"put it out there" post from a newbie

[shambles]

OK... so I'm still fresh meat at the AFF Corral, so lack of acronym doctorate aside, here is a thread that poses an interesting question. One that will help me determine if I'm a "Terry Tight-cough" or OTT when it comes to blowing our personal hard-earned on flights (for recreation/holidays). So, the big Q is, what % of your net household income do you drop on recreational flights (not any other holiday component) each year??

Starting with me, I reckon that of the household NET income that me & pwincess shambles drag home for our exploits, we'd chuck about 15-20% of it at airline tickets in any given year. I'm not including points or other pre-tax contras, but simply the amount of after-tax hard earned we drop on tickets on average each year. I'm curioser & curiouser to hear what the typical % is so I can get an idea if we need addiction counselling or if we typify the average travelling Joe.
(hope I'm not breaking any forum rules by asking - not seeking any indication of wealth or status, just a simple % reference point)

Obviously most round these parts are frequent travellers with majority of miles presumably done & paid for by work, for work? I for one certainly utilise work trips to add on a holiday from time to time with just the expense of one extra airfare coming from our money or points pot.

So, regardless of if you own your own business, get an income that resembles your phone number, or if your an "Aussie battla"; how much does recreational travel mean to you in % of annual $$ terms?

 

[tuapekastar]

An interesting question shambles, 'nuff so that I'm going to try to work it out, but too late for me to even think about doing that tonight.

I'm going to guess that your 15-20% figure would be one of the higher ones, even in a place like AFF. But I may get a surprise.

 

[Joshua]

It's a really good question actually. I'll be one of those *hard* working students where it's higher (low income + too much free time). Fortunately I've incurred very little in the way of other travel costs like hotels and the like, it's mostly airfares.

I've dug out my annual CC statement with the categorised transactions. Airlines + transport categories are over 25% though I'd imagine in the last financial year that would be much higher.

I know I'm not the only one on here, one of the other threads showed a large number of 'recreational' frequent flyers here. Maybe we should have a poorest WP competition, maybe something I could win at hah!

 

[shambles]

I'm going to guess that your 15-20% figure would be one of the higher ones, even in a place like AFF. But I may get a surprise.

Ours is prob skewed a tad because 4 of the last 6 years we lived in Oxford and made the most of the best thing England has to offer - it's proximity to so many amazing places in Europe! I got transferred there for work so had a hectic EU travel schedule most months but with majority of trips planned either side of a weekend, Mrs Shambles often came along and we made it a work subsidised 3 day break.

hehe - I'm no train spotter but my missus still rips the weewee out of me for keeping every one of our boarding passes plus other tacky tickets etc in a scrap book. 378 boarding passes between us in 4 years was a nuts time that now seems like a blur . Would do it all again in a heart beat even though we saved not a skerric of our UK earnings (back before the pound was worth about 3 ethiopian shekels). I guess you cant take folding with you when you die

 

[shambles]

Hmmm.. must admit that my numbers were a guestimate and having gone into it a bit more this morning I've over-cooked it a tad. Last two years (living in Oz) averaged 11% and prev 4 in Europe was 13% but with higher overall net $$.

Sorry - should have done some "proppa" number crunching before putting it out there.

 

[TonyHancock]

Less than 1% for me this year........and that is only because I had to take the first "recreational" flight since 2006. :shock:

My travel is, pretty much, entirely work based and funded. The prospect of getting on a plane for leisure makes me shudder!! My FF points go towards making my business travel more comfortable.

 

[drewbles]

To be honest, I dread to think.

I do put my ABN into a QF Business Tracker option, just to keep track of my expenditure (I don't travel under my ABN for business; my ABN is from a previous-life where I used to run a small business) so it should reflect all my direct-spend with QF.

Unfortunately, I spend most my coin via my travel agent. Considering I looked at my latest QF report and almost died at how much I spent direct in the past 12 months, my TA spend is of magnitudes more.

Most my disposable income goes on travel, with the next largest chunk being my car loan, to give you some idea of where my priorities lay

I refuse to calculate on the grounds i'll shock and offend myself (and i'm not into self flagellation!) .

 

[Bindibuys]

Ok I will stuff your %'s - sorry. We dont travel for work, so all flights are for holidays. My entire wages (ave female full time office worker) goes on holidays. My husband pays the bills, I pay for holidays.
In the last 12 months - 4 weeks in South America, 10 days Singapore over Christmas, 10 days attending the Super Bowl in Dallas Texas, and we are booked for 10 days in Las Vegas later this year.
We are just at that age where we own our home, kids off our hands, and not yet old enough to retire. Life is Good.

 

[BadgerBoi]

I don't travel for work any more so it was an easy calculation for me.
15% this calendar year.

Great post btw Shambles.

 

[burrco]

Interesting. I don't undertake any work travel and worked the airline spend to about 4% for the F/Y just ended. However I took a JASA to Europe (FRA) & another one to Asia (HKG) so that deflated the figure from previous years. Throw in hotels etc and the travel figure goes up to around 16%.

 

[trooper]

Life is good here too...

Old bachelor with no mortgage.... My % spend on airfares ONLY is probably 15% or slightly more...

Shocking really... but you can't take it with you!:mrgreen:

 

[Simo]

I try not to do any private domestic travel.If I have to I organise it around a work trip so I am not living on an aeroplane and in a airport.I try and go overseas twice a year for holidays with the family.Percentage of income no idea... Just depends on where we decide to go.

 

[dfcatch]

Damn!!

I don't even want to calculate mine for the last year.

Seriously, if I looked over my CC statements and actually worked out the percentage, I think I would need to seek help!!

But - I loved it!!