Category: Travel Tips

The numbers are out for 2015 from the Airport Council International. 2015 saw the strongest growth in passenger traffic since 2010 with an increase of 6.4% (7.2 billion passengers). It is anticipated 2016 will also have strong growth, however, it appears to have slowed a bit as uncertainty and safety concerns weigh heavily in the last quarter.

In 2015 there were 37 airports with over 40 million passengers passing through them. This is an increase of over 100% over a ten-year period. Some of this increase has to do with the entry of many low-cost carriers who have brought the airport’s new passengers and additional competition offering affordable options.

A significant amount of this growth is coming from the Asia-Pacific regions even despite the slowing economic growth in China. The number of new and expanded markets are continuing to grow with an ever growing mobile population. Additionally, India is poised to be one of the largest aviation markets in the world.

As we look forward, the airlines are most likely going to continue to take a precautionary position, keeping the number of new flights as minimal as possible and keeping the planes as full as they can. Without the geopolitical unrest and with an ever increasing market, it would be more certain that more flights would be added, but given the current climate, be prepared for full and over-full flights for the unforeseeable future.

 The later part of 2016 has seen the increased traffic of 2015, and the beginning of 2016 erode. Paris has seen an 11 percent drop with a loss of 460 million Euros. Turkey has seen its tourist industry fall apart with an expected drop of at least 40% this year. This has opened up opportunities for those with a more adventurous soul with pricing hitting an all-time low. IT has also shifted travel to other regions such as Asia, Australia and New Zealand where the current exchange rate helps ease the costs and where people feel a bit safer to venture out.

This has opened up opportunities for those with a more adventurous soul with pricing hitting an all-time low. It has also shifted travel to other regions such as Asia, Australia and New Zealand where the current exchange rate helps ease the costs and where people feel a bit safer to venture out.

The key is to do your homework no matter where you travel. Make sure you have plans and alternate plans. Where we have not been a huge advocate of travel insurance, it needs to have a higher consideration now in places you may not have thought of before.

The desire to travel is still high as we talk with people all over the world, but smarter travel is the key to curing the travel itch these days. Our blog at www.travelingu.com/blog and travel tips at www.travelingu.com/travel-tips are great resources to help your adventures to be affordable and safe.

The world’s busiest domestic airports (measured by domestic passenger traffic):

1. Atlanta GA, USA – ATL (90.3 million, up 5.7% over 2014)
2. Beijing, China (People’s Republic of China) – PEK (71.3 million, up 3.0% over 2014)
3. Chicago IL, USA – ORD (65.9 million, up 11.2% over 2014)

The kids are either back to school or soon to be. Many parents are breathing a sigh of relief. The airlines too breathe a sigh this time of year. After a busy summer of heavy travel, this week marks the traditional time when they begin their fall bargain travel season. This has sent prices tumbling. With demand low both with flights and hotels, travelers can expect up to a third or more in savings from summer peak fares.

The cool breeze of summer has brought in some amazing deals. Add to this some uncertainty from the European travel markets and if you’ve been looking for cheap travel, now is your time to strike while the fares are low.

We  still recommend that you keep your booking window between 30 days and three months before your departure. But always keep an eye out for last-minute deals, especially with cruises. Look at all your search engine options and if you are on sites like Kayak, pay attention to the advice recommendation in the upper left corner.

Remember when booking online, to book on a Tuesday roughly 3 p.m. Eastern time for the best ticket pricing, or after midnight of the location of the airlines home office. Flying on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are your best days for the lowest fare to take off from both your origin and destination locations. When coupling the traditional fall savings with low fuel costs for the airlines, they have more room this year to lower prices than in years past.

Right now if I was to make a move on these lower fares I would head to London where the Pound has been pounded after the Brexit shakeup and airfare has gone below $700.00. Our Central American favorite, Costa Rica and other Latin American countries have already seen prices drop as much as 30%.

The key here is to not “Fall” into a sense of relief that summer is over but to act quickly and relax somewhere amazing before everyone else takes your flight.

Remember back in 2007 when the US changed the rules for traveling to Canada, Mexico and on cruises? Everyone rushed to get passports and the backlog nearly broke the system. It took two and three times as long to get your passport back then. Well, guess what, in 2017 all those passports expire. They are expecting over 20 million passport requests in 2017 and 2018 and by the end of 2016, they anticipate 17 million requests. Thank goodness they have put into place much better systems to handle the increase but if you are needing to renew, sooner is better than later.

In addition, there will be changes to the passport itself with increased security and advanced technical features. These changes are anticipated to be put into place in 2017 and will come with an increased cost to all US passport. All of this is to be announced late summer of 2016. Renewing now locks you into the lower price for the next 10 years. You will have to decide, however, what you would give up in future options and security.

One last thing to keep in mind. Getting or renewing passports for children under 16 has much more stringent rules. You will need additional paperwork and documentation including the child’s social security card. Minor passports are only good for 5 years and they can catch you off guard when you are planning a trip. Always look at all your passports when you are just thinking about a trip. Make sure they don’t expire 6 months before your planned return (General rule of thumb) and that they have enough empty pages, (Some countries require at least 6 empty pages).

I’m looking into a possible trip to Australia, then to China and flying home from Dubai.

Don’t use the Multi-City option when booking through the airlines website. Multi-City price to Melbourne and home from Dubai is $7671.00 on Delta.com.The new “scheme” from the airlines is to only show you non-refundable fares when using the Multi-City search option. When I searched one way for each leg the price dropped to a reasonable $2133.29. This is a new “trick” the airlines are pulling. The non-airline sites like Kayak aren’t doing this and the Delta price on Kayak is only $2016.00. Do your homework on all possible options to your destination.

These kind of tips are really helpful to make long flights not feel so exhausting! Dale has a very long flight to Beijing next week….. these will help take the ‘bite’ out of traveling long distances.

We talk a lot about and promote the use of low cost airlines. When is a “low cost” airfare not a good deal and what should you expect when traveling on a low cost airline?

On my trip last week to Australia I choose to fly on a low cost airline, mostly because of the time I wanted to fly more than the price of the flight. However, when you are looking strictly for price, are low cost airlines really the best deal? Lets look at some pricing. A one way fare from Sydney Australia to Melbourne on Virgin Australia on average will cost $85. The same flight on a low cost airline like Tiger Air will cost $43, a savings of $42 or about 1/2 the cost.

For the $42 savings you will need to travel light because you have a carryon limit of 7Kg or 15.5Lbs. If you want to carry on more you will need to pay an additional $18 if you prepay or $17 if you want to check a bag up to 20Kg or 44Lbs, so now your $42 saving almost got cut in half now saving only $24. If you are going to both check a bag and have more than 7Kg of carryon then your net savings will only be $7. For this you will have to pay for any snacks, drinks, your legroom is cut and your seat does recline but only a smidgen.

Because I was packing light and could carryon I still had a decent savings, but it is always the unexpected that gets you. Mind you, this could happen on any flight but it seems to happen to me more on low cost airlines vs a more traditional flight. As we began to taxi away from the terminal to take off a few drops of what looked like water dripped on my jeans from the luggage bin above. As we turned towards the runway the drip turned into a constant stream and it wasn’t water, it was clear oil. As we took off down the runway, the force of the take off directed the now pouring oil to the seats behind me. It was quite the interesting dilemma and when we could we opened up the luggage bin to find out it was someones massage oil. When you through policy, encourage people to carry on items they would normally check, these are sometimes the results.

In the end, all was well. I reached my destination and had something to write about. In the long run was it worth the savings? Probably not in this case, but it was a short flight and the time of the flight was the most important to me. It is good to check all the cost of flying and all the extras can really add up. However, if you are a light packer, can live with a smaller space and a few other inconveniences, low cost airlines are a way to save you money.

Last week we talked about a few tips to help with your flights. Here are a few more ideas….Good stuff!