The cost of plane tickets

[SoSimple]

:0!

If you needed any proof that the price of oil is going up, here it is. My parents live in England and we've generally swapped off visits (I'll go there one year, they come here the next).

Well, I'm in serious sticker shock. Last year I flew business class (truly, truly for health reasons - no way could I sit in a coach-class seat for 8 hours and be able to stand at the end of the flight). It cost $1700, more or less.

This year, because my parents' health is not so great, I was planning to visit in July. Cost of coach class ticket after fees, taxes, etc.: $1630. Now, admittedly, I could have picked different flights (say the 6:55 a.m. flight back from Heathrow) and reduced my cost, but I see the $300 difference as the price worth paying for not getting up in the middle of the night.

I am now planning to fly over Thanksgiving (I need at least one holiday to get enough vacation days to do this trip) and the total cost is around $1000. I'm happy to be saving 40% but in absolute shock over the cost of the ticket. I will have to significantly increase my "bereavement" fund to cover the flight I'll have to take when one of them passes away (sadly they're now at an age where I have to think of such things). Twelve years ago, I flew in midsummer on 10 days notice for my brother's funeral. It cost $900 in all. Now I can't even buy a ticket 9 months out for that price!

[Tradd]

Tell me about it! I'm visiting friends in Cleveland mid-July. The drive from Chicago is about 6 hours, but anymore on a long drive, my legs just hurt. So I thought about flying. I'm looking at flying out Friday late afternoon and back late afternoon Sunday. I'm looking at $325 - from Chicago to Cleveland. And that's Southwest. I've got friends in Baltimore I'd like to visit for a weekend, too. That's closer to $400, also Southwest.

Yikes!

Even though I've got a small car that's good on gas, I have NO clue what gas prices are going to be mid-summer.

[Kat]

I used to fly from Chicago to Detroit (which take less than an hour) occassionally to visit my sister. Now it costs over $300 to do that (plus the gas to Chicago, which is a 6-hour ride roundtrip). Ugh!

[Bastelmutti]

I have scrapped plans for a reunion I was supposed to go to in Europe this summer. We'll just have to Skype!

For relatively short hops from Chicago around the Midwest, check out Megabus. A few years ago, I paid $40 roundtrip Chicago - Cincy. Pretty comfortable, not driving yourself. At the time it was less than the gas would have been for my car.

[Nella]

SoSimple,

Wow! I got a ticket from Denver to London for just at $700. The fare was $300 and the taxes and fees were $400. I was sort of suprised that the fees were more than the fare. But gosh, $1600/$1700 seems like an awful lot. Maybe you're flying from somewhere farther than where I live?

[lhamo]

We are a family of 4 and we regularly make 2 transpacific flights a year to visit family in the US. The two kids get a 25% kids discount off most regular economy fares. About two years ago I got seats on a non-stop flight on Hainan Air from PEK-SEA for around $700/each. That was a brand new route and the tickets were ultra cheap due to that, the recession and the avian flu scare. IN February 2010 I got tickets for myself and the kids for around $2500 (around $830 each), on Air Canada PEK-YVR-SEA. Last summer year the cheapest tickets I could get was around $1500 each, also on Air Canada PEK-YVR-SEA. At Christmas we used miles for two tickets, and bought two other tickets for around $900/each. I have been pricing tickets for our summer trip and they look to be around $1500/each again. We didn't travel regularly in the summer prior to 2009, so I don't have a good record of how prices compare, but I doubt we will ever see $700 summer fares transpacific again. During off season there are still sometimes good deals, but those too are getting rarer as Chinese start to travel more.

lhamo