Air Fare Trends

Southwest Airlines has launched a Spring Travel Sale, offering discounted flights starting as low as $49 one-way.

This sale is available for travel dates ranging from late February to late May 2024, with specific travel windows varying depending on the destination. The sale includes flights across Southwest's network, including domestic travel within the United States and to select international destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean.

Key details of the sale include:

• Fares starting at $49 for one-way travel in the Wanna Get Away class, with higher fares for other classes such as Wanna Get Away Plus and Anytime fares

• Promotional Companion Pass offers, allowing travelers to bring a companion for just the cost of taxes and fees on flights booked during the sale period

• A requirement for a 21-day advance purchase

• Nonrefundable fares, with options for future Southwest credit in case of cancellation

• Blackout dates and restrictions on travel days, such as not being valid on Fridays and Sundays for continental U.S. travel

• Rapid Rewards Members can earn additional points on their travel, with some fares offering 8x the usual points

Winter travel continues to make sense for budget-conscious travelers

Is it snowing where you are? A little too cold for your bones? Scott Keyes from Going tells ConsumerAffairs that traveling in the off-season winter months can be just as good if not better than traveling during the peak summer season. 

Keyes says there are better – much better – fares, a la the Southwest sale. “Our data shows that, while there are slightly fewer deals that we send out during the winter months -- though not by much -- the average cost of those deals tends to be cheaper than deals that we send out during the summer,” he said.

“The stats can vary from year to year, but in general, we’ve found that winter deals are as much as 5% cheaper than summer deals.”

Plus, once you get into a destination, costs also tend to be cheaper during the off-season – as in tours, hotels and transportation services – and you’ll be less crowded!

“We know that not everyone can travel during the winter; for instance, families are often restricted to school breaks,” Keyes noted. “However, traveling even just slightly earlier or later in the peak season—like in late May, late August, or early September—can make a huge difference in how many people you’re up against for tickets and reservations.”

And the weather? Winter could be more optimal than the summer.

For those who’ve traveled to Europe in the summer know that it can be too hot in some places. Athens Greece and Rome Italy can get more brutally close to 90 degrees. The off seasons offer more moderate weather, like the mid-50s to 60s in Spain and Portugal.

Well, Virginia Wahoos, we guess there is a Santa Claus – and for TCU Horned Frogs, UC Irvine Anteaters, and every one of the 16.9 million students in U.S. colleges, too. And this Santa is bringing $25 flights home for the holidays.

Nope, this is not a misprint and not a scam, although it sure brought some big-eyed emojis from the ConsumerAffairs news team. For the first time since 1972, when you could fly somewhere on Southwest Airlines for $25, Amazon – in connection with StudentUniverse – is offering Amazon Prime Student members $25 flights to and from home for the holidays.

Call it a gimmick or call it a gift, but you do need to call it limited – not only in the number of tickets, but in how long that deal’s window is open. Beginning December 5 at 6 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST), Prime Student members can visit the Prime Student x StudentUniverse page to book tickets on select domestic flights (again, while supplies last) for travel between mid-December and early January for just $25. 

Amazon says that a total of 3,000 $25 flight tickets will be available during this promotion—with 1,000 tickets dropping each day, starting at 6 a.m. PST on December 5, and then at 12 a.m., PST on December 6 and 7.

If you’re not a Prime Student member and want to take advantage of the deal, you can roll the dice essentially for free. New members can start a six-month trial at no cost. Aafter that, it’s $7.49 per month—half the cost of a regular Prime membership.

After that, the opportunity to save dims, but doesn’t go away completely

Once those 3,000 tickets are claimed, StudentUniverse will run a “trailing promotional offer,” that will give Prime Student members $25 off flights with a promotional code. 

“As a mom to a first-year college student, I am excited to have my son home for the holidays,” said Carmen Nestares, vice president of U.S. Prime and Marketing Tech at Amazon.

“And as travel costs continue to rise, we're happy to help make flying more affordable for Prime Students who want to spend this important time with family and friends. It's another way we're delivering incredible savings, value, and convenience to our Prime Student members each year.”

“Terms and conditions apply”

Amazon was upfront about the terms and conditions and anyone interested in this deal should sit up and pay attention to them. ConsumerAffairs has highlighted those that should be paid particular attention to.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
$25 Flight Promotion: For a limited time, Prime Student Members can book and purchase one round trip or one-way domestic ticket anywhere within the 50 United States and District of Columbia for $25 for a discount rate of up to $500 off the current retail value of the ticket on studentuniverse.com subject to availability and flight destinations.

Starting on December 5, 2023 and for a period of three days, a maximum of 1000 tickets will be available each day. The booking period for the Promotion starts December 5, 2023 at 6 a.m. (PST) through 12 a.m. (PST) December 7, 2023 unless all tickets have been sold.

The Booking is subject to outbound travel dates of 12/8/2023 to 12/25/2023 and inbound travel dates (if applicable) 12/8/2023 to 01/14/2024.

Maximum 1 ticket per verified Amazon Prime Student Member and only 1 passenger per booking.

Only current & valid members of Amazon Prime Student, who have activated the StudentUniverse Prime Student Exclusive offer will be eligible to participate in the Promotion.

See complete terms and conditions at http://www.studentuniverse.com/amazon-home-holidays-terms.

Sorry for interrupting your holiday planning, but ConsumerAffairs travel geeks have learned that international airfares are dropping like crazy. The window for these deals might not be open for long, so if you can act fast and apply some “travel math,” you could save big.

Travel math? Yep, but it’s simple math, we promise.

“Travel Math is paying for your 2024 trips now so it feels like a free trip later while also pocketing extra cash for future vacations,” Kayla Inserra Deloache, the consumer travel trends expert for KAYAK, told ConsumerAffairs.

Deloache said that most people typically book their international trips four months or less in advance when the truly sweet spot for a great price is really about eight months before for many international regions. Her research team crunched the numbers and found that by booking your trip sooner – and shooting for mid-July 2024 or later – you could save between 5%-18% on average. 

“As of now, international flight prices are scoped to be 10% more expensive for 2024, so playing the waiting game could cost you. This is especially true for flights to Asia, which are forecasted to go up 5% each month starting four months out, the closer you get to the departure date,” she theorized.

The best travel math hacks for 2024

Staying at home is so … so yesterday. Searches for international travel are trending upwards of 28% year-over-year (YoY). A lot of that interest is focused on Asia where internet searches are up a whopping 26% YoY.

One reason is that the U.S. dollar is very strong overseas. Take Japan for example.

“Japan may seem unattainable for most Americans due to the high airfare prices. But many don’t realize that lodging, the cost of food, and the yen all highly favor anyone with the U.S. dollar,” writes Kiplinger’s Quincy Williamson. 

And once you’re in Japan, you’re only a hop, skip, and jump to other Asian countries like South Korea and Vietnam, other dollar-strong destinations.

Where else can you go overseas and feel good about your purchase? ConsumerAffairs asked KAYAK to use its travel math formula and tell us what they found to be the best international fares for 2024. Here’s their month-by-month breakdown:

Hola a todos!

Another travel destination that’s becoming so yesterday may be the Caribbean. The Caribbean has earned a nasty reputation for being one of the most dangerous locales in the Americas. Comparatively, Americans are finding that Mexico is pretty safe, but in a bang-for-buck sense, Mexico – especially the interior of the country – is loaded with culture and "muy" cheap travel costs. 

According to a fare search that ConsumerAffairs did on KAYAK, it would cost $600 or more to fly from Cincinnati to Aruba in mid-July, but Deloache said that if you’re willing to be flexible, you can snag a flight to Mexico City, for example, for under $300 this January.

One of the reasons airfare to Mexico is a good deal is that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted some restrictions on routes to Mexico and that opened the floodgates. 

Scott Keyes at Going.com told ConsumerAffairs that Aeromexico just announced 17 new US-Mexico routes, including departures from New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and elsewhere.

Budget carrier Viva Aerobus also announced five new U.S. destinations, including Austin, Denver, Miami, Oakland, and Orlando. And Delta just announced a new route from Atlanta to Tulum starting in March 2024. 

“Why is this all great news for travelers? Because the single most important driver of cheap fares is how much competition there is between airlines. More flights equals cheaper flights,” Keyes said.

Coffee, tea, or… crow? After making a heavy-handed, headline-worthy move in restructuring its Skymiles program, Delta Air Lines is responding to an outcry from its elite customers and backpedaling on some of those changes. 

The changes were aimed at Delta's overcrowded Sky Club lounges and reducing how many SkyMiles members were given Medallion loyalty status. Previously, members received more miles per dollar spent, upgrades, fee waivers, travel vouchers, and other smile-inducing perks.

"I have read hundreds of your emails, and what's been most clear to me is how much you love Delta and the disappointment many of you felt by the significance of the changes," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in an email. "I appreciate your opinions and understand your disappointment. Your voice matters, and we are listening."

Delta couldn’t afford to blow this, nor can others

The SkyMiles program is important to Delta and Bastian’s quickness to respond was probably tied to the company bean counters reminding him that American Express payments to Delta for its co-branded cards was $5.5 billion for 2022. Those payments are estimated to zoom past $6 billion for 2023. Much of that thanks has to go to 1.2 million Amex co-branded card holders the airline added in 2022. 

No doubt, other airlines will take notice and do whatever it takes to keep from making rewards seem impossible to earn. 

“Ancillary revenue [like that from loyalty programs] can’t replace ticket revenue, but it certainly has proven a reliable economic partner in good times and bad,” IdeaWorks said in its latest 2023 CarTrawler Yearbook of Ancillary Revenue Report.

“But for any product to perform at its very best, it must always deliver value for the customer.  That’s a truth sometimes neglected in the pursuit of profits.” 

The softer approach

Going forward, Delta’s softer stance will look like this: 

Medallion Status Requirements

The number of Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) required to achieve 2025 Medallion Status has been reduced to the following:

• Diamond Medallion Status: $28,000 MQDs (down from $35,000)
• Platinum Medallion Status: $15,000 MQDs (down from $18,000)
• Gold Medallion Status: $10,000 MQDs (down from $12,000)
• Silver Medallion Status: $5,000 MQDs (down from $6,000)

Greater Flexibility for Delta Sky Club Access

As far as changing things for Sky Club access, there's a bit of scorekeeping, though it boils down to basically this:

If you’re holding a Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card, you get 15 visits per year (note: if you go to three Sky Clubs in a day on a long haul, it only counts as one). 

If you’re holding an American Express Platinum card, you get 10 visits a year. 

Once you use all those free visits, you can then buy additional visits for $50 each. 

Shop those miles!

When Delta zigged the wrong way with its rewards program, its competitors zagged to try and snatch some of the disgruntled Delta customers away.

Gary Leff at TheViewFromTheTop said that requests For United Airlines status matches rose “dramatically” with Delta gutting SkyMiles. So did American and JetBlue.

Leff notes that if you were someone who wanted to make that move, however, you would have to proactively reach out to the airline and make the request because Delta's competitors aren't going after SkyMiles members publicly.

Loyalty rewards programs continue to be cash cows for companies, but sadly aren't the goldmine they use to be for the consumer. ConsumerAffairs has made it a point to stay on top of airline-branded credit card programs. For a review of who offers what, just click here.

It may only be early October, but people are already putting pressure on travel inventory in both flights and rental cars, and demand is expected to be higher this year because of Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on the weekend. In other words, book now or pay the price!

ConsumerAffairs can’t cut you a good deal, but we have found some interesting insights from travel experts, and if you pay attention to what they have to say, it might work to your advantage.

When to travel

Let’s get this pain point out of the way before we go any further: According to Priceline's data, Friday, December 22nd is set to be one of the busiest travel days of the year so prices – and headaches – will be large and in charge. 

According to KAYAK’s data, you’d be smart to book domestic flights for the Christmastime holidays about 61 days in advance to snag a good deal (mid-October). For Thanksgiving, you don’t have 61 days of leeway, so you better do it ASAP. There are still some good deals that ConsumerAffairs found on Google Flights – like Cincinnati to Phoenix – for $175, but you have to leave on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and come back a week later.

KAYAK’s best time to travel planner suggests that if you do the Cincinnati - Phoenix trip for Christmas, you might be better off going on December 19th and returning on Christmas Day.  

If you’ve got enough holiday bravado to make international stops for a holiday celebration, Priceline told ConsumerAffairs that unique destinations like Montreal and Budapest top its most affordable and most popular international getaways.

At $901 round trip, international holiday flights are around $100 dollars cheaper than last year. Plus, returning from your international travel between December 26th and 29th can help you save 25% on airfare, all while avoiding the busiest return day, December 31st.

What airports to avoid

Holiday weather is always a problem – either coming or going – and AirHelp did some homework on what airports have the highest percentage of flight disruptions. Topping the list are two in Florida: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) with 42.63% of flights disrupted; and Orlando International Airport (MCO) with 42.11% of flights disrupted.

“Flying to Florida, the West Coast is the best coast,” a spokesperson for AirHelp said. “Every airport along Florida’s east coast experienced issues with nearly 40% of their flights. Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) and Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP) are more reliable options. RSW is right next to Naples and only a 2-hour drive from Miami, the airport delivered 70% of its flights on time this summer. ECP, right next to the beach and only 2 hours from Tallahassee, delivered 73.76% of its flights on time, without disruption.”

But if you’re headed to Tampa or thereabouts, AirHelp says that Sarasota/Bradenton Int’l Airport (SRQ) is more reliable and less than an hour’s drive away from the city center. Compared to Tampa International (the nation’s 10th worst airport this summer) SRQ delivered 73.84% of its flights on time.

Next in line are:

• Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR): 39.19% of flights were disrupted. Use LaGuardia instead, AirHelp’s analysts said.

• Baltimore/Wash International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI): 39.10% of flights disrupted  

• Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW): 36.28% of flights disrupted

• Denver International Airport (DEN): 35.02% of flights disrupted

• Boston Logan International Airport (BOS): 34.6% of flights disrupted

• Harry Reid International Airport (LAS): 34.26% of flights disrupted

• Miami International Airport (MIA): 34.23% of flights disrupted

• Tampa International Airport (TPA): 33.2% of flights disrupted

Road trippin’

Elie Michaels, vice president of Operations at Advantage Rental Car, told ConsumerAffairs that booking a rental car comes down to dates just like air travel does. When it comes to deals, he said there are two steps he’d recommend: book early and shop around.

“Travelers will find the best deal by planning ahead and looking at a variety of different rental car companies. Price fluctuates depending on the number of passengers, time of year, length of road trip, luggage, and reason for travel,” were his suggestions.

He said that – depending on the time of year – there are deals to be had on vehicle rentals. “Slow periods in between holidays will likely be the cheapest time to book a rental car,” he noted.

“Searching more broadly can also help” Ludwig Schoenack, co-founder at Kyte, suggests. “For instance, getting your car in a city rather than at an airport can often save money and be more convenient. Prices are high where demand is high. The summer is the most expensive time to rent a car in most cities in the U.S., and this is especially true in tourist destinations around holiday weekends and around major events. We encourage booking your trip to land outside of those times and during the week.”

We asked Schoenack if car rental agencies offer discounts – either in-app or online – and he said that no matter who you rent with, it’s worth asking them if they offer any “early bird” specials. The worst thing they can say is “no,” right?

'Oh, I didn’t know about those fees'

The fight toward getting rid of legit – or not-so-legit – fees isn’t over, but those fees haven’t been kicked to the curb completely.

Airbnb is still trying to fight the good fight on the accommodations side, and on the car rental side, Michaels confirms that there are still fees there, too. He notes that before you click “book” or sign your name, it’s important to read the terms and conditions of the company you’re planning to rent a car with to ensure there are no surprise fees at the end.

“By doing this, you’ll be able to plan out how much to spend as it’s disclosed ahead of renting the car,” he said.

Here's one not-so-nice thing about car rentals that you should know. about. It is “All-Inclusive Tolls,” a new rental car company scam that could cost you $140 per week. Gary Leff of “View From the Wing” said that toll tracking is one of the more annoying fees that rental car companies impose. Leff names names and suggests how you can get around this ugliness, here.

Over the summer, did you price a trip to Europe and decide it was too expensive? Well, it was, but now that rush is over, and travelers with pent-up wanderlust have gotten their fill. Prices to fly across the pond are good again. Like really good, according to Going.com and other sources.

One of those data sources – Cirium Diio Mi – says that there are 14% more seats available for U.S. to Europe trips than there were last summer. And if you’re a United or Delta loyalist, there’s even more. United has 18% more seats available and Delta has 19% more.

A thank you to budget airlines

Going.com’s Scott Keyes told ConsumerAffairs that the single driver of cheap flights is the competition between airlines. “Even if you never fly a budget airline, we owe them a debt of gratitude for forcing cheaper fares on your preferred airlines,” he said, pointing out that there are several new budget fare kids on the block. 

One of Keyes’ picks is Norse Atlantic which has eight U.S. cities on the schedule: Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Orlando, San Francisco, and Washington DC.

Whether it’s Bangkok or Berlin, London or Paris, Norse has you covered. When ConsumerAffairs gave it a run for its money, we found $352 roundtrip fares between Boston and London and $291 from New York City to Paris round trip. 

Points deals are good now, too, Keyes said. For example, he’s seen round trips to Barcelona for 22,000 points.

“We’re even seeing some stellar fares now for travel next summer,” he said. “The bottom line: If sticker shock kept travelers from going to Europe this summer, they should get their passports ready because prices are falling, and we expect to see a whole lot of cheap fares to Europe in the next few months.”

Yes, getting a passport is slow, but…

The U.S. State Department’s passport office is hamstrung trying to meet the demand it’s been seeing for the past few months. However, there’s a way around that.

Travel expert Wendy Perrin says that the State Department allows expediting services (called “courier services”) to submit passport applications and renewals for expedited processing. 

“Essentially, they get the equivalent of an Emergency or Urgent Travel appointment and drop your application off directly at a passport office,” is how she couched it.

It’ll cost you, though. And it’s not cheap, either – like as much as $1,000. But, David Alwadish, the Passport & Visa Services' CEO at one of those services – ItsEasy.com – told ConsumerAffairs that it provides a money-back guarantee.

In Perrin’s homework on expedited passports, she found Passport Plus Visas, based in New York, which purportedly can get someone a new passport in four to six business days for $550 (plus shipping, on top of State Department fees) or more depending on how fast the traveler needs one.

“But no matter which service you need or which company you choose, there’s an important caveat.: The Passport Services agency limits the number of daily applications couriers can submit (and that goes for all offices across the country),” Perrin said. “So, think ahead because you’ll likely have to make a reservation with an expediting service, and they may not have a lot of slots.”