I don't know what happened between now and the early 2000's but international flights have become significantly more expensive. I understand a little bit about economics and inflation but there is also a side to me that believes that the flight industry is in collusion with one another in order to keep prices high for additional profits. I do not believe their cries of constantly being on the brink of bankruptcy because if that was the case, why do domestic budget airlines seem to pop up out of nowhere several times a year?
I think back to the glory days of when international travel was extremely inexpensive even by the much-poorer-than-I-am-now days, and realize that those days are very unlikely to happen ever again.
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I remember like it was yesterday. I had a certain budget in mind but was kind of blow away when I was able to get a round-trip ticket to Singapore from a small regional airport on the East coast of the United States for just over $600 including all taxes. This is especially special when you consider that this small regional airport at that time was charging $200 just to fly to New York City round-trip. My overall fight at the time included NYC as a leg of the journey. I can't really imagine how it was financially possible for them to do the entire trip but then again, a bunch of airport fees and other nefarious charges were probably part of the equation.
I took just whatever airline and ended up with China Air for all of the trip outside of the tiny plane I took from the regional airport, and it was my first exposure to international flights other than a high-school trip to the Caribbean which doesn't really count because it wasn't even necessary for me to have a passport to do that and the flight was only a couple of hours long.
I was kind of amazed at the service on board this flight but much of this probably comes from the fact that US airlines tend to treat everyone as terrible as possible and don't seem overly concerned with whether or not you are comfortable. They also overcharge for everything. I was kind of in awe about the fact that everything on my first international flight ever was included in the price. I could have as much food and booze as I wanted and not pay anything for it. I was in my early 20's at the time so let's just say I overindulged on the beer side of things and ended up having my first being drunk and having that turn into a hangover while on the same plane experience of my entire life.
This was a situation I learned is something that you should avoid and I never did it again. At least I learned at an age where I was the most resilient in my life.
Just taking a look at kiwi.com, which is a site that I use since it includes free travel insurance, we can see that there is an ever-so-slight increase in how much it costs to take this flight. This also excludes the regional flight that I originally had all those years ago. I would imagine that including this, which is something I no longer need anyway, that we could expect an additional $300 or so to be added to the total price.
Now I understand that things become more expensive over time but I strongly believe that there is some sort of price-fixing gong on here and also that airlines are intentionally charging more these days in an effort to make up lost revenue when the world foolishly shut down for Covid for around a year. This sort of price-fixing is to be expected I guess, and there is nothing that any of us can do about it since they are are huge companies and if they all work together we don't really have a choice. You either pay it, or don't go.
Also, if you look at my first result from the cheapest that kiwi.com had to offer you will see that there is a rather insane 7kg luggage allowance as well. I tend to travel light anyway, but I'm gonna need a little bit more of a luggage allowance than that.
Are the days of trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic travel being inexpensive behind us? It would appear that this is the case at least for now. I strongly believe that this is for select markets only because I can still travel to/from the USA to Central and South America for a relatively inexpensive price. I also was looking at trans-Pacific flights pre-Covid and they were significantly less expensive than they are now.
None of this makes sense from a truly economic point of view and I would imagine that there aren't very many people that are willing to shell out this much money simply to arrive where they would like to go.
It's lucky that the world is a pretty big place though and in the meantime, until these airlines recoup their losses to satiate their shareholders and greed, we at least have other options a bit closer to home. It is just a shame because I consider south east Asia to be one of the best backpacking locations in the world. They wont be getting my business at those prices though and I can only hope that things will become a bit more sensible as time goes by.