Buying airline tickets as travel rebounds..

[Birdie dog]

Holy budgetbutsters Batman! I'm going to be spending a lot of money on airfare in 2022. I'm flying to Europe twice and to the USVI in 2022, along with visits to see friends in Montana and NY. And airfare looks high.
I just bought one set of tickets today. Google flights recommended I buy, but they were considerably more expensive than my pre covid airfare purchases. My cancelled ABD from this year was moved to 2022 and the air (apples to apples) is twice what I paid last year. I really feel like I'm not sure when to buy. I know that as countries (knock on wood) open up, there will be more flights and more options. But with that comes more demand and I think prices will continue to climb. I've set some numbers for air and will buy when I see them, but I've definitely moved my expectations to the higher end. What are you all doing about this?

 

[QueenIsabella]

Well, we're going to Hawaii next summer, and I recently booked the airfare. Flying coach was ~$1400/seat, while first class was ~$3500/seat. We went with first class--3/5 of the group is 6 feet or taller, and it's a long trip! We also have some pent-up travel demand (and budget), since our 2020 Baltic cruise didn't happen.

Pre-pandemic, I had priced tickets to Europe, and first class was north of $10k pp. THAT was never going to happen. The cost of Hawaii seems like a veritable bargain. And it's a very special trip for us.

 

[Darcy03231]

I have trips booked for next year and have noticed the same thing. I already booked for one trip when the prices got to something I could live with. Still holding out on the other trip hoping prices will start to come down when we get a little closer.

 

[GingerPilot]

There is a considerable supply issue with flights. Not enough employees (flight crews, ground crews, contractors for mx, catering, etc) to operate the number of flights needed to meet demand... so prices go up to slow demand. It's going to be like this for awhile, unfortunately.

 

[lorenae]

I have a cheap ish flight from Tampa to Dallas in early December (Southwest), but all my other upcoming flights (Tampa to Green Bay, Green bay to Tampa on Delta; Green bay to MCO and MCO to Green Bay on United) are outrageous compared to a year ago.

About three weeks ago, my flight from Wisconsin to Fairbanks was expensive (but not too terrible), but they gave us a smaller plane and we were packed in like sardines. With a major delay due to needing to pull passengers off the plane at the gate, it was 7 hours with someone next to me basically on my lap. Unfortunately, the airlines are not friendly to pooh-sized people, and the poor women was 1/2 in my seat. The seats were tiny, and it was a plane meant more for short hops than a 7 hour long haul. It was horrible.

I think this is the new normal.

 

[Judique]

I have a cheap ish flight from Tampa to Dallas in early December (Southwest), but all my other upcoming flights (Tampa to Green Bay, Green bay to Tampa on Delta; Green bay to MCO and MCO to Green Bay on United) are outrageous compared to a year ago.

About three weeks ago, my flight from Wisconsin to Fairbanks was expensive (but not too terrible), but they gave us a smaller plane and we were packed in like sardines. With a major delay due to needing to pull passengers off the plane at the gate, it was 7 hours with someone next to me basically on my lap. Unfortunately, the airlines are not friendly to pooh-sized people, and the poor women was 1/2 in my seat. The seats were tiny, and it was a plane meant more for short hops than a 7 hour long haul. It was horrible.

I think this is the new normal.

Customers of size who fly Southwest should look into the ability to buy a second seat and be refunded for it.

I am not sure if there are any other airlines that are as generous and I didn't take a look at all the policies.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Interesting, I've just found the opposite. I fly from Europe to USA. I have booked transatlantic flights for January 2022 with Delta which cost me €300 less than the flights I had booked and then had to cancel for June 2020.

Before Covid I found that January was a good time to buy transatlantic flights, I used to buy flights in January for travel in June. It will be interesting to see what the prices are like in January 2022 for travel in June 2022.

 

[kathy884]

I have another thread out there regarding spring break prices to Orlando (Our flights to MCO have always been pretty reasonable in the past (usually $320-$350 for spring break) and what I paid for March 2022 is more than I've ever paid before). $440 round trip from Chicago and $500 round trip from St. Louis (I do have cancelable fares for the St. Louis flights which upped the cost by about $50 for the round trip, and I went Frontier instead of Southwest from St. Louis as Southwest fares were out of sight from there ($740 round trip for the times I wanted -- Those are Caribbean prices not a little trip to Orlando in my book) and Spirit was even more expensive (over $800 -- what??). I didn't have date flexibility. Southwest was still my best bet from Chicago. I'm pretty budget sensitive on vacations. I was still in budget, but only because I ended up using Southwest points for three flight legs and some Southwest credits to lower the cost on one additional leg. Without those freebies I would have had to up my spring break vacation budget by quite a bit. I really underestimated flight costs big time.

High air prices could keep me from doing the Paris/Belfast trip we had booked in 2020 (forego this international trip altogether if I have to cough up a lot of extra funds). I don't want to do coach for the long haul flights and would be looking at premium economy for a little more comfort/room. What I would end up doing is plan a different less expensive domestic vacation instead if costs are too high. I'd love to do a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico too (my personal favorite tropical destination). I'm still on the fence due to COVID-19 on that and in a wait and see mode. On top of that, though, airfares will be another determining factor as to whether I do that trip or not. If it's too expensive, I'll just do something else closer to home vs. upping my budget by too much. I'll still travel, but it sounds like my travels might end up being more modest and closer to home due to increasing costs.

QueenIssabella, First class to Hawaii sounds heavenly. I have done that long haul trip first class when I had freebie upgrades and was that delightful (very comfortable and I felt refreshed - not tired and cramped when I got there - and I'm not a particularly tall or large person). Traveling was actually a pleasure (Direct flight from Denver). A similar coach (actually a longer trip with layover in LAX and from farther away (St. Louis) was so much more painful, that it's not something I think I'd repeat, even though Hawaii is so beautiful. It's just too far away and too expensive for us.) What a nice way to go.

Travel prices seem to be up for 2021 for sure. On rental cars too, I've scaled back and am renting full sized vehicles instead of mini vans. My week in Orlando for a full size car with a major reputable rental car company will set me back $346 (higher than in the past, but not too bad (lower than I expected) and I'll continue to look at prices). A minivan would have set me back $1054. We have a condo with washer and dryer and I am just telling people if they want to come they have to pack lighter or take an uber. We will just have a party of four adults (bringing grown kids), but I often if prices seem reasonable I get a minivan for the extra luggage space and so extra relatives who live in the area can hop in our car vs. our taking two cars to some of the restaurants/parks. For the price differential I'm not going to do that here.

 

[kathy884]

Birdie Dog, With COVID-19 I'm not ready to book yet, but your post got me curious so I did a quick look see for flight prices for the European trip we canceled in June 2019 looking at June 2022 and PV for late Feb/March 2022. Europe flights for June if we were to book were sky high (about double for flights we didn't do in 2019 (similar to what you were seeing)- way fewer options to go on the same airline the whole way which we would want to do to make sure we aren't stuck), meaning it would be a no go for us due to cost even if we were ready to book. Fares to Puerto Vallarta for next spring (they are probably really hurting there due to COVID-19 and extra testing to get back into the US, that is discouraging bookings, etc.) are actually IMHO quite reasonable -- less than I have paid in the past (just a little more than what I am paying to go to Orlando).

 

[QueenIsabella]

QueenIssabella, First class to Hawaii sounds heavenly. I have done that long haul trip first class when I had freebie upgrades and was that delightful (very comfortable and I felt refreshed - not tired and cramped when I got there - and I'm not a particularly tall or large person). Traveling was actually a pleasure (Direct flight from Denver). A similar coach (actually a longer trip with layover in LAX and from farther away (St. Louis) was so much more painful, that it's not something I think I'd repeat, even though Hawaii is so beautiful. It's just too far away and too expensive for us.) What a nice way to go.

There's a long backstory to the Hawaii trip--my FIL died there, in 1990. I promised DH then, pre-kids, that one day, we'd take our kids back. Well, here we are--30 years and 4 kids later. I really want this trip to be a wonderful way to make new, happy Hawaii memories. My IL's were actually going to retire there (on the Big Island), and had picked out a 40-acre macadamia nut farm with a 60 ft waterfall on it. We scattered some of FIL's ashes there. I don't know if we'll be able to find the spot, going back now, but we will definitely be hoisting a glass to toast my FIL at some point on the trip.

Getting the first class tickets at a semi-reasonable rate was just icing on the cake, but I don't dread the painful flight nearly as much as I was.

 

[lorenae]

Customers of size who fly Southwest should look into the ability to buy a second seat and be refunded for it.

I am not sure if there are any other airlines that are as generous and I didn't take a look at all the policies.

This was a full (completely full, not even one open seat) Delta flight, Minneapolis to Fairbanks. It was NOT inexpensive for sure- about $650 for economy each.

 

[RoseGold]

I’ve flown six round trips since COVID, which is nothing compared to my pre-COVID travel. One or two were priced high ($300 for one leg in Vegas!!!), the rest were normal or even cheap. My October trip to MCO is $50/leg on United, which I never saw pre-COVID.

Every time I’ve flown a non-red eye flight to MCO, I’ve been next to a customer of size. Luckily, I have a child to put in the middle seat, but I can see how this is a miserable route for adults. The solution is to book a aisle seat towards the back on the red eye.

 

[MomToOne]

I found a bargain on an 8 night cruise out of Miami in May 2022 that I was looking into booking to celebrate DDs graduation from college. Airfare for 3 of us (me, DD, her boyfriend) was nearly double what I thought it should be and 50% more than the cost of 2 cabins on the cruise (although admittedly it was a really, really good deal on the cruise).

So...didn't book any of it. It's just too crazy.

 

[Mrriddle]

Flights for 2022 I have been looking at are significantly more expensive for what I'm looking at.

 

[laceltris3]

We just bought flights for our trip to Alaska in June. Coach was close to $1K per person, so I ended up going with business class for $1600 per person (less difference when you factor in the free bag check both ways). Now the same tickets are going $2200 each. I am glad we cancelled the trip to Switzerland. I can only imagine how much those would run.

 

[kydisneyfans]

I'm finding the exact opposite. I used to use $200-250 RT to Orlando/Tampa as a base, I'm going Christmas week for $97. It's the 4th trip this year on either Delta or SW from CVG or SDF that has been under $100 RT. I priced out a weekend trip to a concert in Dallas-$118 RT. I had Denver RT nonstop for $118 but canceled due to a death in the family. Some spring prices are high, but the trend has been for flights to drop in price about 90 days out, so I remain patient.

 

[SabresFan]

Compare the price of gasoline now vs pre-covid. That accounts for a lot of the price increase.

 

[bananasplitkids]

I'm finding the opposite as well. We had a trip for next month scheduled to Belize but ended up cancelling it due to covid restrictions. We ended up switching to Hawaii and was able to find tickets for $300 rt from Dallas.

 

[JLemaire7]

Flights seem more expensive now because they were so cheap last year because no one was traveling. We are going to Hawaii in February. The last time we went was 2019 and I checked what we are paying for this trip in 2022 versus what we paid in 2019 for flight, hotel, rental car and it’s about similar.

 

[tano]

Some flights seem double priced on weekends compared to week days at my local airport...