Speaker 1: It's Friday. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily Dive podcast
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America for all
Speaker 1: those that are out traveling this Memorial Day weekend, getting
Speaker 1: ready for high costs and lots of people. As the
Speaker 1: economy continues to rebound from the pandemic, we're seeing vacations
Speaker 1: get more expensive with rising airfare and hotel rates. The
Speaker 1: price of gas is even making road trips more expensive.
Speaker 1: To Leslie, Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC joins us for
Speaker 1: why costs are quickly going up. Thanks for joining us, Leslie,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having Memorial Day weekend is here, and it's
Speaker 1: time to talk about travel. I don't want to bust
Speaker 1: anybody's bubble, but it's gonna be busy. Wherever you're going,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot of other people out there.
Speaker 1: You know. It's kind of this double edged sword. We're
Speaker 1: recovering from the pandemic, and this is exactly what we want.
Speaker 1: We want people to start traveling again, start visiting other locations,
Speaker 1: domestic travels, leisure travel, spending that money. We want that.
Speaker 1: But on the other side of things, we've been locked
Speaker 1: up away for so long it's tough to get out
Speaker 1: in a lot of crowded places with a lot of people.
Speaker 1: So Leslie tell us a little bit about what we're
Speaker 1: seeing out there. We're seeing rising airfares and hotel rates
Speaker 1: as well. I think we've got a little bit used
Speaker 1: to those bargains fairs we were seeing in many of us.
Speaker 1: Most of us were not booking them last year and
Speaker 1: even into the beginning of one. Then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: a bunch of people who in America did get vaccinated
Speaker 1: and encourage this huge uptick in demand for travel. People
Speaker 1: have been closed up in their homes for the better
Speaker 1: part of fifteen months and they're ready to go out
Speaker 1: and travel, whether you're vaccinated or not. Attractions are starting
Speaker 1: to open up. Your Disneyland that opens very recently, then
Speaker 1: other places. Restaurants are opening in cities and even in
Speaker 1: New York. We're starting to see things return a little
Speaker 1: bit more to normal. Yeah, you know, it's not just
Speaker 1: the air fare as well, road trips, the cost of
Speaker 1: gases going up, and for a time during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: that's what a lot of people resorted to. Let's do
Speaker 1: a quick road trip something just to get out of
Speaker 1: the house. And even gas prices are going up so
Speaker 1: all around. You know, it's kind of funny too, because
Speaker 1: you know, some of these increases and everything, you know,
Speaker 1: they're not that pre pandemic levels just yet. They're getting
Speaker 1: towards it. But even still, it's just kind of coming
Speaker 1: out of this year, we're looking at these prices and
Speaker 1: just saying, man, that's expensive already. I think we got
Speaker 1: used to those really cheap prices during the pandemic. And
Speaker 1: you mentioned road trips. We've seen gasoline prices national average
Speaker 1: is the highest that we've seen since. So it was
Speaker 1: the sort of alternative during the pandemic. Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go out and avoid other people. I don't feel like
Speaker 1: going to an airport. I don't feel safe for you know,
Speaker 1: whatever the reason might be. But a lot of other
Speaker 1: people had a similar idea. Of course, we're all getting
Speaker 1: out of our houses and driving up demands for gasoline,
Speaker 1: and what we're seeing in the airports, I think travelers
Speaker 1: can acpect a lot of full flights. Airlines do not
Speaker 1: have the capacity that they had in nineteen. They retired
Speaker 1: a lot of aircraft, a lot of their own employees
Speaker 1: retired or left the company, so they're not operating the
Speaker 1: same number of flights that they used to, but what
Speaker 1: they are all doing is trying to focus on this
Speaker 1: domestic us leisure demands and that's where everybody is traveling,
Speaker 1: and that's where we're seeing some of the fairs. A
Speaker 1: lot of the executives are starting to say they're at
Speaker 1: or near levels, So the chances of getting a really
Speaker 1: good bargain are pretty much shading as we speak, right
Speaker 1: and you mentioned that, you know that domestic leisure travel,
Speaker 1: that's an important point of distinction because business and international
Speaker 1: travel hasn't ramped up just yet. That's still going to
Speaker 1: take a little bit more time, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: what helps offset these lower fairs for for all the
Speaker 1: regular flights basically, so until those pick up will be
Speaker 1: in this kind of mode as well. That's helping the
Speaker 1: consumer somewhat vacation or i should say in the near term,
Speaker 1: because it will keep a lid on prices. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't have those business travelers during the middle of
Speaker 1: the week. If you as a vacation or can travel
Speaker 1: in the middle of the week and take those seats
Speaker 1: at a better price, take it. And then also if
Speaker 1: you have a chance to travel in the off season.
Speaker 1: The airlines are hopeful that business travel, which is already
Speaker 1: starting to come back, we'll come back and earnest. Maybe
Speaker 1: the fall, kids are back in school and more people
Speaker 1: are vaccinated, and companies start to loosen up their travel
Speaker 1: restrictions for their own people, and maybe offices open up
Speaker 1: to receive visitors. But it's not clear how quickly that's
Speaker 1: going to happen. I mean, you have legal departments and
Speaker 1: compliance that are dictating a lot of these policies, and
Speaker 1: they don't want to send anyone out too early or
Speaker 1: or risk lawsuit. So if you can travel in the
Speaker 1: fall or maybe outside of the peak season, I would
Speaker 1: go for it. You made mention in your article that
Speaker 1: a lot of airlines are reinstating strict rules that they
Speaker 1: had on basic economy flights. What were those rules? What's
Speaker 1: changing there? So one thing that happened during the pandemic
Speaker 1: is that airlines started to lift or they have lifted
Speaker 1: change fees, and the fees that everybody hates two fifty
Speaker 1: dollars or more sometimes to change your flight, and everybody
Speaker 1: knows the frustration of even if you have like a
Speaker 1: family of four and you need to change for an
Speaker 1: emergency or something along those lines, or maybe you really
Speaker 1: like your destination you want to stay a little bit longer,
Speaker 1: come back sooner. For whatever reason. It's very costly and
Speaker 1: airlines were deaf sprit to get people on board last year,
Speaker 1: so they all Delta, American and United lifted change fees,
Speaker 1: including for international flights. Great news for consumers, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't apply to the cheapest tickets, which is called basic economy.
Speaker 1: They're the most restrictive, and one of the pillars of
Speaker 1: that for most airlines is that they don't allow change fees.
Speaker 1: So those fares exist and they'll be in buckets on
Speaker 1: the website when you book your flight on the airline website,
Speaker 1: they're there, and executives are not shy about this, so
Speaker 1: that you book the next highest that will give you
Speaker 1: a little bit more flexibility that will allow you to bring.
Speaker 1: For certain airlines to carry on bag on board let's
Speaker 1: say not board last, it comes with a seat assignment
Speaker 1: for what that's worth for you, So it's not free
Speaker 1: changes for all. Some airlines, like Southwest, for example, they
Speaker 1: haven't had change fees, so it wasn't much of a
Speaker 1: change for them. But for the major airlines. They are
Speaker 1: keeping that, but it is for standard economy tickets. And
Speaker 1: then you know, just kind of in keeping in line
Speaker 1: with this whole thing of the you know, the airline travel,
Speaker 1: the other pieces you're lodging. So hotel rates are going up.
Speaker 1: I found a great place throughout the pandemic that I
Speaker 1: used for a few getaways, just because you needed to
Speaker 1: get out of the house. Uh, you know, I checked
Speaker 1: rates there just for something else again, and boom, the
Speaker 1: prices are a sky high again, to the point where
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if I'm gonna go back there.
Speaker 1: So that's the other piece of this too, is that
Speaker 1: you know, with the airlines going up, the hotel rates
Speaker 1: are also rising. The hotel rates are rising. It's more
Speaker 1: difficult to get a rental car if you're not staying
Speaker 1: at a hotel. Even some of the home rentals. The
Speaker 1: competition is sky high. And this spring and summer. Late
Speaker 1: spring and summer are always the peak seasons for travel
Speaker 1: in the US. I mean, kids are off from school.
Speaker 1: People generally take their vacations when the weather is nicer.
Speaker 1: But you have all this pent up demands for over
Speaker 1: a year, and maybe people like you said, took those
Speaker 1: road trips last year. But this is just kind of
Speaker 1: like a bottleneck of leisure and everyone's trying to take
Speaker 1: a vacation at the same time, so the competition is there.
Speaker 1: My advice would just be as flexible as possible. If
Speaker 1: you can travel in the off season, if you can
Speaker 1: travel in the middle of the week, take those opportunit
Speaker 1: Unity is where you can and maybe even your work
Speaker 1: allows you to work remotely and you could extend your
Speaker 1: vacation and you don't have to come back on a
Speaker 1: set date if you have that luxury. Yeah, we all
Speaker 1: need that time off and it's just more important than
Speaker 1: ever to plan ahead, plan accordingly. So we'll keep watching
Speaker 1: out for all of this. Leslie Joseph's airline reporter at CNBC,
Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. I'm
Speaker 1: Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget
Speaker 1: the effort. Today's big news. You can check me out
Speaker 1: in the Daily Dive podcast every Monday to Friday, So
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