Worst Airfare Prices in Years: How to Fight Back

March 2, 2011 — -- Over the weekend, a colleague of mine paid $3.70 for a gallon of regular gas in Los Angeles.

"It could have been worse," she noted. "A station in West Covina was charging $4.60."

"Despicable," she added. I suppose I should be grateful that she didn't drop a Melissa-Leo-Oscar-acceptance-speech F-bomb on me.

Speaking of a "could have been worse" scenario, imagine your vehicle is an aircraft. Say it's the massive Airbus A380, which can seat more than 800 passengers and has a gas tank that holds 80,000 gallons.

Lesser planes devour plenty of fuel too. Southwest, for example, figures its fleet of 737s consumed about 1.4 billion gallons in 2010.

So now that the price of oil has cracked and keeps flirting with the groan-inducing barrier of $100 per barrel, what does it mean for us travelers?

If you've bought an airline ticket lately, you already know -- we've just seen the fifth broad-based airfare hike of the year. If you're keeping score, check this out: In all of 2010, there were just four airfare hikes; in 2009, just three; but back in 2008 there were 15, and there were 17 airfare hikes in 2007.

Notice a pattern here? The pace of recent domestic airfare hikes mirrors the pace of 2007 and early 2008, when oil prices leapt above $90 per barrel. There is one difference today, though: airlines also have bag fees and widespread "peak travel day" surcharges that add to passenger ticket totals.

For more travel news and insights view Rick's blog at farecompare.com

When it comes to the rising cost of airfare, the most recent Facebook comments on my website are littered with words like "outrageous" and "absurd," and of course the perennially popular "OMG!"

With all of this to consider, the question is whether we must return to the bad-old-days of the so-called "staycations?" No. And I also don't suggest travelers become oil price day-traders.

However, sloppy shopping habits will cost you, so instead, be a crafty consumer.