Even in the best of circumstances, traveling during the holidays is crowded, unpleasant and expensive, and these are hardly the best of circumstances.
Due to the pandemic and supply chain issues, flights and cancellations are more common than ever. And renewed covid outbreaks have left planes without enough crew members.
But the main problem is that a number of pilots took a buyout or chose to retire early, and when travel started picking up again in 2021, many airlines found themselves shorthanded.
While companies like American Airlines are working to solve the pilot shortage, even the CEO admits the industry won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until late next year, as there are not enough senior pilots on hand to help train the next generation.
It’s also been alleged by employees of Southwest airlines that the company’s new management is giving itself hefty bonuses, rather than investing in the employees necessary to maintain the airlines reputation for first-class service.
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The result of these worker shortages and other issues is that the overall supply of available flights has gone down this year, as more flights have been cut from airlines schedules due to a lack of pilots. But the demand for travel has not abated, as people still want to see their families or go on a holiday vacation, especially with the memories of the isolation of 2020 still fresh in many people’s minds.
And you know full well what happens when high demand meets low supply: higher ticket prices. It’s not going to be easy to find cheap air travel this holiday season, as CNBC notes that “Domestic airfare deals over Thanksgiving are averaging $274, up 19% from 2021, while domestic round trips over Christmas are going for $390, up 40% from last year.”
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How To Save On Holiday Travel, According To An Expert
While the costs of traveling are on the rise this year, there’s still ways to save, according to an expert.
Kathy Sudeikis is a leisure travel advisor with Acendas Travel, a $200 million, full-service travel agency located in Kansas City that is part of the larger BCD Travel company.
Sudeikis has an extensive background in travel and, in case you’re curious, she is in fact the mother of “Ted Lasso” creator Jason Sudeikis. (Also, “Cheers” actor George Wendt is her brother.) After enjoying Thanksgiving with her family, she jumped on the phone to offer advice on how to see your family this holiday without breaking the bank.
Let's say all the holidays have snuck up on you, and now it's the middle of the month and you still haven't made plans. Is it still possible to find something affordable, or are you most likely going to pay through the nose?
Well, all the prices are higher at the moment, but if you want to try and be sensible, the key to that is being flexible. And I have said for years as a tip and I would share, is travel on Christmas Eve, travel on Christmas Day.
When our kids were little, Santa would come here at about 6:30 in the morning and the bloom would be off the rose by about 10 a.m.. And we'd get on a noon plane to Chicago. And all you miss is peeling potatoes through the Christmas dinner.
If you fly on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, are the tickets going to be cheaper?
Oh, yeah. They're going to be cheaper because there's more inventory left. The question is, at what price range? I mean, it gets crazier as the days go on.
What are some other pieces of advice you have for last minute travelers? How can they avoid high costs or just the general hassles of flying these days?
Well, you know, a high cost is going to be synonymous with the holiday period unless you're able to be flexible. And you look for some of these off days to consider traveling that you wouldn't consider any other time, like flying over a birthday or flying over an anniversary, those kinds of things.
But by traveling on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Hanukkah or New Year's, all those kinds of things, that's the way you're going to save money. So being flexible is going to be the key to this whole thing.
People in the United States consider Saturday to Saturday the traditional vacation week. Think about Thursday to Thursday. Tuesday to Tuesday is even better, of course, because Tuesday and Wednesday are the most reasonable flights.
If you had a choice, you would choose the earliest flight of the day. You need a boarding pass, especially for this holiday. If you don't have a boarding pass, if you thought you were going to go early and leave at five in the morning, you're going to have to leave at four in the morning to get to the airport. You really are going to need to be aggressively early.
If you don't have a boarding pass, you need to not check the luggage unless you must. And if you check luggage for the holidays, put all the wrapped presents in there because that's another blip on the screen of the TSA. They have been known to open presents that were tightly sealed.
The airline industry is having problems hiring enough pilots, but it's also having trouble hiring enough employees, period. There's been a lot of complaints about service being slow, lots of cancellations, and plenty of delays, and people getting very angry at airline employees these days. What would you say is the current state of travel right now?
You know, I've been continuing to travel and have ramped up pretty substantially. I have not been overwhelmed and I've not been caught in one of these things.
But the key to managing anxiety about worrying about all of those things is to, you know, have a plan B and C available if your plane gets delayed or those kind of things. I hate to be crass or commercial, but having a travel agent in your back pocket… its a whole lot easier to call and communicate with them than an airline directly or their airline website.
Or if you're traveling with your family, keep someone in the line and make nice with the people around you so they'll let hubby come back to the line or mom come back to the line with the kids. You also have to be, when it comes to these airline employees, as cool and as calm as you can possibly be, which is a nightmare if you're heading for a wedding or a graduation or a, you know, holiday dinner.
So those are the times that you really have to be sure that you have things under control or have a plan B. Don't fly on the day of a cruise. Go the night before. Stay in an airport location. I mean, they're not cheap, but I think you could get something under $200 at any place.
How do you think travel overall is compared to last year when there are plenty of reports about rude customers and plenty of flights getting delayed because of Omicron, which is thankfully died down. How's it looking these days?
Well, I have to tell you, from an economic point of view, people are still going. People are taking the advantage of what we're calling revenge travel, where they're going anyway, gosh darn it. They don't care, they've been in their homes too long. My experience in the Midwest is that nobody's going on a vacation without having an oceanfront room. Everybody's going for it.
