As States Reopen, Vacations Become More Expensive

why costs are quickly going up. Thanks for joining us, Leslie, Thanks for having Memorial Day weekend is here, and it's time to talk about travel. I don't want to bust anybody's bubble, but it's gonna be busy. Wherever you're going, there's gonna be a lot of other people out there. You know. It's kind of this double edged sword. We're recovering from the pandemic, and this is exactly what we want. We want people to start traveling again, start visiting other locations,

domestic travels, leisure travel, spending that money. We want that. But on the other side of things, we've been locked up away for so long it's tough to get out in a lot of crowded places with a lot of people. So Leslie tell us a little bit about what we're seeing out there. We're seeing rising airfares and hotel rates as well. I think we've got a little bit used to those bargains fairs we were seeing in many of us. Most of us were not booking them last year and

even into the beginning of one. Then all of a sudden, a bunch of people who in America did get vaccinated and encourage this huge uptick in demand for travel. People have been closed up in their homes for the better part of fifteen months and they're ready to go out and travel, whether you're vaccinated or not. Attractions are starting to open up. Your Disneyland that opens very recently, then other places. Restaurants are opening in cities and even in

New York. We're starting to see things return a little bit more to normal. Yeah, you know, it's not just the air fare as well, road trips, the cost of gases going up, and for a time during the pandemic, that's what a lot of people resorted to. Let's do a quick road trip something just to get out of the house. And even gas prices are going up so all around. You know, it's kind of funny too, because you know, some of these increases and everything, you know,

they're not that pre pandemic levels just yet. They're getting towards it. But even still, it's just kind of coming out of this year, we're looking at these prices and just saying, man, that's expensive already. I think we got used to those really cheap prices during the pandemic. And you mentioned road trips. We've seen gasoline prices national average is the highest that we've seen since. So it was the sort of alternative during the pandemic. Okay, I'm gonna

go out and avoid other people. I don't feel like going to an airport. I don't feel safe for you know, whatever the reason might be. But a lot of other people had a similar idea. Of course, we're all getting out of our houses and driving up demands for gasoline, and what we're seeing in the airports, I think travelers can acpect a lot of full flights. Airlines do not

have the capacity that they had in nineteen. They retired a lot of aircraft, a lot of their own employees retired or left the company, so they're not operating the same number of flights that they used to, but what they are all doing is trying to focus on this domestic us leisure demands and that's where everybody is traveling,

and that's where we're seeing some of the fairs. A lot of the executives are starting to say they're at or near levels, So the chances of getting a really good bargain are pretty much shading as we speak, right and you mentioned that, you know that domestic leisure travel, that's an important point of distinction because business and international

travel hasn't ramped up just yet. That's still going to take a little bit more time, and that's kind of what helps offset these lower fairs for for all the regular flights basically, so until those pick up will be in this kind of mode as well. That's helping the consumer somewhat vacation or i should say in the near term, because it will keep a lid on prices. You know, you don't have those business travelers during the middle of

the week. If you as a vacation or can travel in the middle of the week and take those seats at a better price, take it. And then also if you have a chance to travel in the off season. The airlines are hopeful that business travel, which is already starting to come back, we'll come back and earnest. Maybe the fall, kids are back in school and more people are vaccinated, and companies start to loosen up their travel restrictions for their own people, and maybe offices open up

to receive visitors. But it's not clear how quickly that's going to happen. I mean, you have legal departments and compliance that are dictating a lot of these policies, and they don't want to send anyone out too early or or risk lawsuit. So if you can travel in the fall or maybe outside of the peak season, I would go for it. You made mention in your article that a lot of airlines are reinstating strict rules that they had on basic economy flights. What were those rules? What's

changing there? So one thing that happened during the pandemic is that airlines started to lift or they have lifted change fees, and the fees that everybody hates two fifty dollars or more sometimes to change your flight, and everybody knows the frustration of even if you have like a family of four and you need to change for an emergency or something along those lines, or maybe you really like your destination you want to stay a little bit longer,

come back sooner. For whatever reason. It's very costly and airlines were deaf sprit to get people on board last year, so they all Delta, American and United lifted change fees, including for international flights. Great news for consumers, but it doesn't apply to the cheapest tickets, which is called basic economy. They're the most restrictive, and one of the pillars of that for most airlines is that they don't allow change fees.

So those fares exist and they'll be in buckets on the website when you book your flight on the airline website, they're there, and executives are not shy about this, so that you book the next highest that will give you a little bit more flexibility that will allow you to bring. For certain airlines to carry on bag on board let's say not board last, it comes with a seat assignment for what that's worth for you, So it's not free

changes for all. Some airlines, like Southwest, for example, they haven't had change fees, so it wasn't much of a change for them. But for the major airlines. They are keeping that, but it is for standard economy tickets. And then you know, just kind of in keeping in line with this whole thing of the you know, the airline travel, the other pieces you're lodging. So hotel rates are going up. I found a great place throughout the pandemic that I used for a few getaways, just because you needed to

get out of the house. Uh, you know, I checked rates there just for something else again, and boom, the prices are a sky high again, to the point where you know, I don't know if I'm gonna go back there. So that's the other piece of this too, is that you know, with the airlines going up, the hotel rates are also rising. The hotel rates are rising. It's more difficult to get a rental car if you're not staying at a hotel. Even some of the home rentals. The

competition is sky high. And this spring and summer. Late spring and summer are always the peak seasons for travel in the US. I mean, kids are off from school. People generally take their vacations when the weather is nicer. But you have all this pent up demands for over a year, and maybe people like you said, took those road trips last year. But this is just kind of like a bottleneck of leisure and everyone's trying to take a vacation at the same time, so the competition is there.

My advice would just be as flexible as possible. If you can travel in the off season, if you can travel in the middle of the week, take those opportunit Unity is where you can and maybe even your work allows you to work remotely and you could extend your vacation and you don't have to come back on a set date if you have that luxury. Yeah, we all need that time off and it's just more important than ever to plan ahead, plan accordingly. So we'll keep watching

out for all of this. Leslie Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC, Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget the effort. Today's big news. You can check me out in the Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Friday, So follow us on iHeart Radio or wherever you get your podcast.