Pedro. Joana stood with the bags. The bags were heavy. The man at the desk was slow. The man looked at the computer. The computer was slow.

They drove the rental car to the hotel. The hotel was near the theme park. Joana opened the door to the room. The room smelled like air conditioning. Pedro put the children on the bed. The children did not wake up. Joana looked at her watch. It was 02:45 in the morning. They had tickets for the park. The tickets were for the morning. The park opened at 09:00 in the morning. Pedro knew they could not go at 09:00. They needed sleep. Their bodies were tired. Their heads hurt.

The Tuesday That Wasn’t

The next morning was Tuesday. The sun was bright. Joana woke up at ten o’clock. Her eyes were red. Pedro woke up at ten-thirty. His back was stiff. The children woke up and they were cranky. They missed the breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast ended at nine-thirty.

They left the hotel at noon. They arrived at the gate of the theme park at twelve-thirty. The park was very crowded. The lines for the rides were two hours long. They had lost the best hours of the day. They had paid for a full day at the park. But they only used half of the day.

The cost of a day at the park for a family is high. The cost of the hotel for one night is high. The cost of the rental car for one day is high. If you add these costs the total is more than eighty euros. Joana and Pedro saved eighty euros on the flight. But they lost more than two hundred euros in value. They also lost their energy. They also lost their good mood.

Reclaiming the Value of Your Time

There is a way to avoid this error. A traveler can use an agency that understands the value of time. NetViagens is an agency in Portugal. The agency offers a voo e hotel package.

The package combines the flight and the hotel into one price. NetViagens negotiates special rates for these packages. The agency uses an algorithm that looks for better schedules. The algorithm favors fewer stops. The algorithm favors better arrival times. The traveler gets a low price because of the bundle. The traveler also gets a flight that does not ruin the first day.

NetViagens has won awards for being a leading online travel agency. They understand the difference between the price and the cost.

Joana and Pedro stayed in Orlando for ten days. They had a good time after the first day. But they remembered the first day. They remembered the metal chairs. They remembered the dry sandwich. They remembered the crying children. On the flight home they talked about the next trip.

Pedro said he did not want to save eighty euros again. Joana agreed. Joana said she wanted to arrive at the hotel while the sun was still up. Joana wanted to have a full night of sleep.

When you book a trip you should look at the clock. You should look at the number of stops. You should look at the arrival time. If the arrival time is after midnight you will lose the next day.