Maybe it’s my area but I just don’t see how people are able to afford let’s say a $600 round trip flight on top of a $1000 room for the week. Then you have to factor in food and other expenses that come from traveling I just don’t understand
Maybe it’s my area but I just don’t see how people are able to afford let’s say a $600 round trip flight on top of a $1000 room for the week. Then you have to factor in food and other expenses that come from traveling I just don’t understand
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Points! We use credit cards to pay for groceries and other bills and use those points to fly. Some cards we have also come with a free companion flight (American Express Gold). We rarely pay for tickets with actual money.
I fly internationally about four times a year with my family.
Each time we stay with my parents in the UK, so usually not much cost there other than renting a car and maybe a day or two at a hotel. We also stop off in another country along the way and stay at a hotel.
Last year we went to Vietnam twice. It was pretty cheap.
They have more money. My friend is a doctor, makes great money, and she flies all the time. A thousand bucks to me is expensive. A thousand bucks to her isn’t a big deal.
They make more than you. A trip we’re planning right now costs $15K for 3 weeks, that’s 9-10 of those trips you just described.
My job pays for everything
People have a lot of money. There is a whole swath of boomers with huge huge portfolios.
They make more than you?
Priorities. My family likes to travel so we put our money toward that and less on stuff.
Business reimbursement, also points
Book further out and be more flexible in your dates. The floor on air and hotel is not as bad as you’re suggesting.
I personally make travel a priority right after saving for retirement. So I save money for traveling rather than spending on useless stuff.
Tbh, Spirit and Frontier have come through a lot for me. I don’t care about how I get to the destination, just that I got there. There are even low cost international carriers like Norse Atlantic that will get you to Europe and back for like $400. And those are legitimately nice planes
The financial situation for a lot of people isn’t as dire as reddit would have you believe – not everyone is living paycheck to paycheck on minimum wage, a lot of people have good salaries and investments.
And others just go into debt and hope it’ll never catch up to them.
Travel is a thousand times less expensive if you stay with friends or family, which many people do.
Plan, don’t spend beyond your means. My BIL makes a good 400k plus a year. He bought the MAX house he could afford (qualify for). Doesn’t do a family vacay but every other year, unless parents pay. My wife and I make the same combined, but bought 1/2 the house we qualified for. Our disposable income is more than enough to take 3 vacay per year.
decent income, prioritizing expenses, maximizing ways to save money (date flexibility and hotel deals) and credit card points.
My coworker does this. We make the same amount, except he eats out like a couple times a year for lunch. I eat out like everyday and have no money for travel.
I can’t thats why I drive cross country to visit my family a few times a year. And flying sucks I always get sick and there is always a delay
They have jobs.
Contrary to the doom and gloom on Reddit and SM generally, a lot people are flush with cash and want to spend it. These aren’t just “boomers” or older people but a lot of younger people have loads of discretionary cash.
I live well below my means (live with roommates, don’t shop a lot, do a lot of DIY, etc.) and have a second casual job on top of my full-time job. Often before a big trip, I’ll pick up a few weekend shifts.
I work for an airline so the travel is cheap buy the expenses abroad and hotels can add up. Some of my friends go for hostels for super cheap but im not really about that
Hotels are just for sleeping in, get the cheapest safe place, for example you can stay in Hawaii for $1,300 dollars a night or $100 a night, you will still be unconscious
credit card debt
bad with money
money from the bank of mommy & daddy but they act like its their own hard work
some make a ton , work crazy hours and travel is their only outlet (but nothing to envy, their lives don’t seem nice)
some are old that have been careful savers and are only now splurging
Well you can do it for cheaper. I haven’t paid 600 for a flight. Also not every trip is a week
I travel internationally three or so times a year. I make the same as my friends who always want to join but have no funds. Here are a couple things I do differently than them
-I never eat out, every meal is made at home
-I don’t go shopping or buy new things often. The most frequently bought thing is a new pair of running shoes every three to six months. No new clothes, no electronics, no furniture. I only replace things like soap, toothpaste, other daily necessities. My Mac is from 2014 and I have an iPhone 11, I think they got a couple more years in them
-I don’t drive, I spend max 45-50 dollars on transportation each month, which is easy in a major walkable city.
-local community center exercise classes versus a commercial gym
-I barely do concerts, sport events, etc. maybe once a year as a treat but I prefer to travel.
-I purposely chose to travel to places within my budget. Typically I spend about 50-60 dollars a day but in China I was spending as low as 30 dollars a day (including hotel, transport, eating out, local activities). So you have to be intentional
-l plan out months in advance to secure cheap housing options and I also travel during off season if possible
-a high yielding savings account so the money I save for traveling isn’t sitting around
I guess that depends on your area. Like if you’re in a developing country yes $1600 in CAD/USD/AUD is a lot.
But for many it’s a couple days worth of work.
For me, $1600 for a week including flights is super cheap. It’s usually double that for anything good. Per person.
It’s always a safe assumption to make that millions of people have way more disposable income than you do. $600 round trip is wild though because I recently did a round trip from Orlando to Montreal for like $250.
Honestly, you are quoting relatively low numbers for travel. I live in a somewhat wealthy area and it’s very common for people’s vacations to start at $20k. Not mine, mind you.
But the answer is there are a LOT of wealthy people. Not as a percentage. But the top 1% in the US is still 3.5 million people.
So percentage wise, most of the population can’t afford to do what you are saying, but there’s still a LOT of people who can afford that and more.
I think a lot of people either budget way in advance, use travel credit card points, or just prioritize travel over other things like eating out, new stuff, etc. Also, social media kinda skews perception, some people might only take one trip a year but post about it like they’re always on the move.
Some people make more money than others. Some people prioritize spending their money on travel. Some people don’t have kids so have more money to spend on leisure. People who fly frequently also know how to play the points/miles games. I rarely pay for flights with dollars.
$600 ?? Holy canoly unless you wait till last minute, it usually doesn’t cost that much if you buy the ticket many months in advance
Because I have 250k in my checking account
I spend way too much of my time asking “How do people afford _______?!?”
I think there are multiple answers. Some people are born into money, some people work their ass of for a better lifestyle… But I suspect the real answer 90% of the time is that people just live way outside of their means and go into a bunch of debt.
Loyalty points. My husband travelled throughout his working career. He amassed millions of points at hotels and airlines. We use the points to fly and hotel stays.
Lots of income, debt, very good credit card/point management.
Credit cards
You know doctors/lawyers/engineers exist, right?
there are a lot of business trips here and some tack on some travel with the business trip.
the numbers are weighted to the top for spending.
flying can be significantly cheaper than $600, and you could be flying to see family.
A lot of families have two working spouses and make a shit ton of money.
They’re richer. My wife’s boss and her family go to their condo in Florida regularly. What they spend on the airfare alone is more than we typically spend on a complete three day vacation.
OP seems to be what I call… “A normal person”. There’s nothing wrong with this as the world needs a shit ton of normal people. My “problem” is that “normal people” should be able to take a month off (paid) and go places to discover this world around them. Unfortunately there are some incredibly abnormal people who have more money than they could spend living and traveling absolute first class for the rest of their lives. They don’t care about normal people. They don’t care that slightly above normal people frustrate those who don’t have the means to THINK about travelling, much less doing it.
OP. I hope you find a way to get to a little bit above normal…where you can travel and discover this amazing planet we live on and the beautiful places we have.
Dual income, no kids.
I set aside about 10k GBP/ 12k plus USD per year for travel, this includes about 3k USD of company allowances as an expat.
Brit living overseas as I get way higher pay.
$600 is pretty cheap depending on where you go. Boston to Hawaii is $600. It’s the same price to travel to London. Domestic flights to Florida are cheap at like $200 bucks. But flying to Asia is in the thousands for a normal seat.
Have a good job
I can’t speak for others, but for the people I know who do that, and aren’t using credit to finance it:
Make money? Why is this a difficult concept?
When I look at what some people spend at Starbucks very day, i already get one trip paid by not going there. Not doing DoorDash gives me another. And not going to a restaurant every week gives me another. Having a cheap car gives me another. It’s a matter of priorities.
We make travel a priority. Both my wife and I have a portion of our paycheck directly deposited in to a vacation fund account. Because it’s taken immediately, and has been for years, we never miss it.
We also use credit cards to earn rewards points and use those points for tickets.
We also always try to avoid having 2 car payments at the same time. Neither of us needs brand new, or fancy. I drive a 6 year old Honda, she drives a 7 year old Nissan.
We do make a decent living, but we still live like we’re broke a lot of time. We try to avoid lifestyle creep. I hate spending more than $60 on shoes, I will disassemble and try to fix anything before I replace it. I’ll often forgo buying something I want because I can’t justify the expense of it.
By having a dual income household making mid 6 figures and getting 5 weeks vacation a year. Add that to having the correct CCs that give points/miles and companion flight certificates and there you have it.
I don’t know but I’m 55 and have never gone on a real vacation, never been anywhere or done anything so that shit seems like something only millionaires can do.
When I was traveling for work, I travelled *way* more for work than I ever did for personal reasons. I was traveling once every month or so, and that was actually fairly low for my company. Lots of people in my office were on the road for 15, 20 nights a month. I think personal travel was once, maybe twice a year.
Make more money. As incomes go up, other expenses don’t go up in line so there are more discretionary funds for travel. Even more so for married couples. Maybe somebody single making $50k spends $1500 on rent. Somebody making $75k upgrades to an $1800 apartment—50% more income but only 20% more spent on rent. Now they get married and combined income is $125k but rent remains $1800 since they move in together. Partner’s previous rent is now free for travel.
If you have a place to crash and don’t mind eating cheap the flying isn’t that expensive. I’m flying 6 times this year for less than 1500. That’s like 120 avg per month. Signing up for credit cards during good deals or using points to get flights to get free miles or pay for flying is king. Often times you will get a better deal on flying than any other reward. Also fly basic, don’t pick your seat, and travel light.
For the answer that isn’t “they’re rich” is things like sky miles. I travel for work and have the credit card that corresponds to the airline. I don’t travel personally more than once a year, but our family hasn’t paid for a flight in years and we have a lot of miles saved.
$600 will get round trip on a semi-private charter to some places.
There are a lot of ways to not pay retail. For example, I’m going to a NASCAR race weekend this fall. I could afford to pay for it out of pocket if I wanted to, but I’m not. All three pairs of tickets are from NASCAR rewards points earned mostly by clicking a “check-in” button on their website during each race. Accommodations are 4 days and 3 nights in a nearby resort in exchange for a half day of sitting through some salesperson’s timeshare presentation with no intention of buying anything. It’s the same way my parents took us to Disney, Branson, or some rocky mountain resort every year for vacation despite earning not much higher than the federal poverty line – take advantage of sales tactics without falling prey to them and get a lot of free stuff. They even did Caribbean cruises that way.
Part of it is priorities, sure, but also you can find ways to travel for cheaper. Stay in hostels, and you’ll spend a lot less than $1000/week; it also helps to know people who will let you crash on their couch, so cultivate a good network of friends in different cities and keep in touch with them (this works better for a weekend trip than a full week, but every bit helps).
Budgeting. Decide 12 months ahead where you want to go and save for a year. Of course that can always get derailed if the car breaks down or you have a major medical emergency, but that’s the way we do it.
I’ve known many people in my life that saved up their entire life to “go traveling” in retirement- and then died less than a year later. I’m not waiting until I’m 67 to explore!
We make good money and don’t have kids
You must not live near a major airport? Or you’re looking at flights to a non-major airport? $600 for a round trip seems really high.
I can often get flights for half that between two major airports, at least in the US. Or are you trying to fly around a holiday? We’ve largely avoided holidays the last several years because flights are so ridiculous.
A lot seem to be in some sort of travel business at least part time, I’m currently toking on a cigar in the Spain sun because mum is an independent travel agent preferred rates are a hell of a thing
There’s also optimizing point usage. For example, sometimes Chase or Amex will send out an offer for 100k+ points for certain cards (with non-trivial annual fees) after spending a certain amount within 6 months. Those amounts can be reached pretty easily with childcare costs or charging property tax, so then you get an influx of points that can go to airline rewards. So you pay a ~$500 credit card fee and get ~$1500 worth of flights, and sometimes the points can get a multiplier for certain partners, and then you can use those points also for rooms with certain other travel partners…. it gets complicated, but some people are really into this planning and get substantial discounts to their travel plans.
Credit card debt reach all time highs at end of 2024
40% of American households (roughly 140 million people) are making $100k a year or more. You are probably mostly seeing those people. Or people they are willing to devote most of their money after essentials to travel over entertainment, savings, etc.
They either make more than you or they are in debt.
They have high paying jobs that they either worked hard to get by going to school, or failed upwards like the current US President and his South African dicksucker lackey.
People make more money, if it’s a family trip the parents may be subsidizing some of it, a lot of people are up to their eyeballs in debt, people prioritize and save, people who travel a lot for work rack up lots of rewards for plane tickets and hotels.
Cost of living differs significantly too; in a high cost of living area, most stuff costs more, but your salary is higher too. Stuff that has fixed prices, like travel elsewhere or cars or postage is cheaper relatively speaking because your salary is higher but the cost is the same.
I’ve flown exclusively on points (half the time business class) on points for years.
But the general answer is that for millions and millions and possibly billions of people, the amounts of money you mentioned just aren’t that much.
Some people make more money than others.
Points.
We do our day to day spending on a Southwest Visa credit card, pay it off each month and rack up the points. Typically enough to fly 3-4 times a year.
My husband travelled for work 2-3 weeks out of every month for years pre-pandemic, so back then it was much easier. Now we’re barely squeezing enough points to keep my Companion Pass year after year. Companion Pass allows me to fly free on any flight he books, so we only use the points for his ticket. But from all that travel, he has Platinum status at Marriott and we get points and free night vouchers there too.
On points. Friend has nail salon in NoVA area. Every single item needed by salon is purchased using credit card. He has insane amount of points and travels often .
They have more money than you.
Simple. They make enough money to be able to do so. Not everyone is in the same position you are.
When I didn’t make enough money to be able to travel, I didn’t.
Now that I do make enough money to be able to travel 2-3 times a year, I do it.
Buy everything else second hand
I travel a lot for work. So I accumulate a lot of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. I can then use those miles/points for personal use. I’ve seen the world for free, but I do everything I can to maximize those points like flying only one airline and using their reward credit cards.
Credit Card points. We spend a lot of money through our small business and had enough points for 2 of us to fly to australia as well as some other short-haul flights in the past year or 2.
They make more than you and/or their employer covers some/all of the cost.
A lot of you say you save for it. Are you also saving for retirement or is it more like I’m just taking care of now? I’d like to do things but get hung up on being concerned with how will I deal with retirement or even some big cost that could come up without warning. I don’t do credit cards unless I can pay by end of month.
A large part of it is money, travel is a luxury, just one that’s slightly less gauche to brag about.
Beyond that sometimes work pays for the travel which you can often extend to a day or two sightseeing while you’re there.
People have careers that pay really well which afford them the ability to travel. That coupled with budgeting and planning, it’s not an out of reach goal. Do you mind sharing your salary ?
I mean do you know how much they spend on flights and housing?
You can get cheap flights pretty easily depending where and when. Lodging, do you know they are paying?
If you have your own business you can buy everything your business needs on cc and rack up lots of airline points. Also business travel can earn a ton of miles. And if yvan tag a vacation on the back of business travel, even better.
They make more than you, they save less than you, they take on debt to go on the trip, or a combination of the three.
Work pays for it.
A lot of people make a lot more money, and a lot of people also have a lot of debt.
Wife and I are childfree. Make over 100k each.
Some do the extended family style trips, whereas the older generation helps fund the trip.
Credit card points. My wife and I constantly churn through credit cards to get the sign up bonuses and then refer eachother to get a referal bonus plus another sign up bonus.
Look into how to maximize your parent by transferring them to travel partners such as airlines or hotels and taking advantage of transfer bonuses.
We have many trips where the airfare and hotel are bought with points which allows us to spend more on activities
While everyone saying that they have more money is obviously correct, a lot of people also get airline points on credit cards or discount if they book far in advance or go thru a booking service.
We work and earn a living. That’s how.
My work flys me – I get the points. Add a credit card for lots of points
I’ll use the points for my vacations! If I don’t have many points I’ll usually go cheaper airlines.
Also, some people make a lotta money.
I became an engineer and worked a long career with hardly ever traveling for fun but I took many financial risks like moving jobs for more money, took high paying low security specialized work, etc. so I eventually made top 5% money and most of my kids are adults now so it’s usually just 3 of us that travel, which makes it realistic to travel often.
We rent out our house as a vacation rental during the summers, which is THE huge facilitator. Getting to that situation was a nightmare that 99% of people would have bailed on, but we saw it through and are now reaping the rewards.
You also do some things that anyone can do like the following.
I also try to use my deltaskymiles card throughout the year to get lots of points. I track flights using google flight tracker to get good deals. I use tripit pro to get refunds or credits for lower fares after purchases. I do all my research, planning, and booking myself. You can save $1000s of bucks getting the right flights, hotel deals, airline credits, etc.
If you make 2-300k, $1600-2000 isn’t insignificant, but still doable on monthly basis. I’m not saying it’s wise, but it won’t hurt that much.
The better question is why would you want to subject yourself to discomfort and grime of air travel? I don’t, even in business class.
double income, six-figure salaries, no kids
It depends on where you are going and coming from. My major trips I stay in hostels so that’s like $25-40 a night vs $100-150 for a hotel. I also take buses and trains almost everywhere and try to buy some groceries if I’m staying a while so I don’t have to eat out for every meal. I would consider this traveling not vacationing tho. I can’t help you with the flights bc my best friend works for an airline so I get pretty cheap flights most places. But a travel credit card can help as long as you can make sure not to spend more than you have, putting all your expenses on there can build up points pretty fast. Also try to look at flying in and out of major airports and hour or two away from you. It can make a big difference in the cost. (Ex. I live in Philly but it’s much cheaper for me to fly out of new York for most trips)
I’m somebody who takes several trips per year and it’s because I don’t waste a huge portion of my income on car payments and I don’t have children. New cars and having kids are more expensive than taking a few vacations every year.
you can get a roundtrip flight for $200 and don’t have to stay somewhere for a week.
I’m kid and debt free. My company provides me with a cheap apartment next door to my job.
My cost of living is overall pretty low, allowing me to throw money at 2 2 week trips a year.
Not everyone is broke. Reddit doesn’t represent reality.
Love
I was living in Germany, I had a thai girlfriend in the Netherlands. She persuaded me to travel to Thailand with her, we would meet at checkin.
At the checkin should found me and pulled me aside. Her husband had found her ticket and wanted to surprise her by joining her.
She said she would contact me in Bangkok.
I got a hotel in Bangkok and she called me, invited me so a swensens ice cream shop nearby. She was not alone
With her was a 2nd cousin who was divorced and agreed to meet me.
Well, that went well and we were together after a day or so. I was separated bu still married, at that time an easy divorce need 2 years of separation.
For the first year with my thai girlfriend I travelled to Thailand from Germany 6 times. As I lived in Hamburg and there are no long haul flights from Hamburg I decided first to fly via Amsterdam with KLM. I already had silver status with KLM I soon got to gold. On the change if status I got s free upgrade to business class. Shortly afterwards Lufhansa had a promotion. If you had gold with a non Star Alliance airline they would give you gold status and throw in a one way free business class ticket. So i went to Thailand on that.
Whe i flew back i just blagged a free business class flight. At the checkin i told the girl i was due a free business class flight (lie). The girl was confused and her english was not good so she called her manager. I think his english was also no good but he had to save face. So tap tap tap i had a free business class flight plus points on my card. There were other deals as well which I took advantage of.
Basically the more you fly the cheaper and more comfortable it gets
When you get gold status airlines are desperate to keep you so you just play them.
Oh! The girl I was introduce to? Still together after 24 years.
It really depends upon various factors. If you live in a hub city and are traveling to a hub city, flight prices are often very cheap. If you fly to/from a non hub city, especially if you’re going to a small regional it can get pricey.
First class ORD-IAH is cheaper for me than an economy seat heading home to see my parents. And it’s only a 1 hour flight.
People have good jobs that pay well? Not everyone is broke like Reddit makes you believe.
People always seem to have money for whatever is REALLY important to them. For some it’s cigarettes.