[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] The Amazaing Race 14 (and critical credit card news)

Tue Mar 3 17:54:31 PST 2009

AmEx cancelled my card.  Now what should I do?
(Includes important advice for all AmEx cardholders,
as well as recent changes in other card issuers' practices
and which cards are best for international use.)

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001638.html

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Update on class action lawsuit over fees for card use abroad
(Summary: The case is dragging on, and I'm still working to try to get a 
fair deal in the settlement for long-term travellers and expatriates.)

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001637.html

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This column with links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001639.html

Salzburg (Austria) - Munich (Germany) - Bucharest (Romania) - Brasov 
(Romania) - Bran (Romania)

Why are we still in Europe, still making our way only slowly East, three 
weeks into the season of "The Amazing Race 14"? We'll tackle that question 
next week. But for now, let's look at how we got to where we are at 
"Dracula's Castle" near Bran, Romania.

>From Salzburg (western Austria, on the German border), the racers were 
told to take a train to the nearest major airport in Munich, and then fly 
to Bucharest. Easier said than done: The first team's flight had 
mechanical problems en route and returned to Munich, while most of the 
teams got to Munich too late to catch the last direct flight of the day to 
Bucharest. When their connecting flight was late and then Schipol Airport 
was shut down by fog, one of the teams was stuck in Amsterdam for the 
night.

The racers were told to do it this way (train to Munich, then plane to 
Bucharest). But would there have been a better way? Let's see what we can 
find, using the tools and techniques we've been talking about in the 
previous two installments:

As reader Max Wyss pointed out in his comments on my earlier article, most 
of the European national railways use the same "HAFAS" timetable software, 
just with different user interfaces and ticketing options. The German 
version Bahn.de got the most votes in comments and feedback on my earlier 
article, but you can take your pick. Whichever you choose, you'll have the 
same problems.

To begin with, the translation engine on the English-language interface 
converts "Bucharest" to "Buchara", so its first set of suggested routings 
are for epic five-day rail journeys from Salzburg to Bukhara, Uzbekistan, 
by way of Vienna, Warsaw, Moscow, and Tashkent. Bukhara is worth the trip, 
and some years ago I did take the train part of the way there from 
Tashkent. But that's not where we wanted to go today -- once again that 
will have to wait until next week.

Once you figure out that you need to enter the Romanian spelling, 
"Bucuresti", you get the correct schedule from any of the HAFAS railway 
timetable sites. The trains get slower as you get further east in Europe: 
"ordinary" mainline express trains in Western Europe are as fast as what 
Amtrak would call a "high-speed" train, while in Central Europe they are 
more are on par with the speeds imposed on most of the Amtrak system by 
the need to use tracks shared with heavy freight. Still, the racers could 
have gotten trains from Salzburg at 13:00 (1 p.m.) that would arrive in 
Bucharest at 10:30 the next morning, or departing at 17:00 (5 p.m.) and 
arriving at 14:00 (2 p.m.) the next day. That would be more reliable than 
connecting flights, and not really that much slower overall. 

How much would those trains cost? Who knows. As is common for 
international connections, none of the European railroads' online systems 
can come up with a ticket price. Rail Europe in the USA will sell you a 
ticket, but only for the unrestricted full first-class fare of US$444 per 
person.

The trick when travelling into a poorer and cheaper country with a weaker 
currency is not to buy a through hard-currency international ticket. Buy 
your first ticket in Euros (EUR), Swiss Francs (CHF) or other hard 
currency only as far as the border of Euro-land, and then buy a separate 
ticket from there in Forints or other soft currency for the rest of the 
distance.

This is especially important right now, since the Forint (HUF) has lost a 
third (33%) of its value against the U.S. dollar in the last 6 months. Of 
European currencies, only the Icelandic Krona (ISK) has fared worse 
against the USD or Euro. That's made Hungary, which was already cheaper 
than anywhere in Western Europe, into perhaps the most affordable country 
in Europe right now. Romania is a close second, with the Lei (ROL) having 
fallen 29% against the USD in the last 6 months. So there are good reasons 
for the race to be where it is, and for you to consider going there too if 
you're looking for Europe on a budget.

But what if you don't have the time to take the train, or think a ticket 
on a low-cost airline might actually be cheaper? Salzburg has some cheap 
direct flights to package holiday destinations (Antalya, anyone? We saw 
plenty of Austrians there at this time last winter). But there are no 
cheap flight connections from Salzburg to most points within northern 
Europe.

>From Munich, AirlineRouteMaps.com leads me to Carpatair, a low-cost 
airline with its hub in Romania's second-largest city, Timisoara (TMS).

Until recently, Romania's national airline, TAROM, had direct flights 
Timisoara-New York and Timisoara-Chicago. I sold a few tickets on those 
routes, but not many. It was hard to get customers, especially those in 
the USA, to accept an intercontinental flight with a stop in a city they 
had never heard of -- even if the price was right.

Some of my favorite cities, though, are second cities, such as Marseille 
and Thessaloniki -- not to mention the Second City, Chicago. Often such a 
place is easier to deal with, especially when you first arrive, than a 
larger capitol. People in a second city are often more patient with 
confused tourists, and more likely to treat them as "guests" rather than 
"marks".

When I search for "Munich to Bucharest", Carpatair's Web site understands 
the anglicizations of the city names correctly, and shows daily through 
connections for prices starting from about EUR75 (USD100). That's a nice 
contrast to Tiger Airways (which I flew on last year from Australia to 
Singapore) or some other low-cost airlines that require you to search for 
and book each leg separately. These flights are at the wrong time of day 
to be useful to the teams on "The Amazing Race 14", but they are the 
cheapest way other than a 24-hour bus ride to get between these cities.

What about the other Web sites some commenters recommended? 
WhichBudget.com and Flylc.com don't list Carpatair at all. 
(WhichBudget.com's listings of low-cost airlines tend to be even less 
complete outside Europe.) Skyscanner.net has the Carpatair schedules, but 
only as direct flights. Presumably it hasn't been programmed to recognize 
Timisoara as a possible hub. But that means you'd only find these flights 
yourself if you searched separately for each leg of a possible connection 
through Timisoara, which you probably wouldn't think of and which would be 
tedious even if you did.

Where's next? Siberia in winter, of course -- I said we were headed east. 
Stay tuned!

----------------
Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
(4th edition 2007)
"The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace"
<http://www.practicalnomad.com>

Around-the-World and multi-stop international air tickets:
<http://hasbrouck.org/tickets/>