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Just an FYI-buy your tickets NOW

greatam

By greatam,
in Cruise Air

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greatam

greatam

Posted
Posted

Oil has surged. The airlines are raising prices. This world is now at a very spooky place regarding transportation.

 

My diesel fuel bill has gone from about $40,000 per day to about $50,000 per day in less than a month. I just bought (like within the last 20 minutes) oil futures contracts for delivery from March to June. I may buy more later today. I am scared what this world turmoil will do to my business (trucking-international logistics). I can't absorb much more with this economy and the airlines are the same way.

 

The airlines are in the same situation only in a MUCH bigger way. Prices will rise rapidly, surcharges for luggage will rise, other ancillary charges will be added to compensate for the tremendous increase in fuel. Europe trips will be particularly hard hit as Libyan oil fields supply a lot of fuel to Europe.

 

I just had my admin plan out ALL trips for employees, myself and customers going to trade shows for the next 12 months. The entire office staff is calling customers to find out what trade shows they are going to for the next 12 months and if they want us to get their tickets NOW. We will be buying thousands of dollars of tickets TODAY (MAJOR cash crunch). Will we get burned??? That IS a possibility. But as long as I have been in the logistics/transportation business, when oil prices climb rapidly, they go down VERY slowly. OR surcharges attach for tickets purchased after XXX date-ie: purchased tickets BEFORE XXX date incur no charges (as some of the previous luggage fees have attached).

 

Am I foolish?? Yes, I could be. But I am banking on 30 years of experience. I have NEVER seen oil go up 14% in one day.

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Clairescurtains

Clairescurtains

Posted
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I have been trying to decide how to get to BHM form Galveston in Nov and wanted to rent a car. Made a call and found out the Galveston Enterprise office is closed on Sunday, no car rental so had to fly.

I went ahead and booked a Delta flight and so far the price isn't any different than what I have seen for a few weeks but it certainly could be tomorrow.

I have now checked one more "to do" off my list.:)

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kenish

kenish

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I've found over the years that price at the pump is a pretty good indicator of airfare trends. On one hand it's a pretty obvious statement; on the other hand there are so many intracies that it's always surprising how closely they correlate.

 

Two oil analyists were debating oil prices on tonight's news. They agreed the direction was up. Their two predictions of pump prices were $4 and $5.50 per gallon by Memorial Day!

 

The other worry is buying fares on smaller, low-cost carriers. The $9 or $59 fare may seem enticing, but consider what happens if the airline doesn't survive or has a drastic reduction in routes and flights. Tickets will be worthless as other carriers probably won't accept them since there's usually no interline agreements. It happened during the last fuel spike (summer '08) and there were posts on this board of people frantically seeking ways to get to their cruise. Many of them didn't make it.

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vistapat

vistapat

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Just decided to consider our November cruise a done deal, and booked air yesterday SAN to BCN, which sealed the deal. Price yesterday was the same as it had been for several weeks, flights were excellent for us, and the money was something we could live with. It may go up, it may go down, but we're OK with the decision we made. (I'm not putting any money on going down, by the way!)

 

The flights are on Iberia operated by British Air, which doesn't allow seat reservation beforehand. We can check in online from home before going, but I'm really worried about checking in for return flight from ship's Internet. Does anyone have a strategy for this which might get around the dreaded "slow or no" service? Unfortunately, we'll have to be online at 11:30 AM, which isn't likely to be a low-use time slot.

 

Patricia

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RoofingPrincess

RoofingPrincess

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We can check in online from home before going, but I'm really worried about checking in for return flight from ship's Internet. Does anyone have a strategy for this which might get around the dreaded "slow or no" service?

Is there someone at home you'd trust to do it?

When I'm flying Southwest and won't have (good or any) internet access, I give my son my login information and have him do my check-in for me.

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vistapat

vistapat

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Cindy - all I can say is "why do I always miss the obvious???" Thanks - my son should be able to do the same for us. Thankfully, the day before will be a Sunday, and he won't be at work. I would have obsessed the whole last couple of days of the cruise. Thanks for the idea, and thanks for saving our vacation!

 

Patricia

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Ashland

Ashland

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Cindy - all I can say is "why do I always miss the obvious???" Thanks - my son should be able to do the same for us. Thankfully, the day before will be a Sunday, and he won't be at work. I would have obsessed the whole last couple of days of the cruise. Thanks for the idea, and thanks for saving our vacation!

 

Patricia

You can checkin 24hrs prior to your flight home..Doing it on the ship and printing your boarding passes can easily be done we have done it many times and have never had a problem even in Europe....If you happen to be using luggage valet this will also include checking you in for your flight and your boarding passes will be delivered to your cabin the night before departure..

 

We are doing LAX-BCN for our western med cruise the end of August and am so thankful we booked our air approx 2 weeks ago at a good price/flights..the prices now OMG..Best of luck to you and enjoy your cruise...

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firefly333

firefly333

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Its not always as easy of a question as buy NOW. SW,Spirit and Air Tran for instance dont even have pricing out for my late Nov cruise...but I could buy now on major airlines and not wait. Im paying $282 for my booking on spirit for Sept. The cheapest for Nov is $355 for American...so would you grab it now ..or wait?

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greatam

greatam

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Its not always as easy of a question as buy NOW. SW,Spirit and Air Tran for instance dont even have pricing out for my late Nov cruise...but I could buy now on major airlines and not wait. Im paying $282 for my booking on spirit for Sept. The cheapest for Nov is $355 for American...so would you grab it now ..or wait?

 

As kenish posted, low fare, low cost airlines MAY be in danger of going out of business if they cannot absorb the fuel costs fast enough (or conversely, raise prices fast enough). SkyBus, EOS, Maxjet and about 6 others went out of business during the last huge upturn in fuel prices.

 

WN won't be going anyplace but the big question, do you take a KNOWN price vs something unknown in the future??? JetA (aviation fuel) has risen 39% in a year. IATA estimates the difference in cost to airlines for fuel this year will be 39 BILLION dollars vs 2010. That's a chunk of change to make up.

 

In looking at your specific example: $355 American vs what you paid to Spirit vs the unknown of airlines who have not released prices-difference is 20.6%. Seems to be well within the pricing parameters of fuel influenced prices. Your choice.

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new salt

new salt

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While I agree that fuel costs are destined to rise steadily in the future and that the shock of the the unexpected will exacerbate the underlying trend I think it would be fair to point out that EOS and Maxjet failed for reasons other than purely fuel costs. They attacked a highly profitable sector of legacy carriers' operations inviting the inevitable counter attack, and they had too few aircraft to sustain a reliable service. Finally they launched just in time for the downturn.

 

I also wonder if the established Low Cost outfits will suffer more than legacy carriers; any fuel price explosion will devastate the economy again and the business community will move to the LCCs simply to save money, whether their employees like it or not:(.

 

Nonetheless, if you can book tickets now, the peace of mind must be worth a lot. Meanwhile we are taking the train to Barcelona next week:D and will worry about our transatlantic airfares when they are released for next year.

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wantocruisemore

wantocruisemore

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YEA!!! DEFINITELY DON'T WAIT TO BUY!!!!

 

We have been checking and watching the plane seats trying to time our round trip to Rome. Last week I decided we needed to go ahead and book this week. Normally prices are lowest on Tues. and Weds. By the time we got some money transferred from one bank to another and it credited, this morning was the first time I could book. The prices were almost $200 more per person. I bit the bullet and went ahead due to fear of going up higher. I could kick myself for not getting my ducks in a row for last week.

 

Hope others learn from my mistakes.

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MSMcDuffy

MSMcDuffy

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YEA!!! DEFINITELY DON'T WAIT TO BUY!!!!

 

We have been checking and watching the plane seats trying to time our round trip to Rome. Last week I decided we needed to go ahead and book this week. Normally prices are lowest on Tues. and Weds. By the time we got some money transferred from one bank to another and it credited, this morning was the first time I could book. The prices were almost $200 more per person. I bit the bullet and went ahead due to fear of going up higher. I could kick myself for not getting my ducks in a row for last week.

 

Hope others learn from my mistakes.

 

I've heard that a lot, too, about prices being lower Tues/midweek. Not our experience this time. The fare came down last Fri (maybe Thurs but I didn't check that day) and my relatives booked their tickets late Monday and 24 hrs later it went up a few hundred bucks. I'm so glad they booked when they did; they thought about waiting a few wks. I know it could certainly come back down but you never know.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience. I can empathize as a similar thing happend to me on my last overseas trip. This year is especially a little nerve-wracking with the current world crisis.

 

I still need to buy my ticket. I'm coming from a different city with more options than my family so I'm holding out since I don't feel comfortable with the prices yet. Since it's just me I don't mind taking the risk.

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coronadogal

coronadogal

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I went ahead and made the leap and bought my airfare for 4 of us from San Diego to London for June after watching it inch up over the last few weeks. Checked today and it had dropped by $39 per ticket. Luckily not huge but can't get the difference because of fare level.

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daffodiliaz

daffodiliaz

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Do airlines have the right to add a fuel surcharge once a ticket has been purchased?

 

Each airline would address that in their contract.

 

BA has raised the fuel surcharge $40/pp on our roundtrip itin PHXBCN in September. I hope they don't come after us to collect, but if they do, I hope the surcharge doesn't go up any more in the next 6 months.

 

Per BA Conditions of Carriage: Taxes, fees and charges change constantly and can be imposed or altered after the date we have issued your ticket. If they change or if a new tax, fee or charge is imposed after we have issued your ticket, you will have to pay us any increase. Similarly, if any taxes, fees or charges you pay to us when we issue the ticket are then abolished or reduced, you will be entitled to claim a refund from us.

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Mom2B&Z

Mom2B&Z

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But ironically, West Jet's fares have gone down (in one case, from $509 to $238). I booked the four of us from Ottawa to Tampa for $2600, taxes in. It was going to cost $2300 out of Syracuse, NY but then you add a 3 hour drive, hotel and baggage fees.

It pays to watch the fares closely and know a deal when you see one.

BTW, what's the city above Toronto??? Love the reference!

 

Cruise is in December.

 

Booked my flights one-way, waiting for the other.

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