Increasing travel, increasing costs

As Spring arrives and the travel season seems to be ready to make a roaring comeback, the costs and troubles of flying are starting to multiply. Airlines have still not returned to pre-pandemic capacity, and most seem to be planning to remain at a low level of employees and customer service. Some are still working to overbook flights, hoping to nudge prices higher.

It’s not just the airlines, but also the airports, tour agencies, and a lot of hotels that seem to be staying thin on workers. I get it, you don’t want to have too much in place if things go to shit again. But really, this is just a way to get as much profit out of every single person traveling.

I’m of the mind that I might be forgoing all airline travel until the late Fall. It used to be Fall or late Summer you could get deals, not anymore with the “peak” season being moved by the travel industry. There are also a lot more people that have the goods about traveling in September instead of August, so booked flights are up. But think about this. If they can cut the fares that much in later in Fall or Winter, why not the rest of the year? Greed.

But the prices aren’t stopping people. Everyone and their brother seem to be at the airport. So much that even the private airport lounges are too full.

Like many folks, summer has become the road trip season. I would much rather stay on the ground and stay within a circle closer to home. How big that circle is, depends on how much you can stand driving in a day. I can’t stand being in a car for more than 8 hours, but six is a more realistic time. Maybe my circle is about 350-400 miles from home. I got a lot of wilderness in that circle, but not too many good-sized cities.

Depending on where you live, you might have a number of larger cities closer than me. One great idea might be to use trains instead of planes to get there. Sometimes you can drive to a suburb and then take a train in. A good way to avoid the hassle of city driving and parking. Get a hotel on the outskirts of town and take the transit in. There are a lot of ways of cutting costs. Even bring a bag with a picnic lunch!

Traveling by car, van, or whatever has different costs. And depending on what you are driving, it might also mean that certain things might not be doable, or at least a good idea. I wouldn’t even think of driving a motorhome into a city center, or I wouldn’t take an economy car on a desert shelf road.

The cost might be more fuel, paying for camping sites, and maintaining the vehicle. But depending on where and how you travel, it could be a lot less than renting hotels, paying to eat out, and other entertainment. The other huge upside is that you are on your schedule. That’s another reason that I like to limit the distance and number of hours I drive in a day. Take you time. Driving should be fun, not a slog or a race.

If the outdoors is your thing, then car camping offers a cheaper way to road trip. But summer is a busy time, and in many places, if you don’t have a camp reservation by April, you might be out of luck. But the great thing is that more campgrounds are setting more sites aside for first come first serve. But you still might get blocked if someone books out the maximum stay.

Folks have been saying that the road trip is back. I might argue that it never went away. There are just a whole bunch of people revisiting it post-CoVid.

Still, things cost money. If you are like I am, then you find ways to save money and spend less to have money to travel. I’ll talk about ways to save money to fund travel later.