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candy4040
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Just booked our EZ Air for our March 2022 cruise - prices are insane.  They are almost as much as the cruise itself.  Sure hope the prices come down some before we have to make final payment.  Anyone else experiencing this?

 

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"Insane" is a bit relative and vague. Were your expectations realistic? What were you comparing them to? Keep in mind demand is returning, quickly, and with increasing demand will come increasing prices. Finally, there's no connection between the cruise price and the flight price - they have completely different sets of economics. With a cruise, the fare itself is usually only a part (sometimes small) of the overall money the company will expect to get from you...excursions, drinks, shopping, meals, etc. etc. With flying, other than perhaps a seat choice or a bag fee (if either is applicable), the price is the price - they're not going to make any money off of you, so they need to price it to make the money they need (and even then, airlines often lose money on economy class fares). 

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Airfares and cruise fares are not related in any way. You can book a first class airfare to Australia, and do a 3 days cruise in the cheapest cabin, and the airfare will definitely be greater than the cruise fare.

 

In general, airfares have been going up. The airlines realize there is a huge amount of pent up demand out there, lots of flight credits to redeem, and they lost A LOT of money the last year or so. And right now...supply is probably less than demand.

 

Without further details on what you are looking at, not sure there is any way to offer any advice.

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1 hour ago, candy4040 said:

Just booked our EZ Air for our March 2022 cruise - prices are insane.  They are almost as much as the cruise itself.  Sure hope the prices come down some before we have to make final payment.  Anyone else experiencing this?

 

 

My crystal ball is crystal clear regarding this dilemma.  Near term:  leisure travel is going to be expensive.  There seems to be too much pent-up demand, too little supply, and some households have money waiting to be spent.  

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35 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

My crystal ball is crystal clear regarding this dilemma.  Near term:  leisure travel is going to be expensive.  There seems to be too much pent-up demand, too little supply, and some households have money waiting to be spent.  

Plus, business travel, which generally speaking, subsidizes leisure travel (particularly the last minute business travel) is predicted to take years to recover...if at all.

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6 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Plus, business travel, which generally speaking, subsidizes leisure travel (particularly the last minute business travel) is predicted to take years to recover...if at all.

 

The Manager of my local airport (DAY) has been saying this for months.  Once upon a time, DAY was a hub airport.  When those airlines that provided that hub pulled out, flight choices have continued to decrease and decrease while prices flying out of DAY have increased and increased.  A bit of some good news in recent days.  AA has announced a new seasonal non-stop flight to Orlando and I believe Delta will offer a non-stop flight to Miami.  Not certain if this is seasonal or not.  Just getting to Miami from DAY without a plane change in ATL would be a treat!

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2 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Airfares and cruise fares are not related in any way. You can book a first class airfare to Australia, and do a 3 days cruise in the cheapest cabin, and the airfare will definitely be greater than the cruise fare.

 

In general, airfares have been going up. The airlines realize there is a huge amount of pent up demand out there, lots of flight credits to redeem, and they lost A LOT of money the last year or so. And right now...supply is probably less than demand.

 

Without further details on what you are looking at, not sure there is any way to offer any advice.

I really should have clarified the costs.  Compared to flights one year ago, the prices are more than double.  The cruise cost itself is very reasonable.

 

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1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

When DAY was a hub....that's going back to the Piedmont days, where DAY was their northern hub.

 

That has been many, many moons ago!  It was successful from my perspective as a traveler.

 

Delta indicated that they were considering making DAY a hub.  The city responded by building a new concourse for such service.  Some flights used gates in that concourse, but was never a Delta hub, particularly after they decided to use CVG as a hub.  That concourse was mothballed with the bonds used to build the facility still being paid off by the taxpayers of the City of Dayton, I am relatively certain.  

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On 4/16/2021 at 6:41 PM, candy4040 said:

I really should have clarified the costs.  Compared to flights one year ago, the prices are more than double.  The cruise cost itself is very reasonable.

 

A year ago at the beginning of the pandemic, fares dropped very low because no one was flying. Compare fares to 2 years ago to have a realistic comparison.

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On 4/18/2021 at 2:40 PM, dabear said:

A year ago at the beginning of the pandemic, fares dropped very low because no one was flying. Compare fares to 2 years ago to have a realistic comparison.

This was based on comparison of 2019 actual purchase and not 2020.  

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Wow - I didn't think of comparing gasoline prices but now that you mentioned it in Minnesota the cost of regular gas (not jet fuel LOL) today is 2.34 at Costco and in 2019 (average for year in MN) was 2.49 and in 2020 it was 2.60.  I'm sure the price of fuel differs greatly from state to state due to gas taxes but my increase in fare from 2019 to 2021 was more than 100%.  I'll still check periodically to see if fares comes down before making final payment.  I know that airlines contract out their fuel prices months in advance and maybe even longer.  I know the airlines have suffered tremendously due to a variety of factors this past year.  Thanks all for your input.  It definitely gives a different slant to things.  I just want to cruise again!

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On 4/20/2021 at 11:20 AM, candy4040 said:

Wow - I didn't think of comparing gasoline prices but now that you mentioned it in Minnesota the cost of regular gas (not jet fuel LOL) today is 2.34 at Costco and in 2019 (average for year in MN) was 2.49 and in 2020 it was 2.60.  I'm sure the price of fuel differs greatly from state to state due to gas taxes but my increase in fare from 2019 to 2021 was more than 100%.  I'll still check periodically to see if fares comes down before making final payment.  I know that airlines contract out their fuel prices months in advance and maybe even longer.  I know the airlines have suffered tremendously due to a variety of factors this past year.  Thanks all for your input.  It definitely gives a different slant to things.  I just want to cruise again!

 

I filled up a few times last week in the Duluth area at like $2.79ish, so other parts of Minnesota appear to be more that Minneapolis. 

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On 4/25/2021 at 8:26 PM, rkacruiser said:

 

WOW!  I have a feeling that I am going to regret buying a car that ought to use Premium gas.  

Think yourself lucky - the UK price is around $6.50 for a US gallon!

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On 4/16/2021 at 3:41 PM, candy4040 said:

I really should have clarified the costs.  Compared to flights one year ago, the prices are more than double.  The cruise cost itself is very reasonable.

 

Times have changed; electiions, no Keystone pipeline. Fuel is getting more expensive.

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6 hours ago, nini said:

Times have changed; electiions, no Keystone pipeline. Fuel is getting more expensive.

The keystone pipeline was never completed...never carried a drop. That has not affected supply.

 

The ramping up of the economy, on the other hand, is creating more demand, and  producers are slowly ramping production. OPEC has not yet indicated any increase in production. So prices are going up, as supply is not really responding to demand yet. Producers took a big hit when prices went subzero in the early days of Covid. They are recovering that loss.

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9 hours ago, nini said:

Times have changed; electiions, no Keystone pipeline. Fuel is getting more expensive.

 

One of the common things I hear out of conservatives in the US is that Biden is going to make the gas prices go up...now that it's happening, they assume it's Biden's fault, and not the very, very rapidly recovering US economy pushing up demand quicker than we've seen it in a very long time. 

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6 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

 

One of the common things I hear out of conservatives in the US is that Biden is going to make the gas prices go up...now that it's happening, they assume it's Biden's fault, and not the very, very rapidly recovering US economy pushing up demand quicker than we've seen it in a very long time. 

 

Another factor in this is something rather simple and overlooked.  There needs to be drivers of those gasoline delivery trucks.  NBC News reported this week that there is a scarcity of such employees.  Therefore, wages need to increase to attempt to entice more qualified drivers.  Who's going to help pay for that increase in costs for the energy companies?  

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3 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

Another factor in this is something rather simple and overlooked.  There needs to be drivers of those gasoline delivery trucks.  NBC News reported this week that there is a scarcity of such employees.  Therefore, wages need to increase to attempt to entice more qualified drivers.  Who's going to help pay for that increase in costs for the energy companies?  

 

My wife mentioned the concerns over a driver shortage resulting in a gas shortage this summer. Sounds like a good summer for me to take a break from my travel and be stuck at home for a couple of months on paternity leave! Phew! 

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We are booked on a South America/Antarctica cruise in December 2021.   The day EzAir was available I planned to book.   Air from San Diego to Santiago and return from Buenos Aires in Business Class was around $6500 pp. Booked an obstructed ocean view from LA to Santiago for $1100, no package and will move cabins for the Santiago to Buenos Aires leg.   Booked the air for the day after the cruise ends in Buenos Aires for $1300 pp.   Today the fare is around $6200pp thru EzAir.

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