Is this the future?

My dad and I are heading over to Singapore to visit my brother, his lovely wife, and their two handsome boys (Ozzy and Sawyer). After a 20 hour flight, we will be spending a couple of days with my brother in Hong Kong where he has promised to blow our minds in the big city. From there we are heading down to Singapore in time for my nephew Sawyer's first birthday. We have been talking about this trip for a few months, but the go / no go decision only happened a week or so ago. The dates had to be worked out with our projects and with dad's schedule. So, I pulled out the credit card and went to work booking flights.

The United Airlines round trip flight from RDU to Kong Kong was pretty straight forward. Booking through United for all the other destinations, however added an additional $1000 to the cost, so I set off on the internet to find a bargain. My brother had sent me a list of budget airlines, so I had a list from which to start searching for our flights to Singapore, Vietnam, and back to Hong Kong. And I hit the jackpot -  HKG to Singapore on Tiger Air for $70 one way.  Heck yeah!

I got together all the passport information and pulled out my credit card.  Let's go!

Step 1: Select destination (Air fair = $70)
Step 2: Enter passenger details
Step 3: Enter credit card information
Step 4: Pre-pay for luggage (20 kg + $33) - carry on up to 7 kg for no charge.
Step 5: Select seat (+ $5)
Step 6: Taxes (+ $45)
Step 7: Convenience Fee for booking online (+$30)
Step 8: RUN - Save yourself!

The taxes, fees, and luggage charges were more than the fare. WTF?  What if my luggage went over the 20 kg weight limit? What if I needed to use the bathroom on the 3 hour flight? Or wanted to read a book? Or got thirsty? Would I need Hong Kong or Singapore dollars to pay for services?  My head started to explode and suddenly I saw a version of the future that will make traveling even more of a hassle.

Luckily, I found an "all inclusive" flight on Air Asia for about $120. And I got to select the seats for free. The flights are all booked and my credit card continues to smolder.

BTW: Not that I am counting, but I recently surpassed the 1000 page views milestone.  Now I feel obligated to provide even more entertaining fare for readers in Germany, Belgium, Japan, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Singapore, China, Canada, and the United States.  Thank you readers for making this endeavor so much fun.