How is the market meltdown affecting your travel?
Oct 10, 2008, 9:43 am
#31
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: MCI
Programs: AA LT Gold; BA Silver; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,081
Anyway- after 6 years in a row of going to Europe at least twice a year, we didn't this year. It just got too expensive. We've also decided, since I have a lot of vacation, to make a liesurely drive from Kansas to Myrtle Beach this Christmas and avoid the hassle factor of flying. Our investments are a bloodbath, which is disconcerting since my husband is retired and I'm 10-12 years from retirement, but we never spent the investment income on travel or any other living expenses.
There are cost-cutting mandates at my company but I'm building a team in India, which actually provides a cost-saving alternative. Now if they start requiring Coach travel to India, I'll be VERY annoyed. I have good, solid business reasons to be in London so I'd just schedule a few overnights both ways, but it would still hurt.
Finally, I'm keeping an eye out for discount Business Class fares to Europe in the spring, figuring demand will be down. My husband is 70 and over 6 feet tall- I hate squashing him into Coach seats. If they don't materialize, I'm going to keep accumulating enough AA miles for unrestricted seats in Business, and we won't travel to Europe till then.
Oct 10, 2008, 11:06 am
#33
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: Alaska 100K - MM, defender of shoes on the carpeted bulkhead 4ever, AA LT PLT, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia
Posts: 7,447
My job is secure, but honestly, I just don't feel like spending a penny. Its going to take me four years to recoup some of my latest losses if I want to even try.
Travel -- as far as I'm concerned, take it or leave it right now.
Travel -- as far as I'm concerned, take it or leave it right now.
Oct 10, 2008, 8:17 pm
#34
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: City of Destiny, Washington
Programs: Hilton Gold, Hyatt Diamond (challenge), SPG Gold, all else steerage
Posts: 80
If anything, I'm excited about our family's future European travel with a much cheaper euro/pound situation. We took last year's annual trip off for precisely this reason. Also hoping that low oil prices=lower TATL airfares!
Oct 10, 2008, 8:34 pm
#35
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: PHL (and sometimes BKK)
Programs: aa/ua gold; mar titanium. SPG till I die.
Posts: 15,648
Looking at going other places such as Australia and Iceland, for starters.
My job is pretty secure as well but with the crisis picking up speed I get busier by the day
The GBP is pretty much at the same exchange rate that I received when I first went in 2003.
My job is pretty secure as well but with the crisis picking up speed I get busier by the day
The GBP is pretty much at the same exchange rate that I received when I first went in 2003.
Oct 10, 2008, 8:54 pm
#36
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 240
I have the same job I had a year ago making slightly more money with ticket prices staying the same or slightly less, so my leisure travel has picked up lately. I have 8 trips between now and the middle of December. Half are personal,that equal about double what I have averaged in the same span in the recent past, and half that I booked just to make status.
Oct 11, 2008, 8:00 am
#37
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: PHL
Programs: UA 1K, AA Gold
Posts: 543
My travel has actually picked up. I now have 3 overseas trips scheduled. We just had a big re-org at work and now they cancelled all planned layoffs and in my new organization, I will go from flying international economy to paid C. It's kind of surrealistic at the moment.
Oct 11, 2008, 8:09 am
#38
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 61
I have found myself tightening the belt lately. I flew coach class for the first time in a while last week, and I actually used a free voucher I had and flew on AirTran. And it was surprisingly comfortable and without incidence. I have been spoiled with all the upgrades I have been using and all the tricks I have learned on FT over the years!