Expensive plane tickets and airport chaos put travelers to the test

TOKYO/NEW YORK – Genevieve Price considers herself a great flight hacker.

The 35-year-old San Diego-based naturopathic doctor often buys basic economy class tickets when visiting family in New Jersey and then uses her Alaska Airlines frequent flyer status to choose a seat, something that is generally not allowed for those single fares.

“I like to travel a lot,” Price told CNBC at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, where he was returning from Rome.

But Price said he has his limits and plans to limit his spending on future flights to no more than $900 to Rome, where his partner is from.

Consumers' willingness to fly is being tested this spring, as rising fuel prices are leading to higher airfares. Cathay Pacific, SAS, Finnair and others are among the airlines that have already increased fares.

Travelers are also having to deal with hours-long security lines at US airports due to the second government shutdown in half a year that is impacting the Transportation Security Administration, leaving many frustrated.

Fuel at major US airports was trading at $3.98 on Wednesday, nearly 60% higher than before the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

The conflict has spelled a crisis for the aviation industry, particularly in the Middle East, where airspace closures have forced airlines to cancel flights and take longer, more expensive routes.

Airlines will brief investors early next month on long-term impacts, but immediately began raising airfares or fuel surcharges on tickets to help cover rising costs.

united airlines CEO Scott Kirby told reporters at a company event in Los Angeles this week that airfares could rise 20% this year. Customers seem willing to continue booking even though airlines are passing those high fuel costs on to travelers, he added.

Other airlines have also said demand has held up.

Delta Airlines Chief Executive Ed Bastian said at a JPMorgan industry conference earlier this month that demand has remained strong in recent weeks and the airline is “well positioned” to recoup the increase in fuel from its own sales.

U.S. airlines have seen strong demand for years. International travel has been a strong point, particularly for high-end leisure travel, which has attracted so many visitors that governments from Japan to Spain have taken steps to curb overtourism, while locals have protested.

But airline executives said they will reduce flights if demand falls.

“We're certainly going to be nimble in terms of capacity to make sure supply and demand stay in balance.” american airlines CEO Robert Isom said at the JPMorgan conference.

United, for its part, is bracing for fuel prices to remain high into the next year and is cutting about 3 percentage points from its capacity on off-peak travel times, such as weekday flights and overnight flights, Kirby told employees this month.

Some of the highest rates are already here.

Fares for flights across the Atlantic from the United States were $1,059, with three-week advance purchase, up 26.5% from the previous week, according to a Deutsche Bank note on Monday.

Domestic routes, including transcontinental flights and flights to and from Hawaii, also increased, according to the report.

Mary Jean Erschen-Cooke, a nurse from Cuba City, Wisconsin, who was leaving earlier this month from Tokyo on a 10-day trip to Japan with her husband, Paul, said she has a series of family trips to the United States this year.

“We haven't booked our flights, but we should,” she said, adding that she and her husband would consider traveling for one of them. He noted that gas prices have also gone up, which will affect driving.

In addition to rising airfares, travelers face challenges at airports this spring.

TSA agents have been working without regular pay since February 14 due to an impasse in Congress over funding the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly 500 TSA agents have resigned, according to DHS, and the high number of calls has left airports short-staffed.

This has led to long security lines at major US airports, including Houston, New York and Atlanta. Wait times have exceeded three hours in some places – longer than some of the flights those airports offered – as queues snaked through the terminals and out of the airports.

Elizabeth Leddy, a 38-year-old classical pianist who lives in New York, said she flies several times a year. Long security lines, which lasted nearly 90 minutes at LaGuardia Airport for TSA PreCheck travelers on Friday, could deter her from doing so in the future.

Leddy said that if the security line lasted three to four hours, “I feel like I could just drive.”

DHS has blamed Democrats for the shutdown, which has become the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history. As of Friday afternoon, the Senate had approved a possible deal to end the shutdown, although its fate was unclear.

President Donald Trump separately said he would sign an order to pay the more than 50,000 TSA agents. TSA agents will begin receiving paychecks starting Monday, DHS said Friday.

The Trump administration sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to several U.S. airports this week, although DHS has not specified what their duties are. ICE agents, who also work under the DHS umbrella, are still being paid during the partial shutdown.

ICE officers were seen at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Friday morning observing security lines.

“Even if this manages to reduce wait times slightly (we're still reading about terrible wait times, so we're far from much of an improvement), ICE's presence could make some people afraid to travel and bother unpaid TSA workers,” Bernstein said in a note Thursday. “It seems possible that passenger throughput will slow in the coming days and that TSA year-over-year growth for this week will turn slightly negative.”