Even With Costs Higher, Thanksgiving Travelers Unstoppable

By The Palm Beach Post, Fla.

Nov. 21–Gas prices be damned: Folks will stop at nothing for turkey and stuffing.

Despite record fuel prices and airline fares, millions of Americans will hit the roads and the skies this week to seek out family, friends and food for the holidays, even if it means digging a little deeper into the travel coffers or choosing less expensive transportation alternatives.

Israel Ortiz was catching a bus to Mobile, Ala., on Tuesday to visit relatives. The West Palm Beach man checked out other travel options but settled on the cheapest choice.

“We tried to book a flight, and the prices were high and the flights were overbooked,” said his brother, George Ortiz of Wellington, as he dropped off Israel Ortiz at the Greyhound station in West Palm Beach.

And travel by car?

“The ride is too long, and gas is so high,” George Ortiz said.

Prices at the pump are turning more holiday travelers to trains and buses, because airline flights are equally packed and even more costly. While traffic was light Tuesday at Palm Beach International Airport and along Florida’s Turnpike, the train station was hopping.

“In general, trains are more crowded than ever before. People can’t afford the gas,” said Martin Wasserstrom, a ticket agent at the Amtrak station in West Palm Beach. “We get wealthy people, working people and people scraping for money.”

By midday Tuesday, Wasserstrom had sold the last seat for today’s northbound train to a man going to Sebring for Thanksgiving.

“The trains are just sold out,” Wasserstrom said.

Both motorists and airline passengers are facing rising fuel costs. A 55 percent surge for crude oil this year has boosted gasoline prices at U.S. pumps and spurred at least seven industrywide airfare increases since Sept. 1.

At a national average of $3.09 a gallon, gas prices are almost a dollar higher than at this time last year, when motorists paid an average of $2.24, according to the American Automobile Association. In Florida, the average price for a gallon of gas has hit $3.15, up from $2.25 a year ago.

In the West Palm Beach market, gas was $3.22 on average Tuesday, compared with $2.33 at this time in 2006.

“What can you do about it? It is what it is,” Evelyn Lane said of the soaring pump prices while making a pit stop Tuesday at the Lake Worth travel plaza on Florida’s Turnpike. She was headed from Miami to Orlando to spend the holiday with relatives before returning to her Ohio home.

The steep prices are not expected to curb travelers this year. In fact, their numbers are projected to increase.

AAA predicts a 2 percent rise in Thanksgiving travelers in the Southeast, and the Air Transport Association foresees a 4 percent increase in fliers through Nov. 27.

“Thanksgiving is such a traditional American holiday. It’s just unheard of that somebody would postpone their plans to get together with family just because gasoline is $3.15 a gallon,” said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club South in Tampa.

An estimated 38.7 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home this Thanksgiving, a 11/2 percent increase over last year, AAA says.

In Florida, 2.2 million people are projected to hit the roads this holiday, with an additional 326,000 traveling by plane and 115,000 hopping the buses and trains.

“Everybody’s expecting the roads to be congested and the airports to have delays. What’s different this year is the amount of money we’re spending on gasoline,” Laskoski said. “We typically see high prices in the spring. For us to see these types of prices in November is very unusual.”

Rather than keeping people at home, the higher travel costs may be just another blow to holiday shopping, with retailers already bracing for a slow season.

“If they’re paying upwards of $40 every time they fill up their tank, something’s got to give somewhere,” Laskoski said.

Traffic was minimal at the turnpike plaza Tuesday afternoon as motorists stopped to refuel their vehicles and recharge themselves at Starbucks and Burger King.

In South Florida, turnpike traffic is expected to climb by about 20 percent this weekend. But on the toll road’s north end around Orlando, Thanksgiving traffic can almost double its daily average, with travelers coming from the north and south to the area’s theme parks, turnpike spokeswoman Sonyha Rodriguez-Miller said.

What has long been one of the nation’s busiest weekends for travel is growing into a weeklong rush.

The Thanksgiving travel crunch has generally been defined as Wednesday through Sunday, but more motorists seem to be taking to the roads earlier, Rodriguez-Miller said.

To handle the heightened traffic, turnpike officials limit lane closures for construction. Restrictions on closures started at noon Tuesday, a day earlier this year, and will end Monday at 10 p.m., a day later than in years past.

“The holiday appears to have expanded,” she said.

The turnpike’s service plazas are offering free coffee to weary motorists who stop in between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Wednesday through Monday.

Lines were short Tuesday at PBIA, with passengers breezing through security checkpoints in minutes. Most flights were on time.

Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time of the year for the airport, with about 174,000 passengers expected to pass through this year.

Ben and Estelle King of West Palm Beach were awaiting a Delta Air Lines flight to New York on Tuesday, on the way to visit their children.

“Thanksgiving is a family holiday,” Estelle King said. “There’s no reason not to travel to be with them.”

By Lori Becker, Stephen Pounds and Phil Galewitz. Bloomberg News contributed to this story.

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