Holiday travel costs increasing

If you're planning to fly to be with loved ones during the Thanksgiving weekend or over Christmas, hurry up.

The cost of holiday air travel is going up with each passing day, said Rick Seaney, chief executive officer and co-founder of FareCompare.com, a travel website.

Airlines have cut seat numbers to 1999 levels and may not offer the same discounts they offered last winter when oil prices dropped sharply and the recession shriveled travel demand, he said.

But Valerie Smith of Richland is not worried because she bought her plane tickets at the end of July to get a deal. She said she paid about $450 for a round-trip from Pasco to Phoenix over Thanksgiving, and a little over $600 for a round-trip to Detroit to visit family at Christmas.

"I expected to pay a premium because of the holiday season," said Smith, a Michigan State graduate who moved to the Tri-Cities in January. She added that delaying the purchase wouldn't have helped, though she could have saved some if she had flown out of Seattle or Portland.

Rae Weil also is breathing easy, having bought her tickets last month for travel in December. "I got the tickets through a travel agent," said Weil, a partner at Ikon Marketing Group in Kennewick who will be traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to be with her family at Christmas.

Weil said her tickets cost her less than $400 each, and when she checked online fares two weeks ago they already had increased substantially.

FareCompare.com's Seaney said although air fares have gone up since summer, they are still cheaper compared with previous years. Demand for air travel is firming up, as is reflected by six fare hikes since June, he said.

Travel experts say to get a bargain customers must watch the ever-changing fares and be flexible with their travel plans.

Cheap fares get sold out earliest, said Julie Harrington, chief operating officer of Travel Leaders, a travel agency with offices in the Mid-Columbia. She has seen steady growth in local leisure and business travel, and business is better than what it was last year at this time.

Harrington said people still are booking tickets, and if they aren't traveling to visit family they are going to warmer destinations in the U.S. and abroad. She said most are looking for the cheapest fare, though they don't mind spending an extra $50 for a better-scheduled flight.

Harrington said her agents often tell consumers that traveling to Baltimore instead of Washington, D.C., or to Oakland, Calif., instead of San Francisco, or to Burbank, Calif., instead of Los Angeles would help them cut travel costs.

Harrington said many customers have realized that almost all airlines are charging extra for checked baggage so they try to pack light. They also know about the ticket change fee that airlines charge, she said.

Tom Parsons, chief executive officer of Best Fares.com, another travel website, said consumers need to do aggressive online research to find good deals. Better still, he said, they should consider flying from larger airports nearby.

Like most regional airports across the U.S., air travel out of Pasco is relatively expensive compared with flying out of Seattle or Spokane, he said. Having fewer airlines serving them means lack of competition and absence of discounts.

Parsons said travelers also need to be flexible with their travel dates.

Generally, the day before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after Thanksgiving are the two busiest days for the airline industry, said Seaney of FareCompare.com. Likewise, travel is heavy around Christmas and the New Year and that gives airlines an incentive to add a holiday surcharge of about $20 each way to the ticket prices, he said.

Seaney's advice: Avoid peak travel dates. Air travel in early December will cost less than late December, he said. Also, consumers may have to pay extra for making phone reservations and for choosing aisle seats or seats with more legroom, he said.

"Ticket prices have nothing to do with distance and everything to do with competition and timing," he added.

w Pratik Joshi: 582-1541; pjoshi@tricityherald.com; Business Beat blog at www.tricityherald.com