I think airfares will decrease.
We just booked round trip tickets today to travel half way around the world. We are very excited about this trip!!
The change for baggage fees is for any flights booked after May 28. I’m not sure a date has been released yet for the change in boarding policies.
We don’t have any international travel booked for this year—yet. S and DIL, as well as my siblings continue traveling internationally and domestically. They don’t seem too phased by the craziness.
I was fortunate enough to use miles and upgrades for our overseas flights. But I have had to book 4 other itineraries , and the prices are higher
We are, for lack of a better descriptor, “FIRE, empty-nesters”. We’ve been traveling a fair amount for the last 15 yrs if you don’t include 2020-2022. We’ve enjoyed at least one extended vacation abroad (3-6 weeks) a year…originally we would do 3 weeks and lately it’s been 5-6 weeks at a time. I share that information because it’s perhaps why we feel comfortable pausing travel abroad plans. This includes declining an invitation abroad with several other couples for June of 2026.
I’ll also state that our decision to pause has nothing to do with being in the “inconvenient category of people” (from another thread) where we fear not being able to reenter into the US. I am concerned with the instability being created and believe we wouldn’t enjoy ourselves as much as we have in the past.
While things seem alright now, we can’t help but wonder how US policies will affect the travel experience once more populations experience negative side effects. Empathy tends to decrease when the actions of a demographic (Americans) begins to hurt you personally.
That said both of my kids have international trips planned in the next 2 months. Hopefully things go well.
My husband loves a bareboat charter vacation. The charter company we used last year sent out an email yesterday with a great sale. In the 30 years we have been sailing we have not seen such a sale outside of Black Friday. The discount amount plus the length of the sale and the period they are discounting is unheard of. The agent also was shocked at the sale.
I think people are hesitant to book. The list of uncertainties is long.
I’m already booked for my June Yosemite trip.
But we still have to book flights for our New Zealand/Sydney trip next February. Globus is supposed to book our flights out, but we’re arranging our own post-Globus visit from Queenstown to Sydney and then home. I think our smartest move is to fly from LAX - rent a car in San Diego and drop in LAX to get to our outgoing flight, and the reverse coming home. The car rental will be considerably less than flights from SAN-LAX, plus we won’t be dependent on a connection.
Currently Delta and Air New Zealand are very comparable pricing for the Premium level with extra leg room, free checked bags, etc. The top level of seating is out of our budget. I’m wondering if AAA or USAA can beat listed online pricing. But I think we’d better wait a couple of months at least before booking anything.
Our other question is whether we really need to plan to arrive a full day early for the tour. It starts at dinner time (they say to plan for flights to arrive by 4:30). Direct from LAX arrives at 6:00 or 9:00 am to Auckland. We’re already losing a day and don’t want to spend two full days in Auckland before the tour begins. We did book the prenight, but with a direct flight, perhaps it would be safe enough to arrive in the morning. Even if the flight was late, we would have until the following morning to catch up tp the tour if necessary. This will be our longest trip in decades so not sure we want to add an unnecessary day at the start.
We haven’t tried the rental car to LAX but have thought about it. We have an air bus option but the times aren’t great when our flight arrives after 10 pm. We sometimes fly from our local airport which beats LAX by miles for ease of us but for some trips it doesn’t work. Last year when we flew back from the BVI we arrived after midnight. The two hour drive home was killer. I had to constantly nudge my husband to keep him awake.
I thought Air New Zealand was a great airline. We flew from LAX plus had a number of shorter flights on that trip between Tonga and Auckland and to and from the South Island. Their safety film was cute and upbeat that you actually watched it.
I would advise against flying in day of. When we had a 14 day tour booked in NZ, we chose to arrive a couple of days ahead, so we didn’t have to worry if our plane got canceled for some reason, for example. If your luggage gets lost, you want at least a little time for it to get to you is another reason. To me it seemed like too big a risk to get there too close to actual group trip departure.
I always like to arrive a bit before and stay a bit after tours. I like being able to adjust to time zones and feel I’m getting the full benefit of whatever I’m scheduled to do. As we get older, it takes me a bit more time to adjust to changes in venue and time zone.
Rumor has it the Broncos might play in Berlin next season (dates tbd). Might be a good excuse for a family trip, though I may or may not need a ticket to the game myself - the others are the avid sports fans. The current world mood is a factor to consider, but so far not a huge deterrent to the trip idea.
We have had a fair amount of points on a few hotel accounts. We will be staying for almost a week at a hotel in CA near one of our kids (we usually stay with the older s and family but this time will be closer to younger s and family) . I initially got a good discounted (military ID) rate, but decided to switch to using points to pay instead of paying the daily rate. This is saving $$ and this is part of my new mentality, given all going on in the world.
Using points at hotels saves a ton not just because of the rate but because of the high taxes (typically around 15%).
Cities, States, stick it to travelers because the majority are out of town and they rather tax them than the locals.
Husband has had a Hilton AmEx for decades. We’ve done plenty of trips where we compare the AAA rate to the HHonors points and make the call that way. Right now we’re accumulating points to use for the Sydney Hilton next February.
H and I have done many small group tours abroad. We usually arrive a day or two early to get a jump start on acclimating to time zone changes and allow for unexpected delays (us or luggage). Your body clock will be totally upside down in NZ. When our kids were middle school age we visited friends in Australia. They suggested keeping them up until they dropped. Everyone adapted to local time quickly!
Thank you @jym626! I checked my Delta plans and just got $688 ecredits ($344 each) for our Iceland flights.
Wow!! That’s a huge drop! Congrats!!
Just curious, @jym626 do you use the Military Rate while retired? DH didn’t like to do that, and while I have a military ID, I don’t know if the hotels would be accepting (as I would not be on orders). I try to stay at Marriott properties. And, now I use the senior rate.
The rate I look at and occasionally may use is for veterans/retirees with a military ID, which DH has. We don’t use a rate that is for military on active orders. Usually a hotel chain will delineate the rate for those on orders separately. Most of the time the rate for seniors or AAA or AARP (we have them all) is lower. This is what I look at (this is Hilton)
