Book Your Airline Ticket Now
If you plan to fly this holiday season, be prepared for some sky-high ticket prices.
The folks at Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine have been investigating why prices are up, and how consumers can save.
Vera Gibbons, a special correspondent for Kiplinger's, tells The Saturday Early Show "a recent priceline.com study found that average retail ticket prices for Thanksgiving are running about 12 percent to 15 percent higher than last year, and 15 percent to 25 percent higher for Christmas-time tickets."
Here is why tickets are so much more expensive this year:
- Fuel costs are up.
- Airlines in general are in a tough financial position. Four of the country's largest seven airlines are in bankruptcy or reorganization.
- In order to cut their own costs, airlines are reducing the number of flights and capacity on flights. This means flights are filling up fast and pushing up prices.
- People have been booking earlier this year than last, buying up the cheaper tickets and leaving more expensive ones.
- Finally, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's Day all fall on Sundays, which tend to be busy travel days anyway.
"The cheapest tickets to most popular destinations on the most popular days are largely gone," Gibbons says. "Prices are considerably lower on routes that have competition from discount airlines, but low cost carriers have been raising fares, as well. It's more expensive to fly to any 'sun and fun' destination, such as Orlando or the Caribbean, than Kansas City or Milwaukee, for instance."
Unfortunately, she says airlines are not planning to launch any sales that will apply during the holiday travel periods.
So if you haven't booked your flight yet, here is what Gibbons says you can do:
Act quickly: Fares have been rising about 10 percent a week since August.
Book directly: Remember that JetBlue, Spirit and some other discount airlines don't sell tickets on the big travel booking sites such as Expedia and Orbitz. Head to these companies' Web sites directly to book a ticket. Even if you plan to fly the big guys, it's worthwhile to compare the prices being offered on their individual sites with those being offered on the big travel sites.
Be flexible: Changing the days and times you're willing to fly can really make a difference. Take a look at the following examples:
- Dallas to Orlando (one of the hottest destinations)
Dec. 26 to Jan. 2 = $555
Take the red eye back on the 2 = $490
Dec. 18 to Jan. 4 = $375
New York to Honolulu
Dec. 23 to Jan. 2
Non-Stop Flight = $2490
One-Stop Flight = $1310