At first glance, this is kind of like saying that scientists have discovered water in oceans of the world. The actual headline is a little different. According to the Los Angeles Times, High-income fliers are unhappier with airlines, survey says.  The article lists “high income” as people with a household income of at least $100,000 a year. Without getting into a debate on who is and who is not rich, it is easy to imagine a fairly middle class family with two wage earners having such an income. While $100,000 is certainly above the average household income in the United States, it is probably not that far above the average household income of an airline passenger. Simply put, I don’ think they are saying that people who normally fly in private jets are dissatisfied with airline travel.

Can You Blame Them?

People who travel by airline, and have a household income above $100,000 probably have certain expectations when they shell out a few hundred dollars or more for something. For example, if you were to walk into a store to purchase something that costs hundreds of dollars, you would not expect to have to wait in long lines at every occasion. You would probably hope that the employees of the company you are giving your business to would treat you with a minimum amount of courtesy and professionalism. As we know, airline employees are notorious for not providing this level of service. I could write a spirited defense of their behavior, citing pay, schedules, management, customers and the like, but that is not the point. Visit any airport and you will regularly see airline personnel treating passengers with a level of disregard and contempt that would get them fired from any hotel and even most fast food restaurants. Passengers are lectured, patronized, yelled at, and ignored. Management seems to have no problem with hundreds of people standing in line at a counter with 20 positions, that is only being attended by three customer service agents.

Fees Create Adversaries

The article cites increased airline fees as part of the source of passenger’s dissatisfaction:

Part of the reason for the negative feelings, Rheem said, is that passengers must pay fees to check bags, get better seats and receive meals, among other things.

“Passengers are not happy,” she said, “because they are being charged for things they didn’t pay for before.”

Certainly fees are part of the problem, but not directly. It has been my opinion that the fees have created an adversarial relationship between passengers and airline staff.  Where passengers once purchased a product in advance and expected to be treated like a valued customer, they are now being targeted as a recurring revenue source at every interaction. There is real fear of unexpected fees for baggage, or being stuck in a middle seat because you didn’t pay extra for preferred seating. People are quite upset at the possibility of being separated from, and possibly charged for their carry ons because they didn’t pay a preferred boarding surcharge before the overhead bins filled up. At the same time, it is taking forever for the boarding process to complete as passengers struggle with each other for limited carry on space now that airlines are charging for baggage.

What Is Going On

It is just a rough environment out there. I would walk out of a restaurant or a hotel if I was treated like I have been on many airlines.  Yes, I can try to avoid those carriers, (I am looking at you Frontier and United) but I do not always have the choice.  At the same time, this is a story about an industry in trouble. They might want to blame the government, the fuel prices, or passengers purchasing tickets based on price, but there is no way to interpret this as anything other than an industry that is failing its customers.

It used to be we only had to suffer through it once every four years, now we must spend two weeks out of every two years enduring the hideous spectacle that is the Olympic “games”. First comes the comes the predictions of unprecedented demand for people hoping to attend the host city and purchase tickets for the games.  Next, comes  the amazing tales of grotesque price gouging. People hundreds of miles away from the venues plan on renting their outhouses to wealthy foreigners for thousands of dollars a night. Inevitably, with the games weeks or even days away, we learn that airline bookings are actually down and there are hotel rooms that are still open in the metro area. Surprise surprise, after years of predicting chaos as hordes of crowds descend on the city, the normal tourist and business travelers have heeded the warnings and stayed away like a plague had erupted.

Welcome To The London 2012 Rip Off

Here is a perfect illustration of the greed and price gouging that we should expect to see more of in the run up to the 2012 Olympics. A hotel in London is offering three nights stay and about $3,000 dollars in tickets for a mere $10,000. So basically what they are doing is offering a hotel room for a mere $2,333 a night. Seriously, this is almost certainly just a way to get around ticket scalping laws. One of the tickets you are getting is for the opening ceremonies, which has a face value of $2,600. Of course, you can’t just one of those tickets at that price, you will either have to pay a scalper, or just 3 nights at a hotel for $2,333 a night. Of course this is possible because the seller of the package, Thomas Cook, is an official Olympic sponsor and has somehow reserved a bunch of hotels that had been set aside for the Olympic organizing committee.  Out of those rooms, some were set aside for these “packages.”  You have got to love the Olympics!

Skip The Olympics

Ok, by now you have probably guessed that I do not like the Olympic “movement”.   For the record, I also hate flowers and kittens. As sports commentator Frank Deford is fond of pointing out “Only the IOC still calls itself a movement and gets away with it. Hey, it’s no more than an international cartel that puts on a big show every four years”.

I worked for the Olympics during the 1996 games in Atlanta, where I had grown up.  The whole thing is a big corrupt corporation catering to the international elite and their cronies.  Every now and then a friend of mine expresses the interest to plunge his savings into a shoestring trip to the next Olympics.  As I always tell  him, anyone who values their time and money should stay far away. These people make the NFL, NBA, and the MLB look like the Red Cross.

If you really want to see a great sporting event, go to the world championships of your favorite event. Go see the Tour De France, the World Figure Skating Championships, or the World Swimming Championships. Surround yourself with the true fans of the sport, not some corporate VPs who are only attending the event because their clients offered them tickets.

Perhaps the worst thing about the Olympics is that you will only get the faintest impression of the place you are visiting.  I grew up in Atlanta, and I couldn’t recognize it during the Olympics.  The city was overwhelmed with not just tourists, but greedy merchants and scammers that follow the Olympic flame around like moths.

See The World, Skip The Olympics

There are still plenty of ways to travel the world at affordable prices. There are many incredible sporting events to be seen and experienced. The Olympics are not one of them.

It is very easy for travelers to get trapped into the mindset of a a single mode of transit. Certainly, when traveling a great distance, air travel is probably your only option. Once you have scheduled your international flights, it may be easy to keep looking for additional flights to intermediate points along your itinerary. For example, I was helping some family plan a vacation around Greece and the Mediterranean. While they were able to find inexpensive flights to most of their destinations, they had not considered surface transportation.  A little Googling turned up a fast ferry that was able to shuttle them between Greek islands faster and less expensively than the airlines.

The mindset does not only affect air travelers. A couple of years ago, I was in Chicago and was planning on visiting the airshow in Oshkosh Wisconsin. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a reasonably priced, one way car rental that would allow me to return the vehicle to Milwaukee. I knew that a cheap flight was not available or convenient.  I even checked Amtrak and found it surprisingly expensive.  Finally, I found a bus service that took me to downtown Milwaukee for almost nothing. There, I was able to rent a car that I could easily return to the airport. The trip went off without a hitch and was a triumph of multi-mode travel planning.

What About Flight Delays

It is sometimes easy and inexpensive to accept a change of plane, even if your destination is a short flight away. In college, I used to regularly fly from Philadelphia to Atlanta via Newark, as Continental was offering very low fares.  Sure the flight between Philly and Newark was very short, but the trip worked. Today, such a trip would be ludicrous with all of the delays at those airports. Nevertheless, if you were to fly a similar itinerary today, it would make sense to know the train schedule as a backup in case the Philly-Newark segment was canceled. In many cases, it helps to have a good backup mode of transit. Now that we have the 3 hour rule, people aren’t being kept on planes all day when there is a delay.  In my opinion, this is great news, even if my flight is eventually canceled.  I appreciate the opportunity to de-plane, leave the airport and catch a bus, train, boat, or a horse and sleigh if necessary.

Efficient travel is quite an art form, and people who focus on a single mode of transportation are painting with whole world with the same brush. By keeping your options open, and all types of transport in mind, you will find that you can reach your destination in more ways than most people will ever realize.

This is a guest post by Kay from Bucksome Boomer.

Cruising is one of my family’s favorite vacations. We enjoy unpacking one time while visiting several cities or countries on the trip. Every time we take a land-based vacation it doesn’t beat the value of a cruise.

The Cruise

The Radiance of the Seas in Cabo San Lucas

Our last cruise was a 10 night cruise that left San Diego and visited five Mexican ports before returning.

After more than a dozen cruises on five different brands, we have formed cruise routines and favorite activities. But we are careful to be open to new experiences and second chances.

Our first cruise with Royal Caribbean was disappointing in terms of the food and cabins. Understanding it was an older ship and that they’ve revamped the cabins led us to give them another chance on this cruise. We’re so glad we did.

Another change in our cruise experience was selecting the unscheduled dinner time instead of one of the traditional seating times. Through this option we met three wonderful couples we dined with the rest of the cruise.

Our new friends on formal night

During sea days, we took advantage of the ship’s library and cinema for books and movies. I attended enrichment lectures on various topics. We also relaxed and soaked up sun poolside while sipping libations.

We had our choice of the indoor pool….

or the outdoor pool area.

The service, entertainment, food and ambiance were just right for us and this trip is right up there as one of our favorites.

Mexican Riviera Ports

My husband and I previously visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco on previous visits. We were excited to stop at Zihuatanejo for the first time as it is much less developed than the other ports.

We are beach people so we hit the beach at every port except Puerto Vallarta. We’d been to this port too often and instead enjoyed having the ship to ourselves.

In Mazatlan we taxied to a all-inclusive resort and bought a day pass for $35 each which included drinks and food. The beach wasn’t that great but we met this guy.

Sunbathing Iguana

Cabo was beautiful as always and we had a great view of Lover’s Beach and the arch.

Arch at Cabo San Lucas

Acapulco is not the safest Mexican city right now but we felt safe walking to the nearby beach from the ship. This is the stop that was not as geared towards tourists.

Radiance of the Seas in Acapulco

Zihuatanejo is a beautiful port that we would love to visit for a land trip. I had an ocean view massage after a couple of margaritas and was in heaven! That’s me in the first green lounger below.

Relaxing in Zihuatanejo

The view was amazing from this chair…

Tips to Save

1. Keep track of the charges and total on your on-board account throughout the cruise. Don’t wait to check it until the last morning because mistakes do happen and with the hurry to get off, it may not get resolved. This will also keep you from overspending

2. Cruise off season. This is a slower time of year so we got a great price on the cruise.

3. Arrange your own tours. We didn’t take a single ship’s excursion and saved a lot of money by arranging our own.

4. Cruise from a local port and save on airfare and pre-cruise hotels. Of course, I do want to go other places so don’t always follow this one.

We’re already planning our next cruise for the late summer to Alaska. It’ll be a different experience due to weather, location and travel companions. No matter where the ship goes, a day aboard is better than a day in the office!

Being a travel expert has the effect of attracting the interest of friends and family when they need assistance booking air travel. By business standards, I am no longer a frequent traveler, but through assisting others I still manage to keep up with trends in airfare.

Prices Are Rising

In the last month, I have seen prices rising rapidly all over the globe. A flight in Europe that I had priced out at $75 in February was over $200 by March. A domestic flight I took last month that was pricing at $225 is now pricing at $375.  Current oil prices cannot account for this dramatic swing in airfares.  It is the fear of future oil prices that is creating panic at airlines around the world. Beyond just raising airfares, they are planning capacity reductions. These are either relative reductions, meaning fewer new flights, or absolute reductions of seats. In this way, airlines are hoping to increase pricing power and maintain profits.

There is no doubt they are seizing on world events, from Japan to the Middle East, to predict future oil price increases and a downfall in business travel. Who can say if these fears will prove unfounded, but the reality of higher airfares is with us for the time being. When you add to that the seasonal tendency for oil prices to rise in the spring and summer, it is clear that prices are going up before they go down.

What You Should Do

If you have been holding from ing tickets for a trip later this year in the hope of finding a lower airfare, don’t. Certainly, you should look into ing tickets soon for any travel between now and the fall, when fares often recede. If you can book on Southwest, this is a no-brainer, as they will allow you to rebook lower fares with no penalty. If the fare on your flight goes down, you will receive the difference back as a credit towards a future flight.  With Southwest, you have nothing to loose by booking.   This is not true with other airlines which typically charge $150 as a change fee, making all but the most dramatic price drops not worth booking.