How Airline Closings Effect Timeshare Vacations and Timeshare Resales

Last week ATA Airlines stopped flying. The week before, Aloha Airlines shut down. Air Bus is gone, Oasis Air liquidated, and Champion Air has announced it will cease operations on May 31. Sun Country Airlines says it will lay off 45 of its 156 pilots for the summer, cutting back by 30 percent. Other airlines talk about layoffs, cutbacks, and rising ticket prices.

According to The International Air Transport Association (IATA), between the soaring cost of fuel and consumers forced to cut back on spending, 2008 will be a very tough year for the airlines. In light of this, IATA has twice downgraded its industry profit expectations for 2008.

So what will these changes mean for timeshare owners and the way people use their timeshare weeks?

Timeshare Weeks and the Airline Cutbacks

Airline cutbacks could impact specific timeshare vacation destinations. Aloha Airlines and ATA Airlines were only two of several airlines providing service to Hawaii, but they were both economy-priced providers. For people who were barely squeaking the cost of their annual vacation trip into their family budget, before the price of gas and groceries went through the roof, the shutdown of budget airlines could be the final straw.

Yet tourism experts are not predicting that Hawaii, or any other single destination, will be hit unduly by a decline in vacationers. People may vacation differently than they have in the past, staying closer to home, steering clear of high-priced restaurants, or vacationing for fewer days, but most people will still find a way to enjoy some much-needed R & R.

A Tight Economy May Lead to Timeshare Exchange or Timeshare Resales

With the price of fuel driving up the cost of transportation, many timeshare owners will no doubt opt to exchange their timeshare weeks for vacation time at a timeshare resort closer to home. Other timeshare owners may choose to bank their timeshare weeks, hoping that next year funds will be more readily available. Still other timeshare owners may seek to resell timeshare, just to be out from under the cost of maintenance fees and annual expenses.

Before You Sell Timeshare, Consider This Option

Before you do anything, check out your options. Just because this may be a tough year for you to vacation, don’t assume that everyone is dealing with the same issues. There are people in certain career fields who are actually benefitting from the US economy’s problems. In addition, there are some international tourists whose money has never been stronger against the US dollar.

You may find that renting your timeshare unit is a perfect solution. You can hold on to your timeshare resort property, yet typically receive enough money when you rent timeshare to pay your timeshare unit’s annual expenses. If your timeshare is already paid for, and you are not making monthly payments on it, then it really makes a lot of sense to use it as a timeshare rental until your personal budget or schedule loosens up and you can enjoy a timeshare vacation again. Even if you owe money on your timeshare unit, you may decide that it is worthwhile to rent timeshare, holding on to the timeshare unit you have already spent hard earned cash to own.

The bottom line is that you have options. And the timeshare resales and timeshare rentals specialists at Sell My Timeshare NOW can help you decide which options are right for you. Don’t be too quick to throw in the towel; just because some airlines, mortgage companies, or home owners who were already overextended have called it quits doesn’t necessarily mean that you are headed for your own financial crash and burn.