The Death Of Affordable Travel

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]Has anybody else noticed that traveling is quietly becoming something regular people cannot afford? I literally just experienced it myself. I'm heading to Puerto Rico in a few days, had a flight booked under a hundred dollars. I had an email saying my flight was changed and later it was just canceled. So now what happened? I have to scramble last minute and book something what is three or four times more expensive than it was. Last minute I booked with United and the exact same trip basically cost me three times more. And that's got me thinking, is travel slowly becoming a luxury again? Families are getting crushed, hotel prices are insane and the airlines is charging extra for stuff which used to be free. And somehow you just getting less and paying more for that. And when the budget options start collapsing, that's not a good sign. It's often the first domino to fall. Local 1000 union official is live at the airline's headquarters in Dania Beach. Lenny.

[00:01:10]Good morning. They gathered and they marched all the way to company headquarters fueled with frustration.

[00:01:17]Their jobs terminated without any notice and now they want answers.

[00:01:23]There's no severance, uh, our insurance, everything was cut off on May 2nd. Laid off and left without answers. Spirit airline employees gathering outside company headquarters in Dania Beach Monday, still reeling after the surprise announcement over the weekend when the company shut down for good.

[00:01:39]>> It was until midnight on Friday night that we learned when we see the board with no flights for the next day that we were done for that day. The abrupt closure creating a frenzy nationwide, catching employees and travelers off guard. All flights grounded by 3:00 a.m.

[00:01:55]Saturday. 17,000 people across the country now without jobs, including thousands of workers based here in South Florida. The impact widespread. This is not like any other industry. You do not take your work experience with you. You start right back at the bottom. So, if you've been here 30 years, it means nothing.

[00:02:13]Myself, 10 and 1/2 years, means nothing.

[00:02:15]You start right back at the bottom with the lowest pay, lowest seniority. This is the layoff notice Spirit sent to all staff Saturday stating the company will be permanently closing all of its operational locations. The ultra-low-cost carrier collapsing amid rising jet fuel prices, intense competition, and debt. The company filing for bankruptcy twice in as many years. There's a lot of people that are going to struggle, and there's no way around that. There's just not enough jobs in this industry for the type of work that we do.

[00:02:46]And this is where we're hearing the human side first. 17,000 people have left with no job, no severance, no insurance, and nothing have left.

[00:02:57]Everything just disappeared overnight, and we know that's for sure not a good sign when the affordable airlines start collapsing. Because we know for sure less competition almost always means the higher prices for the rest of us. No other airline could I get off work on a Friday night, race to the airport with a tote bag, buy a last-minute round-trip flight, fly to Vegas for two nights, have a grand ghetto ball, fly back home on a Sunday morning, be ready for work by Monday for $89. [music] Spirit Airlines shutting down is the end of an era. She says exactly what a lot of travelers are thinking. Where people supposed to find those cheap tickets anymore? Spirit was a luxury, that's for sure, but it was not the point. The point was accessibility. Not everyone needs champagne in their first class.

[00:03:44]Sometimes people need just affordable seat to get from point A to point B.

[00:03:51]And so later to her >> [music] [music] [music] >> I'm going to miss those type of clips.

[00:04:23]The fights, the drama, the horrible customer service. It was content gold.

[00:04:29]But all jokes aside, something is definitely worth respecting of the Spirit Airlines is a 34 years with no fatal accidents. At the end of the day, people just got where they needed to and it was safe.

[00:05:18]This was peak Spirit energy right here.

[00:05:21]Absolute chaos. But behind all the memes, this is just a regular people who was battling a stress at the work. We all know working people to people it's constant stress passenger, the system you're trying to fight to, and some corporate decision they had zero control over. Hopefully, the people who was fired that day recently landed on their feet really quick. Am I living in an alternate universe right now because why are airlines charging people to pay for their seats? And I'm not talking about more legroom. I'm not talking about first class. I'm talking about peasant back of the airplane seats. Okay, I have a family of four, not eight, four. Why are we paying $115 per person per person, not including taxes and fees, just to choose my seats? I'm already paying $1,500 for my flights.

[00:06:11]Then I have to add an extra $500 just to make sure my family sit together. And I know if you have kids, they'll sit them next to an adult, but what does that mean? One person sits in the middle, the two kids sit sit next to them, and someone gets to sit in the back of the plane with a peaceful flight?

[00:06:24]Choose me. Choose me. No, I'm just kidding. I want to sit by my family. And what? So, they're going to put me next to one of my kids and my husband seven seats back with the other kid?

[00:06:32]Maybe. I want to sit next to my family.

[00:06:34]My best seat of choice is to sit two of us right next to the window, the other two right next to the window right behind us. My 5-year-old is going to most likely kick the seat in front of him. Is that annoying? Yes. Where else are his feet going to go? They can't reach the ground yet. Okay, they're going to kick the seat in front of him.

[00:06:49]If I'm the person in front of him, he's only going to annoy me. And what's new?

[00:06:53]What's new? I'm just kidding. I love him. But for real, like my 2-year-old's feet aren't long enough to reach the seat in front of him. My 5-year-old is not going to sit crisscross applesauce the whole flight. He's not. No 5-year-old is going to do that. I have to pay $500 just to have my family sit next to each other? 500 I Are you okay?

[00:07:08]I'm talking to you, United. I'm talking to you, American. This is not always been this way, and I know that for a fact because when I was traveling a ton back in like, I don't know, 2013 through 2015, 2016, I was not paying to choose my seat. I know that for a fact because I was traveling on a budget. That's even was new for me when I start traveling after the 7 years of sitting in America.

[00:07:27]But to be honest with you, it doesn't matter for me much this seat because I'm traveling by myself. I'm always asking a person who is registering me, "Hey, is it any aisle seat if it's possible?" And it's always working. I had the full flights the other day and everything was perfect. Person always was accommodating. But I completely understand how it could be harder for a family of four to try to choose the seats and it's never in my life was an option where you supposed to pay for that. Look at this whack-ass [ __ ] Delta main $616.

[00:08:02]Delta comfort $1046 Delta main This is what you get. You have to select an experience now. Which level of [ __ ] would you like to have? [laughter] Main, basic, $616.

[00:08:21]You get a seat. That's all you get.

[00:08:23]Nothing else and it's probably at the back of the [ __ ] bus or in the middle.

[00:08:28]Oh, look. Main classic for $100 you know, $110 more. Oh!

[00:08:35]You get to board in zone six or seven.

[00:08:38]You get to earn miles. This one, you don't you don't earn miles. In what world does that [ __ ] make sense?

[00:08:46]Oh, over here though, you spend $110 more, we'll let you earn the miles.

[00:08:51]We'll also let you do an upgrade, okay?

[00:08:53]And we'll let you select your seats and we'll let you we'll get you an e-credit if you need to cancel it. Oh, but if you want main extra for I don't know the math on that. Do the math there. $897, fully refundable. You can board in zone five. You get to earn even more miles.

[00:09:15]You get a higher priority for upgrades.

[00:09:19]You can also select your seat at any time. Any time.

[00:09:23]Every single one of these is in the same [ __ ] class. Same seats. It's not even Delta comfort. This is the airline game right now. They're trying to make us to pay for the miles which is completely doesn't make sense. It's probably not even worth it because you're going to get less miles in your account you would pay for it.

[00:09:45]I'm very confused and I'm sure a lot of people who is going through the same thing confused, too. Guess how much I just paid for plane ticket. I paid $486 for a plane ticket. And you're thinking, "Well, that makes sense. Plane tickets cost that. You must be taking a little trip, going somewhere, little fun, right?" No.

[00:10:06]Do you want to know where I'm going? I'm flying from San Francisco, California to San Diego, California. I'm literally flying in the same state and it cost me $486.

[00:10:19]I don't leave to another state. I stay in one state the whole time for an hour.

[00:10:25]It's fine. $486.

[00:10:29]The [ __ ] hour flight. Oh my god. But everything's fine.

[00:10:36]Everything's fine, right? I might as well [ __ ] walk. It would be less expensive than that.

[00:10:42]$500 for a flight in the same state.

[00:10:47]I'm sorry, that's a little pricey. Even if you're trying to buy a ticket the next day, which is obviously sometimes is more pricey than if you would go and get your ticket ahead. Me personally, I not ready to pay a vacation price for the normal ticket and which is not supposed to cost like that. But do we going to have a choice? I don't think so.

[00:11:09]I just booked my airplane tickets to Miami and it's now three times more expensive to fly to Miami from San Francisco than about, let's say, three months ago. Because I was I remember looking at these prices about three months ago, four months ago. I was like, "All right, not too bad, pretty affordable." Now, they're triple that and that's all crazy. And that's something that I think a lot of travelers will be feeling coming on. And if you are somebody that hasn't traveled yet, you haven't felt it. But once you start looking at those airline prices, you're going to be surprised. Now, what's even crazy is that all of a sudden the hotel prices aren't as expensive. And I'm like, "How did hotel prices suddenly increase so much during the same time?" But both hotel and airplane tickets have gone up significantly. And it's mainly due to a lot of what's happening with the global tensions and the issue with the oil supply. But if this keeps on happening and the oil prices keeps on going higher and higher, man, that's going to be very big hit to a lot of travelers who are looking to travel during the summer times, who are looking to travel during Thanksgiving, during December. That's going to be crazy. So, it's been crazy on the times, like you mentioned, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the summertime. That's actually the reason why I chose to go to Russia right now, not in the summertime, because I'm sorry, the tickets was uh ridiculously expensive. Not even I would say affordably expensive. And it so obviously does not stop with the airfare. The hotels, the trip inside the other country or in the country you're staying in, it's all adds up. Travels is truly becoming financially exhausting.

[00:12:53]If you've got a flight booked on Delta, you might want to grab something [music] to eat before you board. So, beginning May 19th, the airline is eliminating snacks, drinks, and in-flight meals on flights under 350 miles. [music] That affects about a 450 flights a day.

[00:13:07]Delta told CBS News it's, quote, uh "creating a more consistent [music] experience across our network." If you're flying up in front in first class, though, you're in luck. The carrier says those customers [music] will still receive full service. I just want my Biscoff cookie, guys. Pay more, get less. That's funny. I know the snacks is not that important, but it's a fun little things in the trips.

[00:13:31]Airlines have mastered charging premium for downgraded experience.

[00:13:37]We live in a world where everything continues to raise in price and things become more and more expensive. A budget-friendly airline shuts down, Spirit Airlines. In my opinion, what I always say is that I'm never going to make sense of [ __ ] because a flight domestically shouldn't cost you one or two paychecks. As seen on Twitter, Delta Airlines had a price jump from $200 to $1,200 for a domestic flight. They don't want you to go [ __ ] anywhere. One of the main issues with our capitalistic society is that we tend to make sense of things that don't make sense. Domestic travel should never be a thousand dollars. But people are going to pay for that because they have to pay for that.

[00:14:10]So, that's the airline preying on your downfall. Something that I say often is that everything can't cost money and all I mean by that is that everything can't continue to raise in price. If I look at a flight from Chicago to Vegas, why am I looking at prices for $1,100?

[00:14:25]This is a real example, by the way. I missed my flight four and a half years ago to Vegas. I go to Frontier, they said we have one-ways for $895. It was a family trip and I had to [ __ ] pay it.

[00:14:35]I get on the [ __ ] plane and the plane is half full.

[00:14:39]Yes, I was I was very upset about that then I had to pay. There will come a time where flying will become an ultimate luxury.

[00:14:45]You fly Delta, United, um American, these things don't bother you because you're almighty. You don't fly Spirit.

[00:14:52]Your flights right now are around, I don't know, $500 to $700, but there will come a time where those round trips become 1,800, 2,000.

[00:15:00]You don't want to pay that. There should be budget options for everything, food, cars, housing.

[00:15:07]Getting across country, I'm not talking about international, just domestic, should not bankrupt you.

[00:15:14]Things can't continue to always raise in price. And this is the really bigger picture. Food, rent, gas, everything is climbing. Travel is just another example of a normal life. And when the regular life becoming more expensive, people at least would expect it's going to get them a better value of their dollar, but it's not. And now it feels bigger than just a regular fighting tickets. It feels like we're watching a shift in the real life time.

[00:15:47]Visiting family, jump on a really quick weekend vacation, that used to be normal stuff. Now, for especially not a single people, it feels like more a luxury decision. If affordable option disappear and prices keep climbing up, regular people may slowly get priced out of travel all together. So, what I want to know, do you think it's temporary or travel already became a luxury?