Well after staying put for part of the pandemic. Americans are back
to traveling in big numbers this summer, but it's turning out to
be much harder than expected, whether you're flying or driving.
Despite high gas prices, nearly 48 million drivers hit the highways
this weekend. We asked some of you to share what you're experiencing
on the road.
My name is Naomi or good. I live in New Jersey. But I drive in New
York City. I drive form up Cos at the moment I drive for lift with
the gas prices, the person that is suffering.
Is the driver before the gas prices went up. I would cruise around
Manhattan, you know, from one end of Manhattan to the other, but
now because of the gas prices, no, I have to stop at one location,
Park my car in weight, even with all these strategies of saving money
and taking home
Almost half what I used to take before.
I go by wolf? Um I'm 59. I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and
I'm a K nine handler for the Mountaineer Area Rescue group out of
Morgantown. There we go. The big ones, Fergus.
And little one. That's Henry.
We have to train the dogs a lot. We used to be 2 to 3 times a week,
but nobody can afford all those trainings because of the gas prices.
There have been times and there will be again times when certain
Team members just don't have the money in the bank to fill the tank
and cannot come to a call out.
Which means
Week. We can't help you can't help you. If you're out there and lost.
We can't come and fix it for you.
My name is Freddy Anson and I live in like Forest, California.
If I had to go back to my old commute right now, I would be taking
about a 300 to $400 a month. Cutting pay. Just in filling up my own
car here in California or state government feels that they have evidence
that there's been price gouging going on.
And just drive into the pump and filling up my car once a week. I
don't doubt that there's some legitimacy to that
joyride. Benson, Um I am in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we say we're
at the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. We actually were out of
town when the guests surged in February and we had driven on vacation
and we were driving back and thinking, How high is it going to be
when we get back to town? We went down paying a certain amount and
came back and it seemed like gas had jumped a dollar in 20. Cents
over
Week.
My name is April APPA and I live in Corvallis, Oregon. We have four
Children. Everybody's in that driving age. The kids and I had planned
on just doing a road trip out to Tennessee and as we got closer to
it, and the gas prices kept rising, Um
It's It just became one of the things I was like. I don't know that
this is gonna work. My name is Michelle Baldwin. I live in Cherokee,
Oklahoma, which is a pretty rural area, the closest town to me.
Is 20 miles away. There's just not really any way for us to not drive
in order to do the things that we need to do. Overall, I'd say we
probably spend close to 60 to $100 a week more on gas.
Now than we did this time last summer. It hurts.
Let's turn now to the troubled state of air travel. Millions of people
have been flying in the US this weekend, or at least trying to there
were more than 1400 cancelations and over 14,000 delays.
Stephanie site takes a closer look at all of this.
It's hard to remember now, but there were plenty of flight delays
and cancelations before the pandemic. Still, things have gotten worse
this year for air travelers, particularly around holidays and heavy
travel periods. More than 800,000 flights have been delayed in the
U. S this year, averaging one of every five flights a day and more
than 115,000 flights have been canceled. This year. We look at what
is happening and what people need to know with Kyle Potter.
To the editor in chief of Thrifty Traveler, Kyle Thanks for joining
the news hour.
Um, I guess the first question is, Did airlines do what they needed
to do to meet the surgeon demand this holiday weekend? You know,
I don't know that it's about what they needed to do. It's about just
how far they went to survive the worst of the pandemic. They had
to shrink into survival mode when travel fell off a cliff in early
2020.
And that was really good for a while because they were emerging tens
of millions of dollars a day, but fast forward to travel demand bouncing
back, and it's clear that they cut a little bit too much, so they
have stretched themselves far too thin right now, and probably most
importantly,
They're selling flights as if it's 2019. But they are not up to staff
as if it's 2019. Yet it's going to take some time. And that's what
we're seeing here is basically growing pains. Does that mean that
they are blameless in this dysfunction that we're seeing around the
country?
Not at all. You know it. Ultimately, it's up to the airlines to sell
flights that they can operate reliably and to be able to recover
when something like a storm disrupts part of the country or air traffic
control issues crop up, as they always do in good times and bad,
And that's the difference here is that airlines are much smaller
than they used to be, and they're just trying to do too much with
too little. So I would say just the opposite. Airlines are ultimately
to blame for what we're seeing today.
Okay. I know that one of the specific issues that airlines are dealing
with is just a pilot shortage. We know that a Delta airlines they're
discontented
pilots that protested a few days ago. We know that American Airlines
just announced that they're planning a raise for pilots by 2024.
But is that specifically the staffing issue? We're talking about
that there just aren't enough pilots.
You know the airlines are getting it from both sides because even
before the pandemic, there was an overarching pilot shortage that
there just weren't enough pilots in the pipeline to get onto planes
to fuel their growth plans.
And then airlines made it worse for themselves during the pandemic
during the worst of it, because airlines like Delta and every other
airline, you know, we know their ranks by tens of thousands of employees,
pilots included through early retirement incentives and bio packages.
And so now, you know, hiring pilots takes a lot of time. I mean,
this is months and months of training, so it's going to take a long
time before these airlines are able to get back up to 100%.
To have as many pilots as they need and when it comes to the pilots,
who are still flying, Um representative with the Allied Pilots Association,
told another TV network this week that the F A needs to come in and
look at how airlines are building their schedules in at an inhumane
level.
Is what the representative said, and inhumane level and that is letting
down passengers. So I guess my question is, is the federal government
doing what it can to hold airlines accountable and make sure passengers
and pilots are safe? There's certainly room for improvement. I mean,
someone needs to step in and make sure that airlines are living up
to the promises that they're making to consumers, because when
We see airlines fail as often as we have not just, you know, over
this holiday travel weekend, not just in 2022, but again and again
and again over the course of the last year and change. It's clear
that there are some systemic problems and until airlines are held
accountable for these failures. I'm concerned that this is just going
to continue happening.
And continuing on that threat of accountability. Senator Bernie Sanders
sent a letter to the transportation secretary this week, saying that
airlines should face steep fines for canceling flights. If they have
booked passengers on flights. They know they can't staff because
a report came out earlier this week, saying that is what they're
doing. It's Sanders also reminds us that taxpayers bailed out this
industry with more than $50 billion during the pandemic would penalizing
airlines be part of this solution?
In here.
You know, I'm not going to pretend like I have all the answers. Certainly,
lawmakers in D C and parts of the Biden administration know best
what to do. I do hope that someone somewhere steps up and holds these
airlines accountable In some way we have thrifty traveler have been
calling for many 20 months now.
To have forced airlines to guarantee some kind of compensation for
delays and cancelations. What the dollar amount is walking in what
situations that would apply. I don't know what's best in this case,
but I do think that airlines need some skin in the game and to face
some real penalties and give consumers something back when you know
there were plans get shot.
I guess, Dr if you can. Kyle Potter, the editor in Chief of Thrifty
Traveler, Thank you for joining the news hour. Thanks for having
me.