THE ISSUE: Travel frustrations

OUR OPINION: No surprise that gas prices driving up frustrations

Some would call it the obvious, not news: Americans are frustrated by travel woes, notably fuel costs.

Now comes a survey showing just how much. The national poll of recent travelers, commissioned by travel insurance and assistance provider Access America, found nearly half (48 percent) of recent travelers identified gas prices as the most frustrating issue they faced while traveling.

That number is double what is was (24 percent) nine months ago.

“Frustration with gas prices has been a consistent issue for travelers since the Access America Travel Frustration Index was launched last year,” said Mark Cipolletti, vice president for marketing and communications for Access America. “Whether in the form of increased air fares or miles on the road that cost more and more each day, gas prices are a particularly frustrating issue that spills over into non-travel time as well. It’s informative to see how this frustration has increased over time in-step with rising fuel costs.”

Gas ranks high on the frustration scale for both leisure and business travelers and across demographic factors such as region of the country and income. Among leisure travelers, 86 percent report frustration with gas prices, while business travelers registered at 85 percent.

Across all income segments more than 80 percent of respondents said they are frustrated with gas prices, similarly all regions of the country registered above 80 percent.

When asked to rate their frustration with gas prices, three quarters (74 percent) said they are “very frustrated” with the cost of gas.

The Access America Travel Frustration Index measures 10 categories each quarter. While gas was clearly the most frustrating issue, costs of travel and service issues on airlines also registered on the frustration scale – though both of these issues trailed frustrations with gas prices significantly and even showed improvement over previous quarters.

More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they are frustrated with the cost of airline, cruise line and train tickets. Frustrations with these costs ranked nearly 10 percentage points above frustration with other costs, such as costs of lodging (43 percent).

Slightly less than half (48 percent) of respondents said they are frustrated with airline and airport services, such as lost or delayed baggage, cramped and overcrowded planes, missed connections, long lines, etc. That number is down from previous quarters, when more than half of respondents were reporting frustration with these issues.

Booking travel remained the least frustrating issue for travelers. Just 18 percent of respondents ranked booking their trip, including working with a travel agent, selecting a destination or selecting a supplier as frustrating.

Overall, Frustration Factor (aggregated responses across all categories) went down from the previous quarter, but frustrations are still rising overall in 2008 compared with 2007.

Look for them to rise even more as gasoline tops $4 a gallon and heads toward the $5 mark some are forecasting by Labor Day.

T&D Correspondent/Cartoonist Walt Inabinet’s dialogue in today’s political cartoon in our newspaper has a trucker jumping for joy over $4 gas. He is asked about why he is so happy, telling the inquirer: “Now I can’t afford to work. I’m on vacation.”

Oh, well, it looks as if happiness means ruling out travel during his time off.

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