As international air carriers slash ticket prices to remain
competitive, low international airfares are luring UCLA students
out of the country this holiday season.
Facing high prices for domestic flights, many UCLA students are
avoiding flying locally, either hopping into their cars or flying
internationally for the Thanksgiving and winter vacations.
Just last week, STA Travel in Ackerman Union sold approximately
80 tickets to London, whereas last year it probably sold 10 or 15
during the same period, said STA Travel manager Aeron Wilson.
The decision to spend a vacation abroad is being pushed by
similar ticket prices domestically and internationally. Two weeks
ago, STA was selling London tickets for $192 plus tax, while
Oakland tickets were in the $250 range. Some students are deciding
it makes better sense economically to fly to London and get more
for their money.
“Students are feeling safer traveling overseas,”
Wilson said, referring to the apprehension many travelers felt
following the Sept. 11 attacks two years ago.
Terrorism on U.S. soil resulted in people increasingly choosing
to stay at home with their families rather than fly, reducing
airline ticket sales.
To combat low sales, air carriers were forced to reduce airfare
and cut their costs, or face going out of business.
While airfares are gradually returning to pre-Sept. 11 2001,
rates, they are still significantly lower than than they were in
the late 1990s.
Now, exceptionally low international rates are attracting
students who might not otherwise consider traveling out of the
country over the holidays, Wilson said.
International routes may be the one “bright spot” of
discounted fares, said Philip Phan, an airline analyst and
management professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
“Airlines are seeing increased competition from low-cost
carriers, particularly from European ones,” he said.
When both an American and a foreign airline go through the same
hub, such as Amsterdam, the American company is forced to either
lower its rates to stay competitive, or lose its share of the
market.
People, in general, plan further ahead for international trips
than they do for domestic ones, so American carriers must discount
international tickets earlier to capture the market for
international travelers, Phan said.
Discounts for domestic tickets are more likely to occur last
minute because airlines try to “catch impulse
travelers,” he said.
For those UCLA students who want to be home for the holidays but
have yet to purchase plane tickets, this may be excellent news.
“I would expect to see some price cutting by the middle of
next week and on through December,” Phan said.
Closer to the holidays, cheap tickets become more abundant, and
carriers like United Airlines, which is scheduled to come out of
bankruptcy next year, cannot afford to keep prices high and lose
key domestic traffic areas, he said.
In addition, the increased travel during the holidays better
enables airlines to fill planes to capacity, thus allowing more
room for carriers to cut fares and still make a profit.
Nevertheless, many students do not want to rely on speculated
price cuts, and many are unwilling or unable to pay ticket prices
as high as $250 to fly from Los Angeles to Oakland; these students
are choosing to drive home.
By now, all of the reduced-priced tickets to the Bay Area are
sold out, Wilson said. “These people are just getting
rides.”
First-year political science student Puja Bhatia is driving home
to Union City, in the East Bay, with her brother.
“I have a friend who was not going to go home to San
Francisco (for Thanksgiving) because flights were over $100 each
way, but he found a ride. Now he will surprise his mom,” said
Tatiana Kwok, a third-year economics and international area studies
student.
Bhatia, Kwok’s friend and the many other students who are
driving home, rather than flying, will save a considerable amount
of money.
In a car that gets 20 miles per gallon, a student driving alone
could get from Westwood to Oakland and back for less than $65 in
gas.
These students, however, must be willing to spend the extra time
fighting holiday traffic.
“My first year at UCLA, I drove home for Thanksgiving, and
it was bad,” Kwok said. She remembered it taking over two
hours just to get out of Los Angeles.
This year, she bought her plane ticket home in July, when
airfares were more reasonable, she said.
But Kwok may still have to fight traffic, to some extent, on her
way to the airport.
“Black Wednesday” ““ the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving ““ along with the following Sunday, are the two
heaviest air travel dates of the year.
In 2002, nearly 800,000 travelers passed through LAX between
Wednesday and Sunday.
Some students, who wish to bypass holiday rushes altogether,
will neither fly nor drive home for Thanksgiving.
Francie Diep, a first-year undeclared student from the Seattle
area, said that her parents decided she would wait until winter
break to go home.
“I have a feeling that part of it might have been because
plane tickets were expensive,” she said. “Also, it is
just a hassle to go to the airport, not only on Wednesday, but then
right away again on Sunday.”