Why is domestic travel so expensive???

[Anonymous]

Maybe this has been asked before, but I'm shocked at how expensive domestic flights are. I've been trying to book tix to national parks (Potential flying into Vegas, Fresno, or PHX) for Spring Break and tix are just insane. In fact, tix are more expensive for my family to travel than what I paid for our summer travel (Jul 23) overseas. Why can I get to London, Paris, or even CPT for less than Vegas or LA? It's a shame because I'd like to dedicate as much time to visiting the US as int'l destinations. The rate of domestic airfare does not make it easy, though.

[Anonymous]

The problem is trying to go at Spring Break. Some of those National Parks have the most ideal weather in spring so everyone tries to go then.

[Anonymous]

International travel is expensive too. Maybe you were lucky to get good rates on international flights, but I was casually looking for this summer (several different cities), and it was 1,500-2,000 per person.

[Anonymous]

Air travel should be expensive and discouraged. It’s terrible for the environment.

[Anonymous]

You're booking too late for this spring break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're booking too late for this spring break.

This. There were reasonable prices in october. Tbe county school calendar came out and im booking next year winter now.

[Anonymous]

Because people will pay it.

[Anonymous]

Econ 101

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's when you travel, OP. This is the worst possible time to book travel to popular vacation destination for spring break dates. It's you and everyone else battling it out for tickets to the same few places.

If you want to travel more cheaply, you need to do the following:

- Book way in advance. I got tix to a popular European destination for summer 2023 but starting to stalk fares about 8 months out, and then snagging some for less than $600 a person about 6 months out. Research past ticket trends so you recognize a good price when you see one. Then either track fares on Google or set a reminder to check fares once a week. You will get great fares this way.

- Travel against trends. Instead of going to Phoenix or Vegas for spring break, go to Vancouver or Seattle. Florida in October. New Orleans in July. This isn't for everyone -- most people want to go places at peak season for weather reasons. We do that sometimes too, but for me it depends on the destination and I have a broader acceptance of rainy weather. I also don't mind very hot weather if I have plenty of indoor options. The bonus is that often these destinations are less crowded and touristy in the off season, which I appreciate.

- Get a card with miles and shop sales. We have a Southwest card for domestic travel and rarely pay for domestic flights (though I still shop deals for them because I want to maximize our points and usually the points charged mostly tracks ticket prices). When we do pay for domestic travel, I shop Southwest's sales (and bonus -- buying flights and other travel from them using our Southwest card gets us double points). Sometimes if I'm booking travel for something like Spring Break, I just go and see where the cheapest flights are and then pick the one that sounds most appealing.

- Be very flexible. Related to that last point. If I can't schedule a trip well in advance (like if we don't know if we'll have the time off or I just don't get it together in time), I'll shop last minute deals. Sometimes I score something great this way. If not, we'll just book something last minute in a nearby city and drive, or go to a drivable beach or something. We usually do 2 vacations a year planned well in advance, and everything else is flexible travel that we choose closer to the dates but we stay very flexible on destination. This has resulted in some fun trips to unexpected destinations. We had a great time in St. Louis a few years ago, and also did a trip to Detroit over a long weekend that was (1) practically free, and (2) surprisingly fun because actually Detroit has some really fun stuff for families. I would never plan a weekend in Detroit for the family 8 months out unless we were attending a family event or something, but we found crazy cheap fares last minute that we paid for with points, a really nice hotel for less than $100 a night that we partially paid for with rewards, and then found some last minute tickets to a Tigers game on StubHub. There's also a great museum. It was a perfect getaway and the only reason we did it is because we decided last minute it would be fun to fly somewhere the weekend before school started and I started poking around for deals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Air travel should be expensive and discouraged. It’s terrible for the environment.

+1. It is a luxury item and should be discouraged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're booking too late for this spring break.

I disagree. I started looking for spring break flights when SW released their scheduled in October and prices never really changed between then and when I booked in January. Maybe went up slightly but really not much cheaper in October. That said, they have increased significantly since January.

For reference we paid $2300 for 4 tickets to Denver. In 2022 we also booked in January and paid $1500 for 4 tickets. Last year our spring break was the same week (first week of April) but not tied to Easter so that may have helped some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Air travel should be expensive and discouraged. It’s terrible for the environment.

[Anonymous]

I have read several articles in the NYT, WP, USA Today + WSJ lately on this topic OP. It is quite frustrating/annoying. Some of the reason is airlines cut way back on flights during the pandemic and thus have fewer flights with very high demand. The articles indicated airlines expect to continue charging higher prices. It is a racket since the airlines got so much inPPP loans.

A pp (2/10/23 -9:27) included some good strategies to use. I would add-- sign up for Airfarewatchdog so you can see the best prices for a particular city. And use Travelocity/Expedia etc. to scope a flight and then go to the airline's direct website to book once you find the best rate. We fly a lot and this airline price thing has become a game/puzzle. Hotel prices have gone way up too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're booking too late for this spring break.

I disagree. I started looking for spring break flights when SW released their scheduled in October and prices never really changed between then and when I booked in January. Maybe went up slightly but really not much cheaper in October. That said, they have increased significantly since January.

For reference we paid $2300 for 4 tickets to Denver. In 2022 we also booked in January and paid $1500 for 4 tickets. Last year our spring break was the same week (first week of April) but not tied to Easter so that may have helped some.

+1 I looked for tickets really early. They were astronomical even then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Air travel should be expensive and discouraged. It’s terrible for the environment.

No reason not to take Amtrak instead except for the length.