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Plan on traveling by plane within the U.S. soon? Then you'll need to plan on paying more per ticket on at least four major airlines, who implemented a ticket price increase Tuesday. Delta Air Lines raised ticket prices by $4, $6, and $10 "across the bulk of their domestic route system," reports Farecompare.com.
Hours later, United/Continental matched Delta's fare hike. Today, American and U.S. Airways have also matched the fare increase initiated by Delta.
With the two major holiday travel periods approaching, you might think it's the norm for a price hike like this to happen. No so, says Farecompare's Rick Seaney:
"This is not very common. We have not seen domestic hike attempts in October or November since 2007 when oil prices were skyrocketing ahead of the recession in 2009."
While the prices are up right now, they might not necessarily stay that way, and Thanksgiving and Christmas flights can still be bought, but it's going to now be about trying to get what Seaney calls a "better bad deal."
Some advice on fare shopping for holiday travel:
"Fliers need to be shopping and buying now for Thanksgiving and have until early November for Christmas. Avoid the busiest and most expensive days which are Wednesday before and Sunday and Monday after Thanksgiving, and the Mondays after Christmas and New Years."
