Airfare - A Rant and then a Rave

I'm compelled to add my voice to the chatter about airfare I've been hearing everywhere lately. The high price of gas is affecting us all. I'm more immune than others seeing as I drive my car once or sometimes twice a week and my utilities are included in my rent, but we all know the increased price of fuel is increasing the price of pretty much everything. This past week American Airlines announced it will start charging $15 per checked bag (story) coming a couple of weeks after United (followed by a number of other carriers) announced it (they) will charge $25 for the second checked bag. I think this is a bad idea - for a number of reasons. The most basic of which goes a little like this - it seems to me that the increased price of fuel is a cost that applies to everyone on the flight, not just those people who check bags. Shouldn't it follow then that that extra cost of fuel should be passed along to everyone on the flight? Not to mention that cabin space is already at a premium so the extra people who carry-on instead of check based on these new fees is only going to cause more trouble there. Additionally, I read an article (of course I can't find it now) that talked about how many thousands of gallons of jet fuel can be saved per flight (per flight!) just by adding 2 or 3 minutes to flight times.

Now - I don't consider myself the most reasonable person in the world, more reasonable than some yes, but I can be really stubborn too. That said, I loathe the rise in gas prices almost as much as everyone else does, but I also understand that it's the way it is, at least for the moment. So - while I wouldn't be happy about it, deep down I would understand if the airlines raised prices. I don't know if I would fly less similar to all the people who are driving less, but somehow I would get it. It would suck, but I would get it. Plus - I would absolutely give 2-3 or even 10 extra minutes per flight to save fuel and money - seems better for the environment and the wallet.

Whew - enough ranting, onto raving. I have in the past month or so discovered a feature on www.kayak.com that I love. The website itself is sort of like Google for airfare. You put in your search and it looks at bunches of different sites and finds you the best price. It saves me some time when I'm searching around and gives me a good feel for prices across the board. They don't sell tickets themselves, it's just a tool to help you find the best fare. The best feature of the site (in my opinion) is the ability to track a specific itinerary. Say you were flying to visit family over Labor Day (which I am). You can tell Kayak the specific days you want to fly and they will send you a daily summary of what the best price is for those days and how much the price has gone up or down since yesterday and since the first day you started tracking. Plus (and this is my favorite part) they toss a helpful graph of fares from the last 7 days in the email so that you can glance very quickly to see what's been going on. On their website the graph is extended to the last 30 days and is a helpful tool to see what the trends are. I know that farecast.com does some if not all of these things however - they're graphing and trending (is that a word?) services are limited to large cities and they do not track the thriving metropolis that is Grand Rapids.

The best thing to happen to my travel plans though? My sister Joy. She's moving to Chicago, and since the next few trips I'm planning involve seeing family her move will allow me to fly into Chicago and save over flying into GR. Right now it's about half as much (seriously) to fly into Chicago instead of GR. Thanks Joy!