Lower fuel prices won't impact pricey holiday flights

By Jon Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Gas may be under $1.99 across the metro, but those plummeting prices won't benefit anyone taking to the skies to travel.

When Guy Dommert's wife came to him and asked if they along with their three kids could travel to Ohio to see her family for Thanksgiving, he did what any good husband would do.

"Off the cuff I said ‘Sure babe, let's go to Ohio for Thanksgiving. It's going to be fun,'" Dommert said.

But that excitement quickly faded when he jumped on the computer to look for tickets.

"Oh great, it just went up for that weekend," Dommert said.

For a family of five, he's shelling out over $2,500, close to $500 a ticket for the trip.

"I came back and I said ‘Honey, can we re-negotiate this trip we're going on?' and she's like ‘No,' so we're going to Ohio and it's costing us a fortune to get there," Dommert said.

But he isn't alone, those traveling for the holidays will be digging deeper into their pockets.

"If you want to travel Wednesday for Thanksgiving, forget it. Christmas, day before Christmas, practically nothing," Maria Reda of M.R. Enterprise Travel said.

Reda said when airlines cut back on the number of flights in an effort to save money when gas was high, it pushed ticket prices up, and even though gas prices are dropping, airfares and all the extras won't be.

"The fuel charge is here to stay and so is the baggage charge," Reda said.

But charges won't prevent those like Dommert from flying.

"Family means a lot, so you go and you do it," Dommert said.