Market Update

Well, it’s been a wild couple of months for air travel. The price of jet fuel–

Hang on. Is anyone else feeling some hardcore déjà vu right now?

 It’s true, these updates have sounded like a broken record for the last few months. And all those things — fuel costs, conflict in the Middle East, price hikes on airfare and baggage fees — are still just as relevant. Even though the price of jet fuel has dropped significantly, airlines are still charging higher rates to make up the money they lost in the last quarter, and we don’t expect that to change any time soon.

But it’s not all doom and gloom out there! Summer has arrived, the birds are singing, and, like bears emerging from hibernation, some pretty sweet fares are starting to pop up. Here are a few of our favorites from last month:

• Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji for under $700 RT
• some terrific flights straight to the Galapagos
• these sneaky cheap Atlanta fares
• Mongolia for under $950 RT
• and our first-ever business class Flight Guide to Easter Island.

Just goes to show how, even in trying times, there are always great fares to be found!

Speaking of trying times, the aftermath of Spirit Airlines’ untimely demise continues to reshape the domestic travel market. While we won’t miss their cramped seats and exorbitant baggage fees, we will miss the downward pressure they placed on overall ticket prices. Put simply, when Spirit was out there letting you fly from LA to Dallas for $50 RT, it was a lot harder for American and Southwest to justify charging $300+. Now that they’re gone, the legacy airlines have already started boosting prices on routes all over the country.

Of course, only charging $50 for a round-trip ticket is a big part of why Spirit went bankrupt in the first place, so maybe this was an inevitable market correction. But it’s tough to see fares rising so dramatically on some routes, especially as we get into peak travel season. 

Fortunately, Spirit wasn’t the only budget carrier out there, and its former competitors have already started picking its bones clean. Frontier is looking like the biggest winner so far, immediately adding several new domestic routes to its network with plans to continue expanding over the next year. JetBlue, meanwhile, has focused on taking over Spirit’s former hub in Fort Lauderdale, aiming to snatch up newly opened territory in Latin America and the southern US. 

Finally, upstart low-cost challenger Breeze has been making moves as well, launching new routes all over the South from its hub in Atlantic City. We’ve been keeping an eye on them for a minute now, and so far there’s a lot to like. With fewer fees and more comfortable cabins than Frontier, Breeze is definitely a budget dark horse worth keeping an eye on.

 Ultimately, we’re rooting for all the low-cost airlines. When carriers are forced to compete, it’s cost-conscious travelers (like you!) who end up winning.