Technology is expensive; using it when you travel shouldn’t be.
But it is. Hotels add surcharges to your bill that penalize you for plugging your laptop into a phone line. Airlines take you for a ride, both figuratively and literally, when you want to check e-mail from your seat. Even conveniences like a fax machine, VCR, or television can add to the price of your trip.
That’s why we’re taking a break this week from reviewing the latest travel-related gadgets to zero in on just one thing: How to save money when you travel with technology.
Connection woes. Let’s start with one of the costliest surcharges that you can incur on the road: Internet connection fees. Two years ago many hotels quietly added these fees to their phones. Every phone call, toll-free or not, was subjected to a special surcharge that kicked in after about half an hour of use. Hotels insisted that the levies, which range from an additional 10 cents per minute to a flat rate of $2.95, were necessary because Internet users were tying up all the phone lines.
How to get around them: The problem isn’t so much the fees as it is the disclosure of the fees. You can’t rely on a hotel to be upfront about the additional costs. Often, the notification is found buried in the hotel’s directory of services. The best solution is to simply sever your dial-up connection every 20 minutes and then re-establish it. Once you end the call, your timer is reset to zero.
How much you’ll save: Anywhere from $5 to more than $100, depending on the length of your stay.
Air phone troubles. Read the display on the backside of the phone in your airline seat, and you might be left with the impression that you can make a relatively inexpensive call. Maybe you can even check e-mail from 36,000 feet. The truth is that airborne e-mail is still an expensive luxury, and the call will almost certainly cost more than you’re willing to pay. How much? Five minutes could set you back close to $20.
How to get around them: Unless you’re sitting in business class and are testing one of the experimental new e-mail services, and you’re absolutely, positively sure that it’s free, don’t do it. Wait until you’ve landed and find an RJ-11 jack at the airport or hotel. If you get restless on the plane, watch the in-flight movie.
How much you’ll save: As much as $75 per flight, depending on connection time.
Tech rental travails. Technology begets technology, or so they say. If you’ve got a presentation to make at a conference center, you’ll need more than a laptop with PowerPoint-you’ll also need a suitable projector. If you’re on vacation and want to watch a movie in your room, you’ll sometimes need to rent a VCR from the front desk. These things cost money. A few months ago, I heard from a reader who was staying at the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort in Kahuku. He reported that VCR rentals cost $75 a day. The moral of the story is not that renting technology is expensive, but that no matter how many gadgets you carry with you, you can never have enough.
How to get around them: You can either reduce your need for more gizmos (think chalkboard instead of digital projector) or buy more devices until your carry-on is weighed down. The former is more practical, not to mention cheaper.
How much you’ll save: Projector rentals have been known to cost upward of $800 a day. New ultraportable gadgets such as the InFocus LP130 digital projector, while expensive (retail is $3,916) may make a smarter investment in the long term. As for the movie, better go out to a theater. It’ll only cost you around $8 a pop-a savings of $67.
When it comes to technology, the biggest expense should be the price you paid when you bought the device, not the surcharges you incurred afterwards. Don’t let a hotel or airline try to tell you otherwise.
Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.
Elliott is consumer advocate 
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