I am not a political person. The way that I look at global politics is that I am not going to allow it to affect my personal feelings and how I treat others. I also don't buy into every little thing that I hear on the news and I get angry when other people try to make some sort of political something or other be the sole reason why something is increasing in price or being made more difficult because of some country, and the finger is normally pointed at the USA.
I am American, and when I say this it is without a single ounce of patriotism. The increase in flight prices to the USA, Canada, and Mexico is NOT because of some war something or other. There might be some airlines that use this as an excuse but if you are the type of person that believes a corporations PR team, then you are a special kind of stupid.
Someone that I know that is just a nuisance to be around but because the expat community in Jalisco is very small we all just find a way to get along but this woman was talking about how it is costing her "twice as much to return home because of "the war"".
She was lying, this was clear. So without being a jerk i pressed her for more information. I asked how much the flight was and she said it was around $400... then I used a little tactic to change the topic a bit and then circled back to "how much was the flight last year when you booked it?" and she responded something along the lines of "just over $300"
I don't know how fast you are at math, but 400 is not double just over 300. She didn't want to complain about the price, she wanted to make the situation political as she tends to do. She is a walking, talking, issue of the New York Times or CNN.
But then someone else at the table said something that I was thinking but he worded it better than I could have
he said "is there anything happening in Colorado (where she is from) this summer that you think might be causing and increase in demand for flights in the coming months?"
He went on to say "I'll give you a hint, it's the most popular sporting even in the entire world."
She kind of blue-screened at that point and backpedaled and tried to make excuses but still refused to accept that supply and demand might be a much bigger impact that oil tankers arriving from the other side of the world.
I just want everyone to have a look at how much flight prices go up around major holidays such as Christmas. Would you blame that near doubling of the ticket price on some sort of war? No, of course you wouldn't, because that would be ridiculous, right?
The fact of the matter is that while the prices of flights to/from Mexico and USA are increasing during June and July it is actually a very fair and surprisingly "kind" increase. I dare say that they could probably get away with charging substantially more than they are. For me, a flight that was once $200 is around $250 or so and to me it isn't the cost that is so much of the concern as it is that you can be basically guaranteed that these flights are going to be completely full.
One of the great accidental joys that I get out of flying is when I get into my row on a 4 hour flight or so, and then realize that a seat next to me isn't going to be occupied at all. On my last 2 trans-Pacific flights, I was the only person in my exit row. This is just glorious and during the World Cup I can all but guarantee that every single seat is going to be sold on these flights.
I have decided that during the world cup I am just going to stay where I am. I have specifically designed my visa so that I can pull this off without issue. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I will likely wander down to the pub for a game here and there because even though I don't personally get excited about it, I do revel in other people's joy or interest in something.
I am no expert in global oil supply but neither are the people that like to turn just anything they can political. If you are trying to travel from the first week of June to about the end of July, you can expect the prices for flights to be increased. This is simple economics.