“We haven’t seen this amount of travel on Memorial Day weekend in almost 20 years,” Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, said in a statement. Press release forecasting nearly 44 million travelers between Thursday and Monday. “We are expecting one million more travelers this holiday weekend compared to 2019, which not only means we are surpassing pre-pandemic levels, but also heralds a very busy summer travel season ahead.”
Travel advisors say the numbers back up the enthusiasm they've seen from customers. John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders Groupsaid families have been planning this summer since last year – and were already booking trips for spring break and summer 2025. He said people realized early in the pandemic how much travel brings to their lives and have since made it a priority.
“What we hear every day is that people are so happy to be back in the world,” said Mel Burton, coordinator of CruCon cruise trip.
For the millions of people who will be traveling over the coming weekend or months, there are some key tips to remember.
The plane ticket gives us a break
It should cost less to fly over the holiday weekend (or throughout the summer) this year compared to last year – and even compared to pre-Covid times.
According to flight booking app Hopper, the cost of domestic flights for Memorial Day Weekend averaged $260 last week, a decrease of 9.5 percent year over year.
“This is a trend that will continue throughout the summer,” said Hayley Berg, Hopper's senior economist.
For June, July and August, the domestic airfare averaged $305 per ticket, a decrease of 6 percent, Hopper said in his report. summer outlook. Even flights to Europe are cheaper trend after last summer's sticker shock. Berg said the average airfare for European flights of $950 between June and August was down 8 percent.
However, this represents around 15% more than the cost of flights in 2019.
Part of the reason behind the increase in travel and the drop in airfares is simple: there are more seats to fill.
According to Hopper, there are about a million additional seats on domestic routes over Memorial Day weekend, Thursday through the following Tuesday, an increase of more than 6 percent in capacity.
“We hope the airlines will be ready,” Berg said. “They have only added as much capacity as they can maintain due to the disaster of cancellations and delays in 2022 resulting from the pandemic. We do not expect major crises, barring unexpected weather conditions. »
Ciriuman aviation analytics company, said there were more than 15 million additional seats on domestic flights between June and August this year compared to last year, an increase of 5.6 %.
All of this represents a small potential relief for travelers, said Scott Keyes, founder of the Cheap Flight Alert service. On the way.
“Airlines simply have more capacity and more flights on their schedules, which translates into cheaper fares and more wiggle room,” he said.
The new refund rules won't help you yet
Maybe this summer will be free of airline crises, but it's best to prepare for the worst. Passengers should be aware that they are entitled to a refund if their flight is canceled or significantly delayed and they end up not traveling.
During the winter holidays, new rules will be in place requiring airlines to automatically refund passengers in these cases. But this rule – which also covers reimbursement for significantly delayed baggage and additional services that are not provided – will not be in effect for summer travelers.
To get a refund before the rules take effect, travelers will need to request one from their airline and be prepared to request a refund instead of vouchers or flight credits.
To find out what else they might be entitled to in the event of delays or cancellations caused by airlines, travelers can contact a Department of Transportation. customer service dashboard. This will reveal which airlines will, for example, rebook passengers on another carrier, provide meal vouchers, offer ground transportation or pay for a hotel if a traveler is stranded.
Alaska Airlines started a pricing trend in January by increasing its fees for a checked bag from $30 to $35. American airlines does the same thing next month, follow up by price increases from United, Delta and JetBlue. It was the first time in years that some airlines raised prices for checked bags.
Keyes, who predicted that several airlines would raise baggage fees at the start of the year, said it would be interesting to see if the price of bags would change after the new DOT rule on fees takes effect.
For now, he cautioned, “don't be shocked when each bag costs $5 more than the last time you traveled.”
Offers in Florida, Mexico and Canada
Travel experts round Some of the best value summer flights for The Washington Post: Look to Colorado, the Caribbean, rural Europe and the beach regions of Mexico.
In his summer forecast, booking site Kayak also offers suggestions for the cheapest average airfares for summer. Florida, Mexico and Canada all top the list.
The cheapest domestic flights include Minneapolis, Orlando, and a handful of places in Florida (Tampa, Fort Myers, and Fort Lauderdale). Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Calgary) and Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico) top the list internationally.
Pekoske reminded travelers that firearms are not permitted in security screening areas, secure areas of an airport or in airplane cabins. Passengers who wish to travel with a firearm must follow a list of rules this includes keeping them unloaded, locked and stored in checked baggage. Individuals who bring a firearm through security could be arrested or cited by local authorities and could be subject to a TSA fine and loss of PreCheck eligibility.
“As you can imagine, any time there is a gun at a checkpoint, it slows down the process, certainly for that person, but for everyone else at that checkpoint,” he said. he declared.
So far this year, 2,300 guns have been detected at security checkpoints, Pekoske said; last year this number was more than 6,700.
“We don’t see that going down like we would like,” he said.
The United States Embassy in the Bahamas also warned travelers heading to the Turks and Caicos Islands to carefully check bags of weapons or ammunition. Five Americans were stopped for ammunition charges while traveling in the Caribbean destination and faces a 12-year prison sentence.
“If you bring a firearm or ammunition to TCI, even inadvertently, we will not be able to secure your release,” the embassy said.
