Rising cost of travel

too many tourists, especially school kids and "teeny boopers" (sic)
keep the rif-raff+ (sic) +away
a lower class of traveller

Like it or not, we are all tourists unless we stay in one place long enough to become part of the community. I find it funny when tourists visit popular tourist destinations and complain about all the other tourists clogging the place up. And it also sounds snobbish and mean to want to restrict travel to the relatively rich.

Excluding the minority of tourists who cause trouble, I don't think there's such a thing as a superior class of tourist. Some love beaches and parties. Who's to say they get less out of their holiday than someone who prefers ruins and art galleries? Some pride themselves on knowing exactly how much a local taxi should cost, and haggle over a few cents to avoid being "ripped off". Others give it little thought and are happy as long as it's cheaper than at home. We're all different. Loud party-goers are annoying, but so are travel snobs.

You have always paid a high premium to book that far in advance. My goodness, June! It's only August. As a rule of thumb, you get the best prices by booking around 8 weeks in advance, not 10 months in advance. An airline assumes that if you book 10 months advance, it's a "got to be there" like a big fat destination wedding, and they charge accordingly. You are just getting anxious way too far in advance.

Is it wicked to add that my trip to Paris was all-in ROUND-TRIP $300? Tee hee.

Not from Vancouver it wasn't peachfront.

www.kayak.com

With password, they will keep you updated as to cheapest flight.
You can choose 3 days b4 or after your chosen date, for better daily bid.

Again, kayak doesn't cover all airlines. Sometimes they have a better price and sometimes I have found a better price elsewhere.

But the point of the thread wasn't about where to find a better price. It was about how people will react to higher prices. How will the masses BEHAVE as a result of higher prices? By spending more time online searching than they did before? By not travelling as much? By travelling as often but shorter distances from home? That is the question.

That's three questions.

No, not from Vancouver, in my case from New Orleans, in another man's case from Biloxi. But the Paris run was a famous mileage run at the time and quite a number of people were getting the price by routing through DTW from different cities. Don't recall if Vancouver was one of the cities where you could originate, but there were quite a number. Ah, the glory days...January 2005! It seems a long time ago. But basic principles remain, and one of them is that it is WAY too early to book for a June flight if you want the best price. If you buying the trip in frequent flyer miles, that's different. Go ahead and book because the miles are about to be seriously devalued. (Check out Delta's proposed new award chart if you doubt me.) I've got a very crowded calendar now because of all of the award travel I've had to book before the new fees go into effect.

In answer to your more general question, as travel costs rise, no, folks won't hop on an airplane to watch the graduation of every niece (!) -- something once reserved for when it was your actual daughter. And let's be honest. An awful lot of people will be relieved that they can make an excuse and get out of "destination" weddings, baby showers, graduations, and other such tedious events. Every cloud has its silver lining, and that's the silver lining of inflated fuel prices. Be honest. Aren't you secretly tickled to have a reason to excuse yourself from this tedious-sounding trip? I won't be the one to tell the wife. :-)

What people will do is complain for a while and then it will gradually be accepted.

BTW what is the average percentage rise now?

For a lot of people, air fare costs are irrelevant.

Eight out of 10 Americans have never flown, according to Time, and of those eight, three, for a variety of reasons, could never be lured onto a plane.

I don't know what the comparable figures are for other countries, but I'd assume a higher proportion of Europeans, Australians and Japanese fly, and a much lower proportion of people from most other countries.

The main effect of much higher airfares, assuming they remain high, which is by no means certain, might be to prevent a lot of people from taking their first, and subsequent flights.

I'd also guess that business travel is going to take a big hit, especially with the the outlook for corporations so uncertain in many parts of the world.

That could mean some real bargains at the front of the plane.