Why is domestic travel so expensive???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not true. I booked the same flight last year for spring break - IAD - Vegas - at nearly half the price of what I'm seeing now. We went to Zion and tickets were reasonable. I booked in Feb/March. I never book Spring Break in October. This year, we were thinking Death Valley or Sequoia, or whatever option was cheaper. Costs are nearly double. I also have miles but don't want to spend that many miles just to travel domestic when I can use them for overseas travel.

I don't understand who is paying $1200 to go to Vegas. It just seems like costs have skyrocketed. Domestic travel used to be cheaper than int'l travel, and I don't find that to be the case now.

[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.

WAsn't Spring Break the week before Easter last year, too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

you are kidding right? Sure I'll take Amtrak to CO, sounds like a blast. will only take 41 hours, lol. Faster to drive.

Amtrak is terrible. Always late, painfully slow and often more expensive than flying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

WAsn't Spring Break the week before Easter last year, too?

Not for Fairfax county. They went rogue and did it the first week of April, Easter was end of 2nd week in April. Not great for teachers with kids who live in one county but work in another, but for those of us who wanted to travel it was really nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not true. I booked the same flight last year for spring break - IAD - Vegas - at nearly half the price of what I'm seeing now. We went to Zion and tickets were reasonable. I booked in Feb/March. I never book Spring Break in October. This year, we were thinking Death Valley or Sequoia, or whatever option was cheaper. Costs are nearly double. I also have miles but don't want to spend that many miles just to travel domestic when I can use them for overseas travel.

I don't understand who is paying $1200 to go to Vegas. It just seems like costs have skyrocketed. Domestic travel used to be cheaper than int'l travel, and I don't find that to be the case now.

This is still Econ 101 plus inflation. There were fewer travelers last year coming out of the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

I’ve been stalking tickets to Italy for over a year and have seen no change in prices. I finally purchased for $1,700 a person for this summer (1 stopover each way). Curious where you are going for $600?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not true. I booked the same flight last year for spring break - IAD - Vegas - at nearly half the price of what I'm seeing now. We went to Zion and tickets were reasonable. I booked in Feb/March. I never book Spring Break in October. This year, we were thinking Death Valley or Sequoia, or whatever option was cheaper. Costs are nearly double. I also have miles but don't want to spend that many miles just to travel domestic when I can use them for overseas travel.

I don't understand who is paying $1200 to go to Vegas. It just seems like costs have skyrocketed. Domestic travel used to be cheaper than int'l travel, and I don't find that to be the case now.

This is still Econ 101 plus inflation. There were fewer travelers last year coming out of the pandemic.

2022 had the highest rates of travel out of the pandemic. 2022 had sky high travel. 2023 has not surpassed 2022 nor has it reached 2019 levels. So the it's just Econ business is not entirely true. Is it overall inflation? Lack of workforce? Greed?

[Anonymous]

Its the time you are traveling. I flew my family of 4 to PHX last week for $500 RT (for all of us) including luggage. Spring break is inflated because people will pay it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is not true. I booked the same flight last year for spring break - IAD - Vegas - at nearly half the price of what I'm seeing now. We went to Zion and tickets were reasonable. I booked in Feb/March. I never book Spring Break in October. This year, we were thinking Death Valley or Sequoia, or whatever option was cheaper. Costs are nearly double. I also have miles but don't want to spend that many miles just to travel domestic when I can use them for overseas travel.

I don't understand who is paying $1200 to go to Vegas. It just seems like costs have skyrocketed. Domestic travel used to be cheaper than int'l travel, and I don't find that to be the case now.

This is still Econ 101 plus inflation. There were fewer travelers last year coming out of the pandemic.

2022 had the highest rates of travel out of the pandemic. 2022 had sky high travel. 2023 has not surpassed 2022 nor has it reached 2019 levels. So the it's just Econ business is not entirely true. Is it overall inflation? Lack of workforce? Greed?

Not this time last year, at the height of omicron.

[Anonymous]

need another virus or recession to lower prices

[Anonymous]

I looked for spring break flights in august (March spring break). I found prices to be really high domestically!! It was more expensive to fly to florida this year than it was to get tickets to London.

We are headed to London. It’s craziness.

[Anonymous]

I have given up on traveling during the peak times. Unfortunately that’s difficult with school aged kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I looked for spring break flights in august (March spring break). I found prices to be really high domestically!! It was more expensive to fly to florida this year than it was to get tickets to London.

We are headed to London. It’s craziness.

OP here. This is exactly what I'm finding. It's such a shame bc I want my kids to see the US, too, and I'd like to hit up all the national parks. I've looked at other times of the year, as well, and we did end up booking for a family of 5 to S Africa. Those tickets were cheaper than going to Vegas. Absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked for spring break flights in august (March spring break). I found prices to be really high domestically!! It was more expensive to fly to florida this year than it was to get tickets to London.

We are headed to London. It’s craziness.

OP here. This is exactly what I'm finding. It's such a shame bc I want my kids to see the US, too, and I'd like to hit up all the national parks. I've looked at other times of the year, as well, and we did end up booking for a family of 5 to S Africa. Those tickets were cheaper than going to Vegas. Absurd.

I feel like it must have been off season for S Africa then and popular time for Vegas? Since seasons reversed?

[Anonymous]

Too much demand and not enough supply. People seem travel starved after the past few years and I really don't understand it.