The cost arrives later
Earlier this week I booked accommodation for a couples trip to Mexico in November. An all-inclusive resort (a different kind of "AI"). Except it wasn't actually all-inclusive, even though it says so right in the resort's name. It was room only.
So the great deal I found, and told everyone about, wasn't so great. Today I booked a better place, got the AI everyone wanted in the first place, and the unwind is in motion.
Price is a number you pay today. Cost is a curve that arrives over time.
The lowest price usually just means the cost got moved somewhere you can't see it yet, into your health or your options.
It is expensive to not be able to afford good food. You pay later with your health.
Wimpy would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. Buying cheap is Wimpy's deal in reverse. You get the hamburger now, and the bill arrives on a Tuesday you never scheduled.
I value optionality. I'll pay more for decisions that can be undone, and I make those fast. I go slow on the one-way doors (Jeff Bezos's phrase), the ones that are expensive to walk back through.
Even now, with strong self-serve platforms and AI agents helping, booking travel still comes down to personal preference, what you value, and reading the small print.
The price is on the screen. The cost is in the footnotes.