Do you love bargains as much as I do? If that's the case, then I am sure that you will be glad to know that 2009 will be the bargain year as we will be given the chance to take full advatage of the current financial crisis to enjoy some of the best moments ever in the USA! Could it be better than this?
Hoteliers and airline executives have hit the panic button, and that means price breaks and bargains travelers haven't seen in years.
Demand for airline seats and hotel rooms is traditionally weak in January and February, and the travel industry always discounts lustily. But 2009 is already shaping up as the worst year for business and leisure travel since 2002, when U.S. markets were suffering from a post-9/11 slump. “We're no different than any other industry,” the general manager of a swanky Florida resort told me last week. “There's no business and no immediate prospect for business. So I'm doing anything I can to fill my rooms. If I have to throw in free breakfasts or slash my rate, I'll do it. What choice do I have?”
Actually, travel is different. Business is much worse, reflecting its status as a leading indicator of economic hard times. The airlines, for example, thought they had prepared for the worst last fall when they cut about 10 percent of the nation's seat inventory from the schedules and grounded hundreds of older aircraft. But that has proved insufficient: Passenger demand has fallen even faster than the schedule cuts. Plummeting oil prices have helped carriers trim expenses — at last year's peak prices, energy represented half of an airline's costs — but it also means there's more room to slash ticket prices.
