ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A Central Florida travel expert expects airlines to raise their prices as the cost of gas increases. Conflict in the Middle East is disrupting the flow of jet fuel to airports around the world, already pushing up some prices.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
A Central Florida travel expert says airlines are raising ticket prices as jet fuel costs increase
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Travelers are urged to book flights as soon as possible and consider flexible fares to rebook if prices drop
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Petroleum industry experts do not expect a normal flow of jet fuel to ports around the world for several months<\/p>\n
Iria Esposito works for Travel Planners International. She expects higher prices on both domestic and international flights in the coming months, with big hikes during early May. Her advice is to book as soon as people can.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices are definitely going up, and my recommendation is for everybody to book it as soon as possible,” she said.<\/p>\n
Esposito spends her days making travel arrangements for clients and closely watching airfares.<\/p>\n
She gets pricing updates directly from America\u2019s largest airlines, and they tell her they are raising ticket prices as early as May 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cOthers already started,” she said.<\/p>\n
Esposito recommends travelers flying in the coming months should avoid basic economy fares with restrictions and book a flexible fare.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith that fare, it would allow you to rebook if the price goes down. Now some airlines would allow this and some would not, but most of them will. Some have a fee. Some will not, but at least the difference that will go down, you will get a credit to fly in the future,” she said.<\/p>\n
Esposito points out base prices on tickets are staying steady, but the added fuel fees are climbing because jet fuel is not flowing freely around the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The travel expert recalls in March she booked two tickets for a client to fly from California to Rome in August. When they made changes to the tickets in April, the fuel charges jumped $350 per ticket.<\/p>\n
Esposito expects higher prices to last well into this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something that will go away in weeks; it will take months to stabilize again,” she said.<\/p>\n
Esposito said that the conflict with Iran has some flights in Europe and the Middle East already being rerouted, creating longer flights and higher fuel costs. Some airlines are already charging more for checked bags to offset fuel costs, and some airlines are talking about reducing routes this summer to run leaner operations. That could lead to fewer choices for travelers.<\/p>\n
AAA issued a statement with advice for people who plan to fly in the coming months.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince there\u2019s no way to predict where fuel prices will be a month or two from now, waiting to book your airline ticket could be a bit of a gamble. If you hold out, you might face even higher prices or find that the itinerary you wanted is no longer available. Our advice to travelers: book your tickets sooner rather than later to lock in your rates and secure the flights that best fit your plans,” the agency said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 A Central Florida travel expert expects airlines to raise their prices as the cost of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11687,2031,274,558,1337,115,772,139,141,140,135,278,107,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-235638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-air-travel","9":"tag-app-local-business","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-keith-landry","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-on-air-ticker-article","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-headlines","17":"tag-orlando-news","18":"tag-tampa","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-travel","21":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}