@pnuts Aha. Well. Ground transport in the US is generally cheaper than in the UK, for the most part. Even intercity transport can be cheaper, on high traffic corridors. I can pay $25 in NYC for a bus to either Boston or Washington DC on the day, less if I book ahead.

I just checked an "across London" journey by bus and that looks like more than C$20 for just one (but again, not typical) conurbation.

Wait, isn't there a daily cap on the Oyster card? Or is it a separate cap for Tube and bus?

I was not considering an Oyster card (on the basis that a hitchhiker is probably going to have to pay the highest prices).

@pnuts Hitchhiking or no, I wouldn't attempt to go anywhere in, around or through London without an Oyster card.

...unless I had an American Express card, which I don't :)

@MichaelHampton Oyster has a cap

@GayotFow I know it has a cap, but is it the same cap for tube and bus journeys?

Or do they count separately?

It's a TFL cap

@MichaelHampton what's this about? I used to commute through there for years and years

@GayotFow This is complicated. Though it was just mainly idle curiosity, since we were discussing the relative cost of transport in UK and US cities.

You'd have to be totally daft to not get an Oyster card, unless MAYBE you're only making one journey

I had an Oyster for years and years. Still have it, with 50 pounds in the reserve bucket.

Hi everyone, I'm headed to Vegas for a week long conference soon. I've heard not to buy tickets to shows in advance, because they practically give them away on the streets... any one know anything about that?

I've actually never been to London, so I don't have an Oyster card. But I do know a little about it.

I don't know if I'm in the right place here :)

@Michael From here I think the cap may be £22.40! I have never had an Oyster card (but nuts is in my name for a reason) though do sometimes have to force myself into London.

@JustinCredible You're in the right place, though I don't really know the answer offhand

no problem, just giving this Chats a shot

@JustinCredible you are in the right place

I was in Vegas with my family in 2011

If you are with family the main thing is to get the meal ticket

it's a ridiculously good bargain

@MichaelHampton Good answer - but it is just that sort of complexity that has put me off ever buying one.

Going by myself for the first couple days, wife's coming for the last 5

any other tips/trikcs?

@JustinCredible I purchased up front for the big shows like La Reve and Cirque du Soliel and David Copperfield

The rest were opportunity shots

But I never bought from the street

ah good to know. she wants to see cirque

@pnuts Even with the complexity, I learned that every other payment method is much more expensive.

Those big shows seating is important

I like the centre close up

but not close enough to be an audience volunteer

@pnuts And most of that is relevant to foreigners. Anyone living in the UK will find topping up an Oyster card to be much less inconvenient...

Plus I would always ask for the courtesy bus instead of a taxi

Definitely pre-book the helicopter tour

if you are planning to take it

The other tip I can give..........

is whatever you do, don't miss the cactus garden.

one time in the day, and one time at night

@MichaelHampton Yeah, all my guests get a 1 week oyster

It's almost mandatory in the summer

interesting.. helicopter tour and cactus garden. great ideas, thank you!

When the richest guy in the world decides his legacy will be a garden with free admission.......

@MichaelHampton For a very occasional (annual?) journey or two the extra does not seem too bad – I think there is an up-front cost for either obtaining or charging the card and if journeys are a year apart I’d probably need a new one each trip (I’m good at losing things). For commuting however, as presumably is their main use, it’s a no brainer.

@pnuts It's £5 for an Oyster card, which is refundable if you turn the card in

@pnuts When somebody gets ready to leave the UK, they can put their used oyster in a box

@GayotFow Those go to charity, right?

@MichaelHampton yes, I forget which charity though

But they scrape all the change from used oysters

> all proceeds going to the Railway Children, a charity that works with street children and young runaways both in Britain and overseas.

@MichaelHampton There you go!

Before they invented oyster it was horrible

And it took a really long time for them to merge the oyster for national rail.

@JustinCredible don't let the free admission fool you :)

I had another Vega tip........ But I think he's gone

@GayotFow They also apparently do large numbers of refunds at Heathrow

people getting their money back from the cards?

@GayotFow Yes

bbc.com/news/10162991

@MichaelHampton Thanks, interesting read.....

28 May 2010

I'm sure that number is even larger now.

do they give you straight cash?

@GayotFow That's what I understand. Apparently you can even stick your Oyster into a ticket machine and get your £5 back.

@MichaelHampton Clever bastards, no?

@GayotFow It's brilliant

I'll have to find mine and cash it in

I have the one where you take everything for free. Costs £10

@MichaelHampton @pnuts The daily oyster cap amount depends on the zones you transit through. And it's never more than the price of a daily travelcard (peak or off-peak) for those zones. Back in 2008 it was less than 7£ for zones 1-6 off-peak. Today with the peak and off-peak distinction suppressed it might very well be 22£.

@pnuts Thanks for the edit man. Damned mobile app. :)

@MarkMayo Is this a shopping question: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/46258/… ?

@RoflcoptrException I mistakenly created the pore whilst attempting to create porec. Could you take care of this please? :)

@GayotFow That's my other account

@Relaxed Is this you? That explains so much! :P

I don't mix them (they are active on different sites) but it's not a secret and somehow the chat system messed up with the credentials

@JoErNanO Like what?

The list would be too long for the chat. :P

All jokes aside, do you think this is a shopping question:travel.stackexchange.com/questions/46258/…

I'm always torn when I see these.

It's borderline

Ok so what defines a shopping question?

Anything like "Where can I buy ... ?"

If it's available everywhere, it's impossible to give a good answer

If it's made by one company which has a list of shops or something then a good answer is possible

I tend to think that a shopping question would be something like “Where is XXX cheapest in this city?”

Ok makes sense. So then according to your definition the linked one is a shopping question.

E.g. “What's the cheapest hostel?” or “Where is the best place to buy electronics?”

Yeah, probably

But then again if it's specific enough, it could still be answerable

That's the litmus test for me

Rules can be useful but I am not in favor of applying them too literally, for their own sake, or spending too much time on letter of the rule

In any case, I won't vote to keep it open

which tells you that the question must seem pretty bad ;-)

Also I have said it before, I will say it again, for no particular reason: Oyster is great!

If you want to know how Oyster done wrong could look like, look up the OV-chipkaart

And stop complaining…

:D

@RoflcoptrException The same applies for the ptaxis tag. Looks like a typo to me. :)

@JoErNanO My presumption was all zones (1-9 & Watford Junction!) because the context was crossing a metropolitan area and I chose a hitchhike I did once (Dover to NW London). Did not want to bother you with a trivial edit but a very good answer seems to me to deserve a little ‘polish’ even more than a mediocre one that could benefit from several edits.

@pnuts Daily capping has become insanely complicated.

And thanks again for the edit, I welcome improvements. :)

Well, Gala had just about persuaded me to try Oyster "next time" and you then come along with "insanely complicated" again - the main reason I was put off in the first place!

And pointed me to another ‘reason’. The site mentions “Chorleywood” ugh! Having lived there for many years that is an abomination for what was (STILL IS, to me) Chorley Wood!!! Stupid PO who can’t distinguish Lancashire from Hertfordshire/Buckinghamshire. ;-)

Tough question

I knew about the phrase “first-world problem” but how do we call this?

One-percent problem?

Less than that.

One percent is not a quantity anymore!

I think we should compile a community wiki on airside hotels at airports (I'm particularly interested in Europe, mostly). Up to now I thought only the Yotel at AMS was such but travel.stackexchange.com/questions/44628/… says there's on in Zurich.

Do you think this is a worthy thing to do?

There's probably more than just those two. ;)

There's TAV at Istanbul, yes

But that's not Europe :)

But still, it's insanely rare.

check this out: passportindex.org

passportindex.org/byRank.php?ccode=it

Getting lost in Paris, great read

nytimes.com/2015/04/19/travel/…

@JoErNanO both tags have 0 questions attached to it. they should be deleted soon

@RoflcoptrException Thanks!

no problem :)

@MarkMayo you have to hurry up... I'm in Vancouver for only one more week :)