Add to the list of things that cost a lot more in 2026 than last year: vacation plane tickets. Reservation site Hopper says domestic round-trip fares for Thanksgiving are up 31% from 2025, with Christmas tickets 23% higher, the highest holiday prices in at least a decade. Airlines, hit by jet fuel costs that have nearly doubled since February, have raised fares (some recently raised prices to $10 each way) and say demand is holding up, the newspaper reports. Wall Street Journal. “It seems almost certain that travelers will now look back fondly on 2025 as a golden age of relative travel value and efficiency,” muses Jim Vorel at Jezebel.
The share of airline tickets in the consumer price index in September was up 22.4% from a year earlier. Travelers can lessen the impact by planning their purchases — typically three to five weeks before Thanksgiving (i.e. now or in the next five minutes) — and avoiding the Sunday after the holiday, Nov. 29, when round-trip flights cost an average of $604. Still, as Hayley Berg, Hopper’s chief economist, says: “Most Americans view their vacation travel as something essential.”
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