(NEW YORK) — Anheuser-Busch plans to lay off hundreds of corporate employees, a company spokesperson told ABC News on Thursday.
The layoffs come months after a product endorsement from Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, in April set off a consumer boycott among conservatives that hammered sales.
The layoffs will affect “less than 2%” of the company’s U.S. employees, the company said. That figure amounts to roughly 380 workers, since the company’s website says it employs a total of about 19,000 U.S.-based workers.
The layoffs will affect workers “across every corporate function” but will not impact frontline workers, such as warehouse staff, drivers and salespeople, the company spokesperson said.
“Today we took the very difficult but necessary decision to eliminate a number of positions across our corporate organization,” Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said in a statement to ABC News. “While we never take these decisions lightly, we want to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success.”
The layoffs were originally reported by CNN and the Wall Street Journal.
Sales of Bud Light across the U.S. fell for at least six weeks after the start of the boycott, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and Nielsen NIQ reviewed by ABC News. For instance, sales dropped nearly 26% over the week ending on May 20, the data showed.
Last month, Modelo overtook Bud Light as the top-selling beer in the U.S.
The stock price of Anheuser-Busch InBev has fallen nearly 12% since the start of the boycott in early April. Over that period, the S&P 500 has risen by nearly 12%.
In response to declining sales, the company provided financial support for tens of thousands of frontline workers at independent distributors, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris said on an earnings call in May.
After the initial boycott, Anheuser-Busch InBev posted a statement in April from CEO Brendan Whitworth on its website.
“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Whitworth said. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
The company placed two executives who oversaw the endorsement of Mulvaney’s Instagram post on leave, the Wall Street Journal reported in April.
The response drew sharp criticism from some LGBTQ advocates who considered it a capitulation to the backlash. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization, suspended the company’s Corporate Equality Index score, USA Today reported. Previously, the company scored 100, the top rating.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. economic growth accelerated over three months ending in June, blowing past economist expectations and rebuking concern about a possible recession.
The U.S. gross domestic product grew by a 2.4% annualized rate to finish the first half of 2023, according to government data released Thursday.
The results mark an advance from the 2% annualized GDP growth recorded over the previous quarter. That growth showed a cooling from the 2.6% growth displayed in the quarter before that.
The finding of 2.4% annualized growth over the three months ending in June demonstrates that economic growth has accelerated over that period, dispelling concern among some about a fast-approaching recession.
The heightened growth stems from an increase in consumer and government spending, as well as a jump in business investment in inventory, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the federal agency that releases the GDP data.
A decrease in exports and home investment detracted from the GDP growth, the agency said.
Personal income — an overall measure of a variety of incomes such as wages and rental payments — grew at a slower pace than it had in the previous quarter, the data showed. The personal saving rate, however, inched upward from the previous quarter.
Fears of a recession have cast a thundercloud over the economy for many months but forecasters sun-kissed by falling inflation and a robust jobs market have grown optimistic about the U.S. averting a downturn.
Many observers define a recession through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of shrinking in a nation’s GDP.
The GDP data released on Thursday arrives a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25%, bringing its benchmark rate to a 22-year high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg, however, think the move constitutes the central bank’s final rate increase of an aggressive series that began in March 2022.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back inflation through interest rate hikes that typically slow the economy and slash consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a downturn.
The policy appears to have succeeded in cooling prices. Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer but remains one percentage point above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Some key economic indicators, meanwhile, have sustained robust performance. A jobs report earlier this month showed that the labor market cooled, but still grew at a solid clip in June, adding 209,000 jobs.
“The U.S. economy has actually been quite resilient,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last month in Sentra, Portugal, at a conference organized by the European Central Bank.
Nearly three-quarters of forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said that the probability of the U.S. entering a recession in the next 12 months is 50% or less, the organization announced on Monday.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund released fresh projections showing an improved outlook for the global and U.S. economy. The organization said it expects the U.S. economy to grow 1.8% this year, a revision upward from a previous estimate released in April.
“The global economy continues to gradually recover from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is not yet out of the woods,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF chief economist and research department director, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) — United Airlines announced Thursday that it is the first U.S. airline to add Braille to its aircraft cabin interiors.
The airline has about a dozen planes outfitted with Braille already, and plans to add Braille to its entire mainline fleet of more than 900 planes by 2026. The Braille will help blind and visually impaired people identify row numbers and seat assignments, and will be located in the lavatory as well.
“One of the things you want to do with all your customers is allow them to be as self-sufficient as possible,” said Linda Jojo, United’s executive vice president and chief customer officer. “This is one of the ways that our vision-impaired customers can navigate themselves to the right row in the right seat, without asking for help.”
The addition of Braille is part of the United NEXT plan, which involves purchasing more planes and upgrading the interiors of the existing fleet. The Braille is being added when the planes go in to be retrofitted.
For blind customers, the flying experience can be difficult. Dan Spoone, the interim executive director of the American Council of the Blind, is blind and said the challenges range from locating the call button and the overhead light to dealing with the lavatory.
“By God, those flush buttons are on a different spot in every different model of aircraft,” said Spoone.
Chris Danielsen, the director of public relations for the National Federation of the Blind, is blind as well, and says when the cabin crew states that passengers must comply with lighted signs, placards and crewmember instructions, he’s unable to see signs or placards and has to only rely on what the crew says.
“It’s an important paradigm shift,” said Danielsen. “The flying experience is so full of visual signs and indicators.”
United has included the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind in its accessibility efforts — not only with Braille, but also exploring the use of other tactile navigation aids in the cabin, and in the development of United’s accessible in-flight entertainment and mobile app that work with screen reader technology.
Jojo said that the airline would welcome input from customers about how the Braille is working for them and that United will incorporate the feedback as the retrofits continue.
“This is an excellent step for United,” said Spoone. “We want to travel and be independent and go where we want to go and visit our families and go on vacations… There’s just a lot of opportunity to improve accessibility through the whole path from the time your Uber drops you off at the airport til you get on the plane and get to your destination.”
(NEW YORK) — Fears of a recession have cast a thundercloud over the economy for many months but forecasters sun-kissed by falling inflation and a robust jobs market have grown optimistic about the U.S. averting a downturn.
Gross domestic product data to be released by the federal government on Thursday will show if and how much the economy grew over the three months ending in June, offering a fresh look at what is widely considered the most comprehensive measure of a nation’s economic health.
Economists expect the GDP to have grown at an annualized rate of 1.7% over that period. The increase will owe to robust consumer and government spending, as well as a small jump in business investment, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Such results would indicate a slowdown from the 2% annualized GDP growth recorded over the previous quarter, which itself showed a cooling from the 2.6% growth displayed in the quarter before that.
However, the anticipated finding of 1.7% annualized growth over the second quarter of 2023 would demonstrate that the economy expanded rather than shrank, dispelling concern about an imminent recession.
Many observers define a recession through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of shrinking in a nation’s GDP.
The data to be released on Thursday arrives a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25%, escalating its aggressive inflation fight.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg, however, think the move constitutes the central bank’s final rate increase of an aggressive series that began in March 2022.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back inflation through interest rate hikes that typically slow the economy and slash consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a downturn.
The policy appears to have succeeded in cooling prices. Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer but remains one percentage point above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Some key economic indicators, meanwhile, have sustained robust performance. A jobs report earlier this month showed that the labor market cooled, but still grew at a solid clip in June, adding 209,000 jobs.
“The U.S. economy has actually been quite resilient,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last month in Sentra, Portugal, at a conference organized by the European Central Bank.
Nearly three-quarters of forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said that the probability of the U.S. entering a recession in the next 12 months is 50% or less, the organization announced on Monday.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund released fresh projections showing an improved outlook for the global and U.S. economy. The organization said it expects the U.S. economy to grow 1.8% this year, a revision upward from a previous estimate released in April.
“The global economy continues to gradually recover from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is not yet out of the woods,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF chief economist and research department director, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) — Fears of a recession have cast a thundercloud over the economy for many months but forecasters sun-kissed by falling inflation and a robust jobs market have grown optimistic about the U.S. averting a downturn.
Gross domestic product data to be released by the federal government on Thursday will show if and how much the economy grew over the three months ending in June, offering a fresh look at what is widely considered the most comprehensive measure of a nation’s economic health.
Economists expect the GDP to have grown at an annualized rate of 1.7% over that period. The increase will owe to robust consumer and government spending, as well as a small jump in business investment, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Such results would indicate a slowdown from the 2% annualized GDP growth recorded over the previous quarter, which itself showed a cooling from the 2.6% growth displayed in the quarter before that.
However, the anticipated finding of 1.7% annualized growth over the second quarter of 2023 would demonstrate that the economy expanded rather than shrank, dispelling concern about an imminent recession.
Many observers define a recession through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of shrinking in a nation’s GDP.
The data to be released on Thursday arrives a day after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25%, escalating its aggressive inflation fight.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg, however, think the move constitutes the central bank’s final rate increase of an aggressive series that began in March 2022.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back inflation through interest rate hikes that typically slow the economy and slash consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a downturn.
The policy appears to have succeeded in cooling prices. Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer but remains one percentage point above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Some key economic indicators, meanwhile, have sustained robust performance. A jobs report earlier this month showed that the labor market cooled, but still grew at a solid clip in June, adding 209,000 jobs.
“The U.S. economy has actually been quite resilient,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last month in Sentra, Portugal, at a conference organized by the European Central Bank.
Nearly three-quarters of forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said that the probability of the U.S. entering a recession in the next 12 months is 50% or less, the organization announced on Monday.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund released fresh projections showing an improved outlook for the global and U.S. economy. The organization said it expects the U.S. economy to grow 1.8% this year, a revision upward from a previous estimate released in April.
“The global economy continues to gradually recover from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is not yet out of the woods,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, IMF chief economist and research department director, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told reporters Wednesday that the Fed staff no longer forecasts a recession for the U.S., and there is a chance inflation could return to target without high job losses.
In April, the Federal Reserve staff expected the regional bank crisis to tip the economy into recession, according to a Fed minutes release. Powell indicated during his news conference with reporters that the spring prediction may not be the case.
“The staff now has a noticeable slowdown in growth starting later this year in the forecast, but given the resilience of the economy recently, they are no longer forecasting a recession,” he said.
The Fed staff is an independent staff within the Federal Reserve that makes its own projections on the economy. Their forecasts are not the official position of the Federal Open Market Committee, the body that determines rate hike decisions.
Earlier in the day, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate another 0.25% to a 22-year high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.
The central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged in June, ending a string of 10 consecutive rate increases that stretched back to March 2020.
Powell said the impacts of the current hikes are still working through the economy, and he could not use the word “optimism” to describe the trajectory of the economy.
Powell did leave the door open to more rate hikes saying they will react to the data. He pointed out that there will be two jobs’ reports and two inflation reports before the next Fed decision.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate another 0.25% on Wednesday, reviving its inflation fight despite a significant cooldown of price increases in recent months.
The rate hike brought the Fed’s benchmark interest rate to a 22-year high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer, but remains at a level one percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the progress achieved so far in reducing inflation.
“Inflation has moderated somewhat since the middle of last year,” Powell said. “Nonetheless, the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go.”
The Fed remains open to raising rates again at its next meeting in September, depending on the economic data released over the months prior to that decision, Powell added.
The central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged in June, ending a string of 10 consecutive rate increases that stretched back 15 months.
Prior to the announcement on Wednesday, economists surveyed by Bloomberg said they expected the move to be the last rate increase of the current inflation battle. The size of the rate hike on Wednesday matched economist expectations.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back price increases by slowing down the economy and slashing consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a recession.
So far, the rate hikes appear to have slowed but not imperiled the nation’s economic growth.
Some key economic indicators have sustained robust performance. A jobs report earlier this month showed that the labor market cooled, but still grew at a solid clip in June, adding 209,000 jobs.
“The U.S. economy has actually been quite resilient,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last month in Sentra, Portugal, at a conference organized by the European Central Bank.
A day later, a major upward revision of government data showed that gross domestic product increased at a 2% annualized rate for a three-month period ending in March — a sizable jump from the previous estimate of 1.3%.
Despite the upward revision, U.S. economic growth over the first three months of this year was slower than the 2.6% growth in the previous quarter. In turn, that performance was down from 3.2% growth in the previous quarter.
Still, the Fed offered words of caution along with its rate-hike announcement on Wednesday.
“The Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks,” the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed’s decision-making body on interest rates, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The cooldown of inflation alongside resilient economic performance has given rise to optimism among some observers that the U.S. will avert a recession.
Nearly three-quarters of forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said the probability of the U.S. entering a recession in the next 12 months is 50% or less, the organization announced on Monday.
Speaking late last month, Powell expressed cautious optimism that the U.S. could avoid a severe recession, citing a modest slowdown of wage growth in recent months.
As part of its inflation fight, the Fed closely watches the pace of wage growth, since in theory employers raise prices to keep up with higher pay.
“We’re getting the softening we need,” Powell said. “We’re getting it slower than expected but it’s nonetheless happening. In my view, the least unlikely case is that we do find a way to better balance without a severe downturn,” he added.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will decide whether to revive an aggressive series of interest rate hikes and may indicate a willingness to soon end its full-throttle inflation fight.
Last month, the central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged, ending a string of 10 consecutive rate increases that stretched back 15 months.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg this month expect the Fed to impose a modest quarter-point rate hike on Wednesday. However, economists said they expect the move to be the last rate increase of the current inflation battle.
For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has aimed to roll back price increases by slowing down the economy and slashing consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a recession.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer, but remains at a level one percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Meanwhile, the rate hikes appear to have slowed but not imperiled the nation’s economic growth.
Some key economic indicators have sustained robust performance. A jobs report earlier this month showed that the labor market cooled, but still grew at a solid clip in June, adding 209,000 jobs.
“The U.S. economy has actually been quite resilient,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said late last month in Sentra, Portugal, at a conference organized by the European Central Bank.
A day later, a major upward revision of government data showed that gross domestic product increased at a 2% annualized rate for a three-month period ending in March — a sizable jump from the previous estimate of 1.3%.
Despite the upward revision, U.S. economic growth over the first three months of this year was slower than the 2.6% growth in the previous quarter. In turn, that performance was down from 3.2% growth in the previous quarter.
The cooldown of inflation alongside resilient economic performance has given rise to optimism among some observers that the U.S. will avert a recession.
Nearly three-quarters of forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said the probability of the U.S. entering a recession in the next 12 months is 50% or less, the organization announced on Monday.
Speaking late last month, Powell expressed cautious optimism that the U.S. could avoid a severe recession, citing a modest slowdown of wage growth in recent months.
As part of its inflation fight, the Fed closely watches the pace of wage growth, since in theory employers raise prices to keep up with higher pay.
“We’re getting the softening we need,” Powell said. “We’re getting it slower than expected but it’s nonetheless happening. In my view, the least unlikely case is that we do find a way to better balance without a severe downturn.”
(NEW YORK) — Alarm over a possible recession has blared for well over a year, but in recent months a cooldown of inflation alongside resilient job gains has quieted the din.
Growing optimism among some forecasters that the economy could avoid a recession altogether, however, faces a pair of tests this week.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday will announce a decision on whether to impose its 11th interest rate hike since March 2022, potentially escalating an aggressive fight against inflation that risks plunging the nation into a downturn.
The following day, a government agency will release its first estimate of gross domestic product for the three months ending in June — a determination of whether the economy grew or shrank during that period.
“The economy has proven to be more robust and resilient than we thought,” Mark Hamrick, Washington bureau chief at personal finance company Bankrate, told ABC News, noting the possibility that the economy could avoid a severe recession.
“The chances have been rising recently,” he said. “That’s not guaranteed but it’s a rising hope. It’s like being on a dangerous journey and realizing you can see a finish line.”
Nearly three-quarters of forecasters surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said that the probability of the U.S. entering a recession in the next 12 months is 50% or less, the organization announced on Monday.
Echoing that burst of optimism, the median of economists surveyed by Bloomberg this month put the odds of a recession within the next 12 months at 58%, down from 70% in December.
The fate of the economy will be determined in large part by the extent of rate hikes undertaken by the Fed and their ultimate effect, economists told ABC News.
For more than a year, the Fed has aimed to roll back price increases by slowing down the economy and slashing consumer demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the economy into a recession.
The policy appears to have succeeded in cooling prices. Inflation has fallen significantly from a peak last summer but remains one percentage point above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Last month, the Fed opted to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged, ending a string of 10 consecutive rate increases that stretches back 15 months. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg this month expect a modest quarter-point rate hike.
The apparent downshift in the Fed’s inflation fight “means that it’s buying into the possibility of a soft landing or at least is willing to give it a try,” Stephan Weiler, a professor of economics at Colorado State University and a former Fed research officer, told ABC News.
Still, the full effect of rate hikes at the Fed typically takes hold after a time lag that is difficult to predict, leaving uncertain whether the economy will face a significant slowdown in the months ahead, Liz Ann Sonders, managing director and chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, told ABC News.
“We know we had the most aggressive [Fed] tightening in more than 40 years, and it hasn’t so far led to this huge hit to the economy,” Sonders said. “What we don’t know is whether this time is different or whether it’s one of the lags.”
A clearer sense of the nation’s economic health will be made available on Thursday, when the Bureau of Economic Analysis releases its initial estimate of GDP growth over the three-month period ending in June.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found forecasters expect gross domestic product to have grown at an annualized rate of 1% over that period, which would mark continued growth but a slowdown from previous quarters.
Such results would indicate a slowdown from the 2% annualized GDP growth recorded over the previous quarter, which itself showed a cooling from the 2.6% growth displayed in the quarter before that.
However, the anticipated finding of 1% annualized growth would demonstrate that the economy expanded rather than shrank. Many observers define a recession through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of shrinking in a nation’s GDP.
“The economy is slowing down,” said Weiler, of Colorado State University. “But it’s slowing down slowly.”
After the economic releases this week, a recession will remain possible but distant, said Hamrick, of Bankrate.
“We’ve had a bumpy ride at times but it really has yet to be one where a more dire outcome has seemed imminent,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — If you travel often, you’ve probably heard the rule of thumb, to book during the opposite season — sort of like Christmas in July or buying a winter coat at a deep discount during summer.
Experts say the logic is the same for booking holiday flights or a winter getaway for less.
“Airfare for Christmas travel this year is already tracking as high as fares last year, more than 20% above pre-pandemic prices,” Hayley Berg, the lead economist for travel booking platform Hopper, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Berg suggested that holiday travelers begin “planning ahead and tracking prices so you book at the right time” in order to get “the best deals this upcoming holiday season.”
Save money by booking holiday flights in July, August
“The best time to book your winter holiday flights is not waiting until October, November when most people book those holiday flights, it’s booking it in the summer,” travel expert Scott Keyes told GMA. “When you are on summer vacation and everybody else is thinking about summer travel, that’s the best time to be trying to book your winter holiday flights.”
The going.com founder, formerly of Scott’s Cheap Flights, added that “it’s not that every single flight for Christmas and New Year’s is going to be cheap right now, but the odds are at their best — you’re most likely to see a good deal pop up in July or August.”
Experts share best times to book, airport hacks and more holiday travel insights
Berg agreed, adding that travelers should “use this time to solidify your holiday plans and start tracking prices for holiday trips” as those “will be volatile for the next two to three months.”
Keyes also said that post-pandemic, many “airlines have largely gotten rid of change fees and cancellation fees, so that you can make your plans in pencil.”
“It’s easier to kind of book that $350 flight to Los Angeles today over Christmas to visit your family, knowing that if your plans change, you can now cancel that ticket and have $350 in travel credit with the airline,” he said. “Or, you can change your dates, push it back and not lose the value of the tickets.”
Overall, Keyes said, “I encourage folks to start looking now, well before they’re thinking about the flight.”
More expert travel tips to find holiday and winter travel deals
Keyes, who has spent the better part of a decade doling out travel and airfare savings professionally with the world, shared a few additional recommendations for folks looking to save money on travel later this year and early next year:
The cheapest time of year to fly
“January and February are the two cheapest months for flights of the entire year,” he said. “You see this massive, massive price drop happening around the first week of January, where flights go from one of the most expensive times of the year — Christmas and New Year — to one of the cheapest times around Jan. 7.”
Be flexible for the best value
“If you have the flexibility to be able to travel in January or February, I would highly recommend that as a good value time to go,” he said.
Pick cheaper travel days
Berg said that “sitting down with the calendar in July and planning ahead to travel on the cheapest days can be the difference between breaking your budget and saving hundreds.”
“Historically, travelers have saved as much as $300 per ticket by flying on the cheapest days surrounding Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, try flying Monday of Thanksgiving week and returning any week day of the following week to save the most,” she added. “With Christmas Day on a Monday this year, Thursday and Friday will be the most expensive travel days. Travelers who are flexible should plan to depart mid-week before the holiday or on Christmas Eve to get the lowest airfare.”
Plan ahead for disruption
Last year, Hopper data saw flight cancellations and delays during the holiday season, so Berg suggested people “plan ahead by adding in a buffer day, selecting nonstop flights and booking the first flight of the delay to avoid disruptions.”
Best affordable winter travel destinations
“One is Hawaii in January, February, even March because the weather is consistent — when the weather’s pretty miserable in much of the northern half of the U.S., it’s beautiful, sunny and wonderful and warm out in Hawaii — and it’s cheap,” Keyes said. “Flights out to Hawaii in January and February can be found for as little as $200 bucks round trip from the West Coast and sometimes as little as $400 or $450 for the rest of the U.S.”
Similarly, he said the Caribbean is a great budget-friendly winter getaway.
“If you can go just after the Christmas/New Year break, you’re gonna see really cheap flights down to Puerto Rico, around $200 bucks round trip,” he said. “To other islands, sometimes it’s $300 round trip on full service airlines. These are great places to be able to enjoy the sunshine at a time when there’s very little of that [elsewhere] in the U.S.”
Finally, Keyes expects to see a trend of “significantly cheaper prices” for flights to Europe in winter 2024.
“Especially southern Europe — Spain, Portugal, places like that where it’s still quite warm — the sort of really inflated summer prices that we’re seeing to Europe over summer I think are set to end,” he said. “I think we’re likely to see significantly cheaper prices to Europe into the fall and winter for a number of reasons.”
The reason for this? Among other things, Keyes said “the U.S. economy is in much better shape than Europe,” airlines have been “adding more capacity,” and there are “fewer travelers in the winter compared to the summer.”
“I think there’s a very strong likelihood we’re going to see more of those $350-$400 round-trip flights to Europe for January, February and March,” he said.
Travel rules to keep in mind when booking early
“Part of the difficulty of airfare is that it’s the most volatile thing we purchase,” Keyes said. “At end of the day, getting a deal you are happy with yourself is the most important thing — that counts as a win.”
One of his top suggestions is to set a calendar reminder once a week at the same time to look at your flight and search for a cheaper fare. In addition to his own deals and newsletters, Keyes suggests checking other price trackers and Google Flights to set specific alerts for any changes.
“What’s especially nice nowadays is that as long as it’s not basic economy, you can monitor that same flight from the day you booked until the day you actually take the trip — and if the price drops, you can always rebook it at that cheaper price and pocket any difference. That kind of gives you an ability to be able to book today and lock it in,” he said.
Another suggestion from Keyes is to understand and use points while you have them.
“Generally speaking, the best approach to points is to not necessarily amass a huge amount and then just wait for that dream trip, but rather do what’s called ‘earn and burn,'” he explained.
He said the benefit of this approach “is that points are a currency of the airlines, and airlines are well within their right to just change how much your points are worth anytime.”
“That can happen without notice,” Keyes said. “It’s what’s called an overnight devaluation, and you’re always kind of at risk of that with points.”
“The rule of thumb to know if you’re getting a good value to use your points is if you’re getting at least two cents per point,” he added.
