SGH Wealth Management: What I'm Reading

Travel is suddenly a whole lot cheaper

SGH Wealth Management’s “Read What I’m Reading” Sep. 2022 | Sep. 9th, 2022

Planning a vacation this fall?  Consider booking your flight now.  According to recent Labor Department reports, airfares are down 7.8% from June, and ticket experts say that they’ve seen across-the-board cuts of 25-30%.

Several elements are at play, one of which is that travelers have already gone on holiday, because of pent-up demand from the Covid shutdown—reducing demand for the remainder of the year.  Another is that fuel prices are (probably temporarily) in decline, which reduces airline costs.

But why not wait for prices to go down even further?  Because of lesser demand, airlines are cutting their capacity for this fall, creating less choice and fewer seats all the way through November.  So far 50,000 flights have been cut out, and the pilot shortage means that it will be hard to restore them if demand picks up.  And it’s possible that fuel costs will go back up again.

The good news is that the scheduling glitches will also go down, now that the peak summer travel season is over.  Experts say you should normally book domestic flights at least three weeks in advance and international flights a month ahead, but with prices this low, booking today can lock in bargain prices for the winter holiday season.

*Check out Founder Sam Huszczo talking the Economy with Fox2Detroit’s Roop Raj in the top link below: