Depressed about international travel costs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know my vent is whiny and a first world problem. I'm also just sincerely curious how people can afford international travel both time- and money-wise...

It's not easy, but it's doable. It comes down to priorities. If you prioritize travel, then you cut other costs. That's what we do.

True to an extent, but I'd say that breaks down at certain HHI levels. For a lot of families, there simply is not a lot leftover once the necessities are covered. I think back to my parents- they weren't going to take away my sister's one dance lesson per week or my clarinet to finance a trip to Europe. Eliminating pizza takeout once per month wasn't going to get us to China. I feel fortunate than we can squirrel a bit more away to travel more often, but then again, we're not going to raid my kid's college fund to do it either.

Scrimping several years to take one trip is not fun for me; I would rather have small enjoyments now than travel internationally once three years from now. There are plenty of much wealthier people who can travel internationally very easily; I am not in competition with them, and could not care less what they do or not do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to live in England and some of my friends are planning a mini-reunion in May. Kids are invited but looking at tickets, I'm just depressed about how much air fare is. Even without kids, it seems very expensive.

How do people afford it? We'd been planning on a 10th anniversary trip, but between not having enough vacation time (thanks to snow days and other assorted days off of school) and money, I don't think the trip will happen, though we've been saving for awhile.

Let's vote Bernie.

We want free international travel.

Have you seen the Green New Deal? Enjoy your square-rigger across the Atlantic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are using FF miles but even those tix are "pricey" these days.

Ack I know! I had been saving my AA miles to get to Europe, and when I finally had enough and went to book, made an exasperating discovery. Many, or most really, of AA award tickets to Europe are on British Airways- which charge ridiculous fees. The agent called it a "tax" but I investigated and it is really a fuel surcharge (that most US carriers build into a ticket rather than an add-on like BA). It was going to cost $1500 for two "free" tickets. I ended up finding a non-BA flight to there, but we had to use my husband's United miles for the return trip, even being flexible on dates it was tough to avoid BA. But doing it that way cost us only ~$200 rather than the $1500. It was really irritating though, I guess in the future we'll have to use the AA miles for domestic and International travel where AA flies a lot of flights themselves (e.g., Central America).

Yes! So frustrating. I used to fly American a ton for work (and had an AA credit card) and have 130k miles right now but it has been so difficult to use miles for trips to Europe. Got rid of the American credit card a couple years ago and got a Chase Sapphire instead. We had to do the same thing as you on a trip to Italy a few years ago- I could get us to Rome on AA but we had to use DH's United miles to get back.

I was able to use AA miles TO London and from Ireland wihtout many added fees. We thenflew ryanair from london to ireland, cheap. It is the fying OUT of london that triggered the karge fees, i think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we are using FF miles but even those tix are "pricey" these days.

Ack I know! I had been saving my AA miles to get to Europe, and when I finally had enough and went to book, made an exasperating discovery. Many, or most really, of AA award tickets to Europe are on British Airways- which charge ridiculous fees. The agent called it a "tax" but I investigated and it is really a fuel surcharge (that most US carriers build into a ticket rather than an add-on like BA). It was going to cost $1500 for two "free" tickets. I ended up finding a non-BA flight to there, but we had to use my husband's United miles for the return trip, even being flexible on dates it was tough to avoid BA. But doing it that way cost us only ~$200 rather than the $1500. It was really irritating though, I guess in the future we'll have to use the AA miles for domestic and International travel where AA flies a lot of flights themselves (e.g., Central America).

Yes! So frustrating. I used to fly American a ton for work (and had an AA credit card) and have 130k miles right now but it has been so difficult to use miles for trips to Europe. Got rid of the American credit card a couple years ago and got a Chase Sapphire instead. We had to do the same thing as you on a trip to Italy a few years ago- I could get us to Rome on AA but we had to use DH's United miles to get back.

I was able to use AA miles TO London and from Ireland wihtout many added fees. We thenflew ryanair from london to ireland, cheap. It is the fying OUT of london that triggered the karge fees, i think.

Flying on BA transatlantic (either direction) triggers a huge surcharge, even if using AA miles. On the return you also have the UK Air Passenger Duty (APD), which is about $100 in economy and $250 in business. It applies to all flights leaving the UK, with small charges for short range flights to Europe and the much higher levels on long distance flights. As stated here, you can avoid the long distance portion of the fee by hopping a short flight to Ireland, but it has to be a separate booking.