How is the market meltdown affecting your travel?
 

If you're a Wall Street type, you worry these days if the world is ending. Not sure that "Main Street" folks feel the same, but my guess is that if you see your 401(k) collapse, you're not feeling so rich anymore. And of course everyone worries that business may get slower, folks will get laid off and, well, worse economic times are ahead.

Is any of this affecting your personal or business travel yet? Why or why not?

IF you're a WallSt type who's been in the game for more than 10-15 years and you haven't saved enough NOT to worry, you're either a fool, or you've got some really really nice stuff! ;)
My travel is almost exclusively personal, and yes - the economy has impacted the amount I might otherwise have booked.
Most of that, however, is owing to the increase in fares rather than a decrease in confidence.

The capacity controls the industry has implemented will result in significantly lower leisure travel, IMO, while increasing margins as well.

Dave

A couple of business trips have either been cancelled in favour of web meetings or some people who weren't 100% necessary have been uninvited.

I would normally make the mileage run to make up the points I need to EXP but I'm not willing to shell out the $500 or so that would take. So, sadly, it looks as if I will fall to lowly Plat come Feb 09 :(

Well, fares might come down a bit because fuel prices are tanking -- oil is down almost $60/barrel since July!

If you follow the business end, airline stocks are interesting here. They "crashed" earlier this year when oil went into the $140s, and folks thought it would go up forever. The airlines responded by dramatically cutting seats -- particularly domestic U.S. seats -- so they could boost prices but cutting supply. Well, now they can pay the fuel bill, but the question is whether they'll have any customers. :)

My guess is that if we don't have only a modest recession, the airlines will do quite well. They obviously won't if this is the start of a 1929-style depression (which seems unlikely to me, but there's great panic on Wall Street).

No.

Business -- when a client needs me, they really need me, and travel costs don't affect their thought process much.

Personal -- most of my "at risk" investments are in 401k/403b type accounts or IRAs from previous employers. Sure, they've tanked, but I have enough time to retirement (15+ years) that current values in those accounts aren't a big concern when considering what I'll do today.

The bulk of my accounts that I use for current expenses (like trips, home repairs, etc.) are in more conservative investments, which have been largely unaffected by the current downturn.

I'll also add that I don't take out loans often -- my only debt (current and for the forseeable future) is my home mortgage, so the increasing cost of credit doesn't impact my buying patterns.

It hasn't

For $500 shell out the $$. Too many bennies w/ EXP. Alas, for me it will take more than $500 to get back to 1K.

And it wasn't helped this aft when a retainer client canceled my contract due to the market/sales being soft/the economy :(

Cheers.

Strangely I seem to be travelling more...for leisure.
Mostly the result of unconnected circumstances but the occasional sale fare in combination with FFP promotions seems to help encourage me, which I guess is helping the airline to increase their load factors.

Now is a good time to take holiday from work given the lack of it, but also, why wait around for exchange rates to sour and inflation to take their toll on capital? I'm more encouraged to fly to some cheaper destinations.

It hasn't. Business is - currently - booming.

Nope not at all, in the medical business.

I am in a business that directly benefits from what is going on, so I have just doubled my travelling.

Recession? What recession? ;)

since my work depends on gov't funding... we are in a bit of trouble (for now congress decided to push back voting for the FY09 budget until next year, which means we operate at the same level is FY08, but the way things are going, there will likely be some serious cutbacks next fiscal year... and my traveling time may decrease).

We're struggling to get enough staff to meet current business needs (and if things keep going they way they are we're going to have to turn away a huge amount of business) so my travel is increasing rapidly as I attempt to spread myself too thin between a number of clients. I'm hoping that the current troubles will result in ex pat aussies coming home and so make it easier to get quality staff.

Sounds like my life too. I think I'll meet my fiscal year billing goal 3 months ahead of schedule and I've actually earned all my airline statuses BIS instead of from 10k in bonus MQMs from DL last year.

The only issue i'm having is with all this travel on my personal life since my SO's job is down the tubes and he wonders why I'm not home like he is.