Do You Suffer From Airfare Tunnel Vision?

If you're like a lot of travelers, when you think about saving money on travel, you zero in on airfares and let the rest of the budget fall where it may. And if you do, chances are you'll pay more, total, than if you'd taken a more balanced view. Air travel is no longer the major cost component of many trips, and its importance is likely to decrease, not increase, over the next year or so.

Travelocity just released a forecast poll concluding that "consumers will very likely miss out on true savings by putting too much emphasis on airfares while ignoring other, ultimately pricier components of a trip." Travelocity calls it "flight fixation;" I call it "airfare tunnel vision." Whatever you prefer to call it, I've been warning about it for more than 20 years.

According to Travelocity, 85 percent of the survey respondents said that declining airfares would have the greatest impact on their decision to travel in 2009. This despite the fact that accommodations, not airfares, are "typically the most expensive part of a trip." This result certainly tracks with my observations over the years—both in terms of the relative costs of various trip components and the way travelers approach the buying process.

Travelocity's survey also reported that 58 percent of respondents said price was the most important factor in booking a flight, compared with "only" 48 percent who said that price was the most important factor in selecting a hotel. To me, however, those figures don't indicate flight fixation as much as the fact that consumers view air travel and hotel accommodations in very different ways:

• You've pretty well demonstrated that most of you view an airline seat as a commodity: You buy on price because differences among individual airlines are trivial. Time and time again, you've refused to pay any premium for enhanced quality: American's "more room in coach" program didn't have enough market traction to offset the line's increased cost, and many startup lines have gone broke trying to get even a modest price premium for a superior coach product. If quality doesn't sell, what's left is price.
• Many of you, however, obviously recognize and consider lots of factors other than price when selecting accommodations. That's why the hotel/resort marketplace offers a broad price/quality spectrum, with successful companies at all levels.

So "airfare tunnel vision" on price has some logical basis, for most of you, at least as far as selecting an airline is concerned. But too many of you extend that view to the point that you think about little other than airfares when you're checking out options. That's a mistake, since accommodations do offer a more fertile field for cost reductions than airfares on many trips. And you have several easy ways to cut accommodations costs:

Packages. The big online outfits, such as Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity, offer airfare-and-hotel packages that they all claim cost less than the same air and hotel components if you bought them separately. As far as I can tell, those claims are generally valid.

Moving Down-Market. Just about everyone can get along staying at accommodations that are in the next lower market niche than the one they normally use.

Rentals. Over the years, I've frequently touted the cost reduction potential of vacation rentals, compared with conventional hotels and resorts.

Opaque Buying. You can often cut hotel costs substantially by buying through one of the big opaque sites, such as Hotwire or Priceline. You select the general quality level of a hotel you prefer, but not the specific property, which you don't find out about until you've made a nonrefundable purchase. Even if you add the cost of insurance to cover at least some of the reasons you might want to cancel, you can still knock a lot off your total cost.

In today's weak economy, you can expect to see lots of deals, discounts, and other promotions throughout the travel industry. Certainly, you'll want to look for the best airfare—but don't forget to look at least as hard at your accommodations options as well.

(Editor's Note: SmarterTravel.com is a member of the TripAdvisor Media Network, an operating company of Expedia, Inc. Expedia, Inc. also owns Expedia.com and Hotwire.)