Airfare after coronovirus?

[Clipper123]

Looking ahead to next year’s cruise, flights on Delta and United (only) have been released for the dates I need.  Of course fares are higher than I usually pay with a budget airline but budget airline schedules won’t be released for several months.  I know none of us can say for certain, but I wonder if when all this is over, airfares will be outrageous in order to recoup losses and maybe I should go ahead and book with Delta now 🤔

Edited March 14, 2020 by Clipper123

[CruiserBruce]

Nobody is going to be able to answer your question. But I would surmise fares will actually be low to draw people back to flying, not push them away.

 

If your flight is more than 8 months away, you can wait a little to see what the fares do. They are almost always not the best fares when first released.

[Bo1953]

I will venture to say that air fares will be adjusted on many factors as well as what the public is willing to pay.

 

After all, there will be reduced aircraft flying until demand is there to add more flights and support higher fares.

 

The cruise lines as well, we can expect a steady rise in fares to also try to recoup losses during this unfortunate time.

 

Each of us has our 'price point' beyond which the fares are considered 'outrageous' and that varies, too.

 

bon voyage

[SelectSys]

It will be all based on supply and demand.  When will people want to travel? I expect there will be a psychologically-driven lag between when it is "safe" to travel and when people actually start travelling.  Just like the stock market, the drop in prices are usually much faster than the rise. 

[em-sk]

5 minutes ago, SelectSys said:

It will be all based on supply and demand.  When will people want to travel? I expect there will be a psychologically-driven lag between when it is "safe" to travel and when people actually start travelling.  Just like the stock market, the drop in prices are usually much faster than the rise. 

 

Supply and demand will also cause the airlines to reduce flights.  Delta has announced 1/3 of their fleet will be grounded and they want airbus to slowdown delivery on new aircraft that are on order.   Many of the aircraft being retired are near end of life and will never fly again.  It may take a few years for the fleet to be back up to the same size.   Likely see the same thing with the other airlines in the US.

 

Air Canada has chartered outside operators and run its fleet harder than normal to handle the MAX grounding.   The outside contracts are going away and there is probably no urgency to see the MAX come back. 

 

[SelectSys]

3 minutes ago, em-sk said:

 

Supply and demand will also cause the airlines to reduce flights...

 

 

Of course.   My intuition, and it's only that, is that capacity will come back faster than passengers.  We'll just have to wait and see how the future pans out.

[spiritkat090909]

Are the prices you are seeing good?  If so, I'd go ahead and lock it in.

 

I have a December cruise (maybe) with family that I purchased airfare for as soon as I had Chase points for...just about a month before the xHTF. 

 

A week later...I was congratulating myself for the price going up to double what I had paid for First Class tickets on the metal (772) that I wanted.  And then...even later checking to see if the flights had been cx hoping to see if the airlines were intending to resume flying by then, the price is $200 per ticket less.

 

So...  if I were in your shoes and the price was suitable, I'd book.  And check the price difference for a higher class than you would originally book. It may be the same as what you would have paid for a lower class ticket in the past.  FWIW, the economy tickets on the same fight were only about $100 difference in fare, which would cover luggage savings.

 

My tickets are 'insured' via the credit card insurance should the cruise cancel in December, which it very well may... or my DH will decide NO,  I/we can't go. Of course, this is all providing we don't all go into an economic downfall the likes of which no one can recover from.  But, to borrow from Scarlett O'Hara: "I'll think about that tomorrow."