Murphy Travel Index: No Presents In Leisure Fares or Car Rentals
Features & Advice Mark Murphy December 22, 2013

Happy holidays! You spent all your money on gifts? Well, you're going to spend even more trying to get home.
That's the big takeaway from this week of the Murphy Travel Index. Leisure airfares continue to rise and business airfare stayed flat as would be expected as most road warriors are grounded this week.
Hotel prices continue to plummet for those needing refuge while visiting family or those just getting away for the holidays.
And car rentals are once again through the roof, including one city where you'll pay more than a car each day than a hotel room.
The idea here is to give you a one-stop reference tool to find where the deals are, where the spots to avoid are and what the pricing trends are.
We're looking at the top 25 business and leisure airline routes, as well as the top car rental and hotel hot spots every week.
To be clear: Our numbers are based on research done last week looking for fares and rates for the Dec. 23-29 week, except for leisure airfare, which was researched for the week of Dec. 28-Jan. 4.
Let's get into the information this week. Click on each image for a larger-size version of the chart.
AIRLINES: LEISURE ROUTES
Outside of the numbers, some other takeaways from our research:
- Seats on weekend flights to cities in Florida are at a premium; many flights are sold out, and fares for the seats that are available are up sharply over last week.
- Passengers can expect to pay at least $700 for a weekend flight to Ft. Lauderdale from the East Coast or Midwest, while ticket prices are taking off on flights between Atlanta and Orlando (+78 percent), Miami (+96 percent) and Tampa (+29 percent).
- Passengers flying out of Seattle on December 23 or 24 can enjoy a free ride to the airport, courtesy of Uber and Alaska Airlines.
Just reserve a spot in advance via the Uber app, and Alaska will pick up the cost of the trip, up to $50. The offer is available on a first come/first serve basis.
AIRLINES: BUSINESS ROUTES
Business route takeaways beyond the numbers:
- Business fares are holding steady on most routes to non-vacation destinations.
- Prices are up sharply on some international flights: New York to Paris (+72 percent), Los Angeles to Tokyo (+53 percent) and Miami to Buenos Aires (+77 percent).
- Looking for a last minute gift at Heathrow? Consider taking advantage of the airport’s complimentary Personal Shopper service. Appointments must be made at least 48 hours in advance of landing, and can be made through the airport’s site.
- And speaking of gifts, last-minute libations are always on sale at the Liquor Library, located at the Terminal 1 baggage area at Las Vegas’s McCarren International Airport.
- Delta has a new Medallion “status tracker” available on its web site, and will add it to the Fly Delta app beginning on Jan. 1.
MONTHLY TRENDS: AIRFARE
- Both leisure and business fares are the most expensive since we started tracking, though with business fares, as we said before, a couple routes are really causing the spike.
- Leisure fares are up $73 on average since last week and $134 on average this week compared to the first week we began tracking.
- Business fares are also the highest this week, up $111 on average since last week and $ 284 on average this week versus the first week we began tracking.
HOTELS
Takeaways beyond the numbers:
- The cost for a hotel stay is down 13 percent this week, as hotels lower prices in anticipation of holiday guests who are not on expense accounts.
- Room rates are down in every city, with the exception of vacation spots Miami (+8 percent) and San Diego (+7 percent).
CAR RENTALS
Beyond the numbers:
- The overall average is up a whopping 35 percent from last week as car rental companies ratchet up the prices to take advantage of holiday demand.
- Customers can expect to pay over $100 per day for rentals in New York, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco.
-Visitors to Denver can expect to pay more for their car rental ($163) than their hotel room ($138).
MONTHLY TRENDS: CAR RENTALS AND HOTELS
- Hotel prices are down for the second straight week, a drop of $24 on average since last week and down $87 on average since we began tracking five weeks ago.
- Car rentals are up for the fourth straight week, up $21 on average since last week and $17 on average since we began tracking.
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And one final tip for you:
- The TSA has a new video for kids (and kids at heart) to explain the “Stop, Screen and Go” process to future frequent fliers. The two minute cartoon can be found at www.tsa.gov/tsa-kids/prepare-takeoff.
Let us know what you think of the Index. Hit us up on Twitter @TravelPulse.
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