Airfares are going up, in spite of the fact that business and personal air travel is also on the rise. The air industry blames federal regulations and taxation for the increases, and recently stood up to Congress to say "enough." In the meantime, frugal vacationers can find big savings by shopping smart and thinking outside of the box. Article source: get additional information on each of personalmoneynetwork.com

Air fare on the rise

Bjorn Hanson is the divisional dean of the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University who points out that travel costs decreased considerably in 2007. In 2010, they started coming back again and are even expected to rise four to six percent this year. The Airfares are increasing again.

In the light of escalating air fare, many travelers are getting intelligent about how they plan their trips. By thinking outside of the package deal-box, combining destinations and taking advantage of sales and perks, many travelers are flying while nurturing their pocketbooks. However, finding these savings does require an excellent deal of cyber-legwork.

The one-way circumstance

The Agency of Transportation Statistics claims that, in 2011, one-third of all airline vacationers eschewed round-trip tickets and pre-packaged itineraries in favor of their own custom plans. In 2002, only 19 percent of vacationers used non-traditional itineraries.

Fare limitations

Getting the very best deal requires understanding of restricted and unrestricted fares. Unrestricted costs give an excellent deal of flexibility, but cost substantially more. If last minute changes are a big possibility, it might be worth the additional cost to save big fees.

With restricted costs, you usually are either not allowed to terminate or change a flight or you have to pay a big fee to restrict or terminate the flight. That means you need to get the flight you want whenever you want it. The issue with that is that you typically have to book the flights well in advance to get the right price.

In 2011, according to the Motley Fool, American Airlines charged almost $500,000 in charges to change or get rid of reservations. Delta charged $766,000. Alaskan Airlines, at the bottom of the scale, charged nearly $11,000.

Not an option to change charges

Congress heard from the airline industry on Thursday that fought back saying that it is impossible for businesses to get on top and help get out of the recession if they are being taxed too much. Federal regulators have been increasing regulation and taxation a ton on airlines that have become a necessity.

The North American VP of the International Air Transport Association is Douglas Lavin. He said:

"We need government to stop looking at us as a cash cow and look at us as an economic engine ... We will be very aggressive here in getting this message out to regulators and members of Congress.">

The strong words followed a May 22 Senate Appropriations subcommittee vote to raise the security fee on airfare to $5 per ticket. That move was opposed by House Republicans.

Sources:

New York Times

USA Today

Daily Finance