Sneaking extra people into the hostel? / Photo: superciliciousness / Feature photo: jungleboy
There are plenty of ways for frugal travelers to sneak an extra discount or two. The question is: should you?
I was at the local curry shop near my office to grab some butter chicken and naan to go. Their lunch time special offered students a $1 discount.
At the cashier, the petite Indian girl asked me if I was a student. “Yes,” I replied.
Now, I am about as far away as student as you can get. There I was, 33 years old, dressed in pin striped slacks, brown dress shoes, and a collared button down (with silver cuff links no less). I was clearly lying.
Didn’t matter anyhow — she asked for my student ID and I had to back out of my master plan. “I don’t have it with me,” I said, as she rung up the regular price.
I felt somewhat ashamed. Up to now I have no idea why I even said yes. It might have been traveler’s instinct.
This got me to thinking about the ethics of travelers and our schemes to save money while on the road. Hard-bargaining aside, there is a plethora of dollar-saving tricks that are out there, and many travelers use them without a second thought.
1. Student discounts
Bypass admission? / Photo: jungleboy
This is a popular one. Almost every attraction around the world offers students of accredited schools a student discount. I have it on good authority that it is possible to acquire false student IDs to take advantage of this practice.
Maybe more common is the use of an expired card. I have never owned or used one myself, but I can say I’ve claimed student status to save a few Euros.
2. Act like a local
Some countries have two-tiered pricing for attractions, which means it’s one price for citizens and an extravagant price for foreigners. In Russia, a visitor can expect to pay anywhere from two to ten times the local’s entrance fee.
The museum island of Kizhi is a tiny piece of land on Lake Onega. Once on the island, you must pay to wander around the fascinating wooden structures.
As an experiment, my wife sauntered up to the window and, in her best Russian, simply said dva (Russian for two). A silent exchange of tickets and rubles was then made. She passed the test.
We paid 1/5 what we should have. (I would have done this myself, but her German heritage was a safer bet than my Filipino background to pass as a Russian.)
3. Bypassing admission checkpoints
Word of mouth among the traveler’s circuit is a great way to spread information. You learn all sorts of things that aren’t in a guidebook.
Money saving secrets? / Photo: retrotraveler
In a cafe in Lijiang, China, while thumbing through a visitor’s diary, most entries were about the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek, which we were about to embark on. One entry caught our eye. It was a tip to save money.
The gateway town to the start of the hike is Qiaotou. As you enter the gorge you must pass through a checkpoint where a fee is collected. The tip in the diary was this:
In Qiaotou, get a taxi to take you to Jane’s Guesthouse, which is just past the checkpoint. If you and the taxi driver play it right, the guard won’t know you’re in there and hence, no fee.
We decided to give this a try. Upon our arrival we found a driver who understood what we wanted – it was clear this is a common tactic. He got us to duck down in the back as we drove through the checkpoint undetected. (An alternative to this is to go very early before the guard starts his shift.)
4. Free rides on the Eurail and other public transit
I’m not sure if this has changed at all, but when I bought a 10-trip pass back in 2004, to validate the trip all you had to do was write the date in one of the boxes on the pass. I’ve heard through the grapevine that there are some travelers who use pencil and then erase and reuse. (Or they don’t validate the ticket at all).
This also applies to other transit systems around the world. It’s a risk getting caught, but if you don’t speak the local language, the frustration experienced by the transit worker trying to book you usuallys mean you get off scot-free.
5. “Surprise” guests
A way to save money on accommodation is to spread the costs across a lot of people. Makes perfect sense. But what about when you straight up lie and book a room for two of you, then sneak three others in under the cloak of night?
Or, what about sneaking guests into your hostel and sharing a bunk with them?
6. The faux complaint
There are those who invent complaints about service in order to get upgrades or freebies. Our own Julie Schwietert even followed someone’s Twitter that shamed an airline. The person ended up with a seat upgrade and, later, a free flight, by unleashing a stream of real-time bitching about the company’s service.
The question of right and wrong
There are 1001 more ways out there that travelers can (and do) use to scrimp on some dough. While my wife and I have never considered ourselves overtly devious, at times we have taken advantage when the situation presented itself.
I would say there is a line to be drawn. Not a black and white Sharpie fine line, but a blurry, wavy, grey line that is dependent on the circumstance.
Have you ever misrepresented yourself in order to save money? And have you ever thought about its ethical and moral implications? Share your thoughts below!
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Ha, notice the title was not “Completely Illegal Ways To Save Money.” If that was the case, then you’d read stuff like selling passports, body parts, etc…
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Daniel, I am SO looking forward to your piece on all that
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Guilty on #1 and #4. What’s the story with #6?
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Julie will have to fill us in with those details!
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As long I get continue to get carded to buy alcohol, I refuse to not try and use my student ID. Even though it says 2004-2005.
Still works, and to a certain extent, rightly so since I was actually a student until 2008.
Am I attempting some sort of a justification here? Yes, I am!
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You’re so justified Christine! I like to justify it myself…I’m a student of life.
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“I’m a student for life…” Try using that at the ticket counter instead of an student card
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I’ve definitely pretended to be a student even past my student days. I’m only 24, so I can still pass as a student with my old college ID. And I also can attest to acting like a local to save some cash. When I studied abroad in Spain I got a “carne joven” (under 26 youth card) for 3 Euros (it was completely legit) and between that and my Universidad de Valladolid student ID I was able to get into just about every attraction at EU price.
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Augh, having been a hostel worker, let me tell you #5 is super annoying. And if you’re in a small enough hostel (like the one I worked at), trust me, we’ll know.
And come knocking on your door in the morning. Mind you, I think the experience was tainted by the fact that the lads who snuck their friends in also blasted their music at 2am (waking up and annoying the stag party next door), stole our sign, and trashed their room. And then got angry at ME that I kept their 10$ deposit. They were just assholes.But yes, definitely guilty of 1 and 3…
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There are super-fancy trains in Europe which people with a Eurail youth pass don’t have access to (because technically you’re holding a third-class ticket). However, you can always play stupid and hop on and, by the time the ticket taker comes round and tells you to get off at the next stop, the next stop might be where you were headed anyway! And he won’t punch your pass either–free ride all the way.
Feel bad about it? Nah.
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Same with the Nozomi cars on the Shinkansen trains in Japan.
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Carlo-
This is such a fantastic, well-written, and funny article. Really enjoyed it!
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Thanks Julie! And thanks for the tipoff on #6!
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I’m on the Eurail pass now…they check it about 50% of the time….
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Nice article Carlo – how about passing oneself off as a travel writer in order to get a freebie?
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Thanks Tim…that’s a good one. It would be interesting to find out how many writers (or non-writers) have done/tried this? Speak up!
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I am of two minds of this. I have done the student card thing (KSR variety), ducked ticket collectors, skipped into National Parks and tourist attractions (which should be free) but try not seek to short change anyone or abuse anyone’s hospitality or good nature. I am reading Richard Neville book ‘Play Power’ (1970) at the moment and its similar in that he’s offering hints to the hippies in Thailand, Laos, India etc. back in the day.
Page 247. Look the India railway guard in the eye and say ‘I am not going to pay.’ He will go away. For the less unscrupulous, your forged student card will cut the third-class fare to a pittance…..lots of more equally nasty stuff for other countries.
My turning point came a few years ago when I was a young and foolish when I refused to pay a fare on an Indian train. Why? I still don’t know but watched an Indian guy pay my fare for me. It shamed me. The question remains that many of us are able to pay the full class fare etc but choose not because it highlights how competent, knowledgeable, comfortable we feel we are we are as travellers. Its an ego trip to pay less but I wonder of the consequences for the people, systems, cultures, hospitality we abuse. It doesn’t matter if its a system, or a person…..
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Thanks for the thoughtful comment Michael. That book sounds terrible! Was our moral compass that different 40 years ago? Or is was that behaviour as “ethically dubious” as it is today? (although I would argue that that’s just plain wrong)
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ah, good thread this
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Lucky Me! My last college for whatever reason, did NOT put the years or an expiration on the ID.
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I used the Eurail in 2006. I had heard about the pencil but the first thing they told me when I bought it, was to write the dates with a pen. So I usually tried not to write the date until I saw the ticket taker, the bad part of this one is that I had to be alert the whole trip. Another one I tried was writing the date not so clear, so the next time I had to write a date I could change the numbers (lets say a 4 for a 9), it worked almost every time.
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You raise a good point Jose…is it worth the paranoia? In the past I’d (sometimes) not validate my transit pass, especially if it was a short trip, just a few stops…but the whole time I’d be on edge…wondering if whoever was getting on board was an undercover transit cop.
You start getting “conspiracy theory” — be careful, a tinfoil hat is not far behind!
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Where is the (fine) line between being extremely FRUGAL/CHEAP and THEFT/DISHONESTY? It seems (even for myself) that often this ethical question gets blurred when looking for a deal….like me using my student ID (100% sucessfull thus far) and I am 7 years out of undergrad…
Thoughts…?
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Haha, I am *actually* a student. *smug grin*
Hilarious article Carlos, and I must admit quite helpful too.
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Great discussion. I did several of these on a regular basis when I was backpacking in my younger days. Now that I am more comfortably off though, I still find myself slipping into the old habits when I go travelling. Somehow when I am travelling I am prepared to go a little bit farther to get a deal than I would find normal at home. Why? Is it because you are thinking more about money anyway if it is in a foreign currency? Is it because when you are in an unfamiliar environment you are more concerned about being scammed/ripped off and therefore haggle harder?
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Well, for us I guess because when we do long term travel, we are jobless, so trying to stretch it as far as possible. Those savings might turn into an extra night or two…or a nicer room, or better dinner. Or that Mongolian crossbow…
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I agree with “Act like a local“. If some entrance tickets saying clearly of different prices for local and foreign, that’s acceptable. Think acting locally can save in dining, transportation etc. and sometimes save trouble from being a traveler.
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Thanks for the article Carlo. Back home in Ireland I got an “International Youth Travel Card” for 6e that looked remarkably like an ISIC that got me student discounts all over Europe (except for Greece, where they recognised exactly what it was, or wasn’t
Tip from my brother: when an inspector comes along to control your ticket, just pretend that you don’t know what date it is, and were waiting to ask him/her. That way, no inspector, one more free ride. If you’re especially devious, and the inspector’s none too observant, you can pretend to be writing the date as they’re busying themselves down the aisle.
Wouldn’t have the nerve to pull off no. 6, but know that economizing is all about squeezing another few days’ travel out of the budget.↵ -
I agree. 6 is extremely dubious and just plain wrong I think! Although, I am a fan of REAL complaints and letters (I’ve been know to write a few), making companies accountable.
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Right on! Companies with poor service/products will do nothing if not pointed out to them.
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What a depressing thread. The idea that everyone is dishonest and out to scam everyone else, even when guests in their countries and supposedly traveling in a spirit of friendship and goodwill…what a downer. Call me a sucker, but the idea of lying and cheating people, particularly in third-world countries, as an “ego trip”, really gets my goat. I know that no matter how modest my travel budget, if I can afford to travel, I’m a lot richer than the people in most of the countries I’m visiting. Why should their tourist attractions be free? Maintaining them costs money, which the locals in poor countries can’t afford. It’s fine that we should have to pay fees that reflect the fact we can afford to pay more than the locals. Beyond ego trips, I think it’s the cloak of anonymity, like living in a big city rather than a small town: you know the consequences of being caught are minimal as no one knows you so you have no reputation to protect. Seems for hip westerners, honesty is for “the little people” – like taxi drivers?
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Hi Ann. Appreciate your thoughts on this! I know it’s no defense, but sometimes, under certain circumstances, the opportunity is too tempting. Again, it’s no defense because in all honesty, you’re 100% right. If I ever did feel like I was taking advantage of someone less fortunate I can assure you I wouldn’t do it! Cheers.
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Sometimes the ticket agent *wants* you to have a discount – at a cinema in Vienna the ticket guy asked “are you a student?” and when I sadly answered no, he asked if I *wanted* to be a student. A completely honest “yes” resulted in a student-price ticket.
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