Deals on flights to Europe in June and July

Where are you flying from? $1200 direct flight to AMS from my home airport (PDX) is a decent price for summer months. With the summer Olympics in Paris, there may not be great summer deals (or maybe there will - no one knows). You might try Google flight searches with flexible dates and putting in "Europe" as the general destination. My experience with Going.com is their search criteria can be extremely detailed and you might need to broaden the scope a bit. Good luck!

Put the alerts on for google flights. This is being talked about continuously on here. It’s an expensive year to go to Europe. Hotel costs are up, too. There has been no rhyme or reason for the best flight deals this year. I got my August flight back in early December, it’s up $400 more right now.

American Airlines Aviator card!

Just got grins. I track flight prices on Google. What I learned is that the price fluctuates almost daily and a lot. So when you find that $1200 ticket, that's today's price. It could be $2000 in a week and $1000 the week after that. About 45 days prior to the flight, the prices seem to flatten off fairly high, but not necessarily at the highest point.

My suggestion is to watch a flight for 45 days. See the high and the low. Then grab it when it duos to the low.

But more important is to be flexible. Use Google flights date matrix to find the cheapest departure and return date combo. But know that will fluctuate too so watch and grab a lower price when it presents itself. You have until at least 75 days, sometimes I push it to 60 days, prior to flight date to make your choice.

Another idea is to find the cheapest transatlantic flight and start your holiday wherever it lands. Move on with trains and discount airlines. My bucket list is so big. Not really a bad place to start for me.

Airline tickets to Europe are expensive this year. I have been monitoring flights since last year as I have guests coming to a wedding in England in June. From St. Louis with a connection through Chicago, tickets for the main cabin have stayed around $1600 - $1700. One day last week, when British Airways was having a sale, the price dropped to $1200 for a few hours. It didn't last. (Set your Google flight alert).

Another option is to consider other airports within driving distance or stay the night before in an East Coast city to get a good direct flight.

I just helped a young couple get tickets out of JFK to LHR. return LGW to JFK for $640 return on Virgin Atlantic brought through Delta. (Flying out of Gatwick on the return was $200 cheaper).
Now this was a basic economy ticket so no frills and no recourse. This was for the first week of June.
I would tell you to avoid booking a vacation past July 15th. Everyone in Europe is on vacation then and prices for hotels are at peak premium as well as major tourists attractions being very busy.

I understand the teacher and limited times that you can travel. My husband is a teacher too. Have you considered winter break? I really like traveling at that time of the year. I find the weather nice, no heat waves, and the crowds less. And those Christmas lights :) We also sometimes do quick 1 week trips when we find that really cheap flight (mid winter break and spring break).

I find purchasing tickets way in advance has provided the best deals. And when the flight is changed (which happens when you buy way in advance), I just pick a different flight that is sometimes even better then I originally picked but was too expensive before. It's that wonderful thing called a significant change that lets you pick a similar flight without having to pay the difference in cost.

What's also important is who you buy the tickets from. There are lots of online sellers who sell cheap tickets. However, some get those tickets by buying FF miles from people. Doing that is against airline policy and if they catch on, they cancel your tickets. You then have to fight the website for a refund.

Buy direct from the airlines.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/looking-for-airfare-advice-from-you-travel-savvy-pals

There has been much discussion recently regarding air fares, included in the above Search. Good luck!

Another strategy I use is to use the Kayak app. From the app, click Explore down at the bottom. Set your dates to June-July and zoom in on the map to Europe. You will see recent low prices, many of which are still valid. You can also put in more specific dates. Winter travel is also a great idea, especially if she gets a two week break.

I track flight prices on Google. What I learned is that the price fluctuates almost daily and a lot.

Like Mr E, this has been my experience for the last decade+, and not just since the pandemic started. For multiple trips I have taken to Europe, I have monitored flights 6 months out and seen daily fluctuations in the 20% +/- range. It is maddening, but it paints the picture of what is the low end of the price range, and gives me confidence to go ahead and pull the trigger on one of the down days...and I frankly never look back.

Have retired from teaching now but I understand your plight. We always left a few days before Memorial Day, as soon as my first vacation day came…..getting in before June helps tremendously…..we also catch a points flight from Nashville on SOUTHWEST to LaGuardia……..Uber over to JFK and catch a good deal flight from JFK to Paris, or London or Amsterdam…..flying out of JFK to a big city in Europe was always cheaper than flying from Nashville. We also book that JFK flight as early as possible when the deal comes out…..and plan our trip around that. We have done this numerous times……even taken a JFK flight to Iceland, stopped and reboarded in Iceland because the deal was so good……and Iceland was a nice break as well.

Retired teacher here. When I was nearing retirement people would always ask me what I was looking forward to. My answer was always, “Taking a trip in September.”

You have good advice above, but I will simply add that at some point you will simply have to bite the bullet and buy the tickets. When you have done so, don’t look back at prices afterwards, just move forward and enjoy the trip.

If you find a cheap flight, be sure to look at the airlines, the overall duration, layover time if making a connection, whether you can reserve seats in advance and without a charge, etc. I've seen a few inexpensive fares lately which take 30 hours or more to reach their destination; in another case, the connecting flight required a change of airports.

There is price and then there is value.

If you cannot find the airfare on the airline website... back away from the "Discount travel agent" Don't believe me?. Go spend a few hours reading the Air Travel forum on Trip Advisor... post after post after post of people who got ripped off!

My question is whether I should just bite the bullet on the $1200 tickets or is there some reason to think we'll eventually see something better.

Not knowing your origin makes it quite challenging to assess whether $1200 is a good price.