# My travel that requires air fares is about to end



## tombo (Jun 14, 2008)

I purchased a week in Aruba a month ago. The week is a late May early June week. I have been watching prices getting ready to purchase at the 330 day mark where I can reserve my flights. When I first looked the flights were $1200 round trip for 2. Last week it was $1800 round trip for 2. I checked tonight and it is $2500 round trip for 2. I still have to wait several weeks before I can reserve a flight, and who knows how expensive it will be then.The cheapest thing on my trip is becoming the room, car rental, and meals. What is the use of owning a week when the major expense is the air fare? I am about to start traveling only to destinations that i can drive to. I sold my Hawaii week already. I am about to dump my St Maarten and Aruba weeks if I can! I feel sure that I will be able to rent weeks cheap in the future if I can afford the air fare.


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## timeos2 (Jun 14, 2008)

And I'll wager you are far from alone.  Even the non-US travelers will avoid the overseas areas as, despite our current economy being worst than most, they still have to pay the outrageous fares & fuel prices.  Air fare for simple vacations has or soon will return to a rich mans extravagance and a middle class once in ten year "special trip" soon if it hasn't already happened. This isn't some temporary blip.  Drive to locations - especially 1 tank areas where ever they may be - are about to become very attractive again vs 1500 mile drives or flights.


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## lprstn (Jun 15, 2008)

I haven't given up yet on airfare travel, I have a lot of travel for next year that require flights.  I am hoping to be able to hold onto them, but may have to just take 2 of us instead of 6 of us.  Turn one trip into a father and son trip, and another into a mother and daughter trip.  I will have to wait and see.  As for 2010 (I have started booking for spots) it will all be in driving distance....


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## ira g (Jun 15, 2008)

*No more air travel for me, except only in emergency*

We are sitting in the phoenix airport with a five to six hour delay in travel to NY and then on to FL. I am getting real tired of these delays and cancellations and my future trips will be one I can drive to, i.e the mouse in Orlando, Hilton Head, Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains. Gee those ain't bad places.


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## Talent312 (Jun 15, 2008)

My DW has decided that "we" should take her 20-something sons (from a prior marriage), to Europe next year.  I guess I'll just work an extra year before retiring.


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## skierbri10 (Jun 15, 2008)

It's always good to work for an airline.....


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## pedro47 (Jun 15, 2008)

skierbri10 said:


> It's always good to work for an airline.....



Sound nice, but every major airlines are cutting back on workers.


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## Carolinian (Jun 15, 2008)

Depends on where you are.  The European LCC's still have great deals.  Sky Europe just had a sale for 100,000 tickets in July and August for 25 euros each, all-in.

I just bought a R/T to Italy on Wizz Air for the Fall for a bit over $80 all-in.  And that wasn't even a sale fare.


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## dmharris (Jun 15, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> I just bought a R/T to Italy on Wizz Air for the Fall for a bit over $80 all-in. And that wasn't even a sale fare.


 
Where did the flight originate?  What is Wizz Air?


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## MULTIZ321 (Jun 15, 2008)

http://wizzair.com/


Richard


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## tombo (Jun 15, 2008)

Wizz must be short for We izzz going broke unless we raise our fares. They sound like another candidate for the growing list of Airlines in bankruptcy.


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## John Cummings (Jun 16, 2008)

I booked our flights for 2 r/t tickets from San Diego to New York about 2 months ago on Jet Blue. Out of curiosity I just checked the current price and they have actually gone down. We are flying next month.


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## chellej (Jun 16, 2008)

DH travels consantly with his current job & I book most of his travel.

What I am seeing is a lot fewer direct flights and a lot more lay overs and strange routing.

He really likes continental and flights have been really good in the past with the hub in Houston but he will be doing more on sothwest and less on continental.


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## geekette (Jun 16, 2008)

We've never been big on air travel and own within driving distance.  It will most certainly be many many years before we see Hawaii, unless we take a cruise there instead.  aruba will be easier for us - we can drive down to my brother's place and then fly out of Atlanta, saving about $150 each way per person.


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## wackymother (Jun 16, 2008)

tombo said:


> I purchased a week in Aruba a month ago. The week is a late May early June week. I have been watching prices getting ready to purchase at the 330 day mark where I can reserve my flights. When I first looked the flights were $1200 round trip for 2. Last week it was $1800 round trip for 2. I checked tonight and it is $2500 round trip for 2. I still have to wait several weeks before I can reserve a flight, and who knows how expensive it will be then....



I'm not saying the fare will go down...but air fares ALWAYS fluctuate wildly. Whenever we need to fly somewhere, I check fares every day and I'm always amazed at how different they can be from one day to another. Then one day it suddenly drops and you grab it! 

Airfare overall is getting more expensive, no doubt about it....


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## Carolinian (Jun 16, 2008)

dmharris said:


> Where did the flight originate?  What is Wizz Air?



They are a European LCC. And the origin is Bucharest.


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## Carolinian (Jun 16, 2008)

tombo said:


> Wizz must be short for We izzz going broke unless we raise our fares. They sound like another candidate for the growing list of Airlines in bankruptcy.



Haven't checked all the European LCC's, but I know that the big European LCC's, EasyJet and RyanAir, which have similar fare structures seem to be profitable most of the time, whether the legacy airlines are or not.  Heck, every December or so, RyanAir always offers several milion free tickets - just pay the taxes and fees, and they sometimes have sales for 99 pence, all-in, which means they are actually eating most of the taxes.  Yet, overall, they still make money.

It also seems to help when an airline is earning is earning its money and paying for its fuel in €, pounds, forints, lei, etc. rather than $

In fact I just looked at www.ryanair.com, and they are having a sale right now with 2 million free seats October to January.  The sale ends tonight.

Many of the European LCC's are expanding not cutting routes like American legacy carriers.  I wish I could find the time to make use of some of those all-in €19 Bucharest - Stuttgart fares at www.germanwings.com , for example.


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## dougp26364 (Jun 16, 2008)

skierbri10 said:


> It's always good to work for an airline.....




So long as there's work to be had.


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## tombo (Jun 16, 2008)

Carolinian,

It must be nice to be in Europe with cheap air fares to all those countries. It is so expensive to fly  from the US to anywhere outside of the US right now. Southwest is still doing a good job of keeping prices low in the US, but unfortunatelly they don't fly anywhere outside of the lower 48. If I was living  in europe now I would be taking advantage of the great fares in case they don't last. If I had known what was going to happen to the price of air fares this year I would have flown a lot more often the past decade.


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## Aussiedog (Jun 16, 2008)

*Many Many Years Ago*

I hate the airfares going up but part of me feels guilty for feeling this way.  

I believe that we have been enjoying unprecendented low prices for so long I for one am very spoiled.  9/11 really put fares in the toilet and they are just now starting to climb back to where they were before that tragedy - at least on some of the flights that I have taken over the years.

In the mid 70s I was working outside of San Francisco and my roomate was from New York.  She saved her money for a year so that she could fly home in COACH on United for $400 - and that was considered a deal.  And now, in 2008, using very inflated dollars, I VERY begrudgingly fork over $400 to travel from Raleigh to San Diego.....

Ann


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## pwrshift (Jun 16, 2008)

Apparently Southwest bought oil futures for $51 a barrell until 2012, something very few, if any, airlines did.  That could give them a significant advantage unless they capitalize on the current price and pile in profits.

Brian



tombo said:


> Carolinian,
> 
> ...Southwest is still doing a good job of keeping prices low in the US, but unfortunatelly they don't fly anywhere outside of the lower 48. .


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## missmarie (Jun 16, 2008)

*be careful w/jetblue*

Once our favorite from LB to LV, but yesteday they cancelled my boyfriends flight from Las Vegas to OC. No explanation. His flight was originally at 7pm. 
He went to the counter and asked when he could get to OC, and they told him 2:45 pm next day. He stated that he had to be at work and he asked of they could put him on a flight with a different airline. The counter hag dialed SouthWest and handed him the phone.

I'm sorry but this is poor , poor form.


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## Jeni (Jun 16, 2008)

We're also cutting back on flying; too bad train travel is not nearly as affordable or available as in western Europe. Anyway, we are booking trips next year that are within a day's drive. Economically, this works out much better than flying three of us and renting a car. Our exception is Disney- SW remains an affordable option (usually). We've already snagged a week in Hilton Head, will do at least one week on the Outer Banks, will drive to Toledo for a wedding and drive elsewhere from there for a week, and the rest of the time is still undetermined. While I do not have a hybrid or gasoline-economic vehicle, I'm still getting 25+ miles per gallon in my Honda Pilot. :whoopie: 

Jeni


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## Carolinian (Jun 17, 2008)

There is a solution for cheaper flying, and that is coal, or more specifically, coal to liquids.  The technology has been around for decades.  Germans researched and perfecting making diesel fuel from coal, and that is what the Wehrmecht mostly ran on in the last part of WWII.  South Africa did more research when they were concerned about a possible oil embargo against them.  Coal to diesel can be produced with off the shelf technology for about $35 a barrel.  Coal to jet fuel is also feasible, and the US Air Force recently flew a modified B-52 on jet fuel made from coal.

The US is the Saudi Arabia of coal.  We have plenty of the stuff.  Indeed, using processed coal for fuel is not even new here in the US.  Our house in eastern North Carolina, which dates from the 1840's still has the piping for gassified coal that was produced in a local plant from the 1850s to the 1940s.  Although the plant itself is now demolished, its network of distribution pipes is a reminder that coal gas is already part of America's energy heritage.


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## Lisa P (Jun 17, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> There is a solution for cheaper flying, and that is coal, or more specifically, coal to liquids.  The technology has been around for decades.


How cleanly does it burn?


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## Jaybee (Jun 17, 2008)

I'm starting to feel like I did a smart thing when I got rid of our Mexico units, and now have only 3 TS, all within driving distance.

Our "big trip"...2 weeks on Kauai, begins next Sat..  After learning that our fares now would cost approx $800 more than we paid, I feel lucky to have paid "only" $908 per ticket.  There's something wrong with this picture.

Then, yesterday, I saw a Pleasant Holidays package for $717 pp for RT air and
5 nights in a hotel on Maui...(Lahaina Beach?).  OK... It isn't a timeshare, but it sure makes one wonder how they can do that... Jean


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## Carolinian (Jun 17, 2008)

Lisa P said:


> How cleanly does it burn?



I suppose it depends on the grade of coal and what processing is done to it, but I remember from history that the blockade runners in the War Between the States used anthracite coal because it made no smoke to give away their position to Union blockade ships.


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## Jim C (Jun 17, 2008)

Jaybee said:


> I'm starting to feel like I did a smart thing when I got rid of our Mexico units, and now have only 3 TS, all within driving distance.
> 
> We've made the same decision.  Already booked  flights to Puerto Vallarta for our three weeks next January.  Fares are almost 50% higher than they were this year.  Since American Airlines has dropped the flights we've always taken, we will be using Delta and flying from Buffalo through Atlanta instead of Chicago. We're tired of the increasing inconvenience and uncertainty of air travel as well as major changes at the Krystal Vallarta and surrounding properties, so we will end our long association with the Krystal and Puerto Vallarta(30 years) next January with many warm memories and friends.  Sad, really sad, but it's time now.


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## Aussiedog (Jun 17, 2008)

Jaybee said:


> Then, yesterday, I saw a Pleasant Holidays package for $717 pp for RT air and
> 5 nights in a hotel on Maui...(Lahaina Beach?).  OK... It isn't a timeshare, but it sure makes one wonder how they can do that... Jean



When I lived on the Big Island years ago Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays was well known for grabbing excess rooms for nothing and packaging these trips so that everyone benefited - the hotel, air carrier and local merchants.  

Kind of like Vegas - they know that once you get there you will spend your money with local restaurants and merchants, and so it is in the merchants best interests to assist in keeping the hotels full - so somehow the hotels are made at least partially whole with some kind of deal and everyone is happy.

Ann


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## lprstn (Jun 17, 2008)

Also note that bundles of travel packages the agent reserves several flights, early (therefore discounted), and gets additional discount on the flight.


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