{"id":9632,"date":"2022-10-09T09:49:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T13:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=9632"},"modified":"2022-10-11T10:37:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T14:37:37","slug":"lock-in-those-prices-for-holiday-travel-this-week-going-to-go-higher-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=9632","title":{"rendered":"Lock in those airfares for holiday travel this week, going higher"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For the past two years, Covid put the kibosh on holiday travelers. Now those eagerly planning to travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas are in for sticker shock.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Airfare prices will be the highest they\u2019ve been in five years, and they\u2019ll only get more costly the longer you drag your feet on booking.<\/p>\n

For Thanksgiving travel, domestic airfare will run $350 for an average round-trip, up 22% compared with 2019 and 43% higher than last year, according to a new report by\u00a0Hopper,<\/ins><\/a>\u00a0a travel app. International airfare will hit $795 on average for a round-trip, up 25% from 2019, and a jump of 41% over 2021.<\/p>\n

Read on Yahoo Finance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re preparing to travel over the Christmas holidays, you\u2019ll need to up the ante. Domestic airfare will average $463 round-trip, up 31% compared with 2019, and 39% higher than last year. International airfare is likely to be $1,300 on average round-trip, up 26% versus 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cFactors, including higher jet fuel prices, fewer flights scheduled and limited airline capacity compared to 2019, and two years of pent-up holiday travel demand, are contributing to higher Thanksgiving and Christmas airfares,\u201d Hopper Senior Economist Andrew Heritage told Yahoo Money.<\/p>\n

But few people are blinking at the heftier tab. More than half of Americans intend to travel for the holidays this year, with 70% of travelers planning to visit family and friends, according to Hopper data. They should also be ready for bumpy travel in addition to higher prices.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know.<\/p>\n

Delays and cancellations aren\u2019t going away<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The main cause for the flight disruptions has been a staff shortage for many of the airlines and that is likely to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cU.S. airlines have launched aggressive hiring campaigns to meet this demand,\u201d Hannah Walden, a spokesperson for the trade association\u00a0Airlines for America<\/ins><\/a>, told Yahoo Money. \u201cBut the rebound in demand for air travel has been rapid\u2014quicker than most industry experts and analysts ever predicted. Flight schedules for September and October have been reduced by 15% compared to pre-pandemic levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lessons from the summer debacle may have sunk in and airlines could be better prepared to handle issues, according to\u00a0Laurie Garrow<\/a>, president of\u00a0AGIFORS<\/ins><\/a>, a nonprofit that conducts airline research and a professor in the Civil Engineering department at Georgia Institute of Technology, told Yahoo Money.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we head into the holiday season, I would say we’ve learned a lot from the summer,\u201d Garrow said. \u201cWe have seen that many airlines have cut back on the number of flights, but really they’re holding more planes in reserve in case things go wrong so they have more in backup and if things go wrong in the systems and they encounter delays, they’re better able to respond to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m hopeful there will be fewer delays and cancellations, but one of the things that’s always challenging is if the weather hits, then all bets are off,\u201d Garrow added.<\/p>\n