Columns

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Dear Globetrotter:Welcome to the 507th issue of your monthly foreign-travel magazine.

Hungary’s capital, Budapest, until 1873 was two separate cities, Buda and Pest, that lay on opposite banks of the Danube River.

Chile was named by natives who once lived on its long and narrow strip of coast. Chile means “end of the land.”

The infamous mutiny of the HMS Bounty occurred off the coast of Tofua, now part of Tonga, in 1789.

The title of this month’s column is oxymoronic. It would be more appropriate to call it “Trying to be less miserable in coach” (that is, in an airline’s economy-class seat).

If you’re like me, you’ve become inured to the increasingly class-based system of paying for passenger preferences. It’s like background noise: after a while, we don’t really notice it until something new jumps out or we jump back in after a long absence. We go after the cheapest fares and decide what additional services we’re willing to get nickel-and-dimed for.