Summer travel plans grow more expensive

A lot of people can relate.No matter how much you try to save right now, you may still feel like you’re overspending. “We did bare-bones, no drink packages or anything. Cheap flights, but it’s still out of our budget,” Madison Odegaard, a traveler from Minnesota, said.”It was really hard to pay for food and Ubers, and yeah we did not anticipate that,” Alexis Clouser, a traveler from Arkansas, said.They and millions of others are still willing to pay up to fly out.”You have family everywhere and you’ve got to go see them, so you can make it work, you just have to plan further in advance,” Randee Burch, a Central Florida resident, said.AAA reported ticket prices are about 6% higher and hotel prices almost 42% higher than last year.”I noticed from when I’ve been here before, like food has gone up and gas prices have gone up compared to what it was. For us, our car rental was a lot more expensive,” Tasha Lunn, a traveler from the United Kingdom, said.”We took the more ‘we’re here once in a while,’ kind of thing, so we just do what we want to do, enjoy the place. I can’t say we cut back,” Haytham Whitear, also traveling from the UK, said.AAA’s Mark Jenkins said they expect nothing but high prices that people are willing to keep paying all summer long.”In many cases, travelers right now, we’re just budgeting differently. You know, they’re expecting to spend a little more upfront for travel costs,” Jenkins said. WESH 2 asked AAA’s spokesperson, “How do you cut costs? Should you fly or drive?””It might be more affordable for a solo traveler to fly to a destination as opposed to a family of five, right, because then you’re looking at buying five different airline tickets at, you know, hundreds of dollars a pop,” Jenkins said.Jenkins said that the best advice is to book early, but some people said their budget is overbooked.”This summer, no more travel plans. This was it,” Clouser said.”I’m trying to go home so I can save some money,” Odegaard said.Expedia released these travel tips for summer 2022: • August is the cheapest month to fly, with average ticket prices nearly 10% lower compared to July and 5% cheaper than June.• The most expensive day to fly is July 1, the Friday prior to the July 4 holiday, when average ticket prices are 25% higher than average for summer months.• Between June and August, the highest ATPs are generally found on Fridays and the cheapest tend to occur on Tuesdays.