Hi - I'm searching direct flights from Chicago to London for last week of March 2015. What's a reasonable fare?? I've found some for <$1000 round trip which seems good to me, but a friend told me prices might go down. Any insight would be much appreciated!
thanks! Emily
"A friend told me prices might go down": That's the million-dollar question. No one knows when is the right time to buy. Find a fare you're willing to pay for, buy the tickets, and don't look back. Fares have been going up for years. Less than $1,000 sounds like a great deal, but you're also going during the off-season so take that into consideration. What airlines are offering these prices?
Sarah - thanks for your reply! Finding these prices through kayak on Iberia, Finnair, British Airways. $992 round trip/ticket
Emily-perhaps I'm comparing apples and oranges, since Denver is farther away than Chicago from London, and my experience is at times other than March, but airfare on British Airways from DEN to LHR runs over $1,300, so less than a thousand bucks sounds quite reasonable. I'd be surprised for any prices to go down, unless there was suddenly a worldwide crisis that suddenly kept people from wanting to fly and the airlines got desperate for business. Gas prices have fallen in the USA recently, but I also doubt that would influence overall ticket prices in March 2015 at this point.
Also take a look at how many stops and transfers, length of layovers, how long the total trip will take. Sometimes it's worth paying a few dollars more for your comfort or to save limited vacation time.
Looks like a good fare to me, especially if it's a nonstop. We've paid hundreds more for comparable flights. And the distance isn't that big a factor (e.g. Chicago vs. Denver vs. Seattle), or even that many miles on the globe. I doubt if it will get any cheaper, more likely the reverse if you wait too long.
ITA matrix is showing the same fare ($990) on brisish airways! American! or Finnair for the last week if March. Those are all direct (non-stop) flights at good times. The Baa website "low fare finder" also shows that price.
On ITA you have to use the low fare calendar to find that price. If you just put in the same dates into the regular search, it comes up at $1144. So you may need special codes to get the lower fare.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/view/details?session=bcd2f524-bbac-4800-8a34-aeda0b437c3c
On another thread in the Transportation section there is a link to a WSJ study on lowest airfares. For international travel, there is an impressive graph showing that fares stay pretty constant between 10 months and five months out. At five months, fares begin to rise steeply. This comports with my own experience in tracking BA fares, which I did two years ago out of curiosity.
Late March is five months from now. If it were I traveling, I would book that fare now, as it seems very good for a direct flight at convenient times.
It is possible that lower fares will show up later, but my experience has been that these are for less desirable flights with stops on the way, taking extra time and causing extra travel fatigue. Not worth it, especially for a short one-week trip.
(Edit -by the time I posted this, the Lola's reply had beaten this)
I can give you my findings on this.
We are from Philadelphia to London, and then back home from Amsterdam for three weeks in April 2015. We began our process on this in August (we needed to nail down dates for two of the places we wanted to stay at, they are small and very popular). Anyway, after watching for a week we stumbled on a huge fare drop. For reasons that don't matter to this, we could not yet commit to the airfare. Price break disappeared, and showed again a week later, which we grabbed. Because I want to gain more knowledge on how the prices move, I've been watching this route since then. And other than a third day a week later, the prices have consistently been where we first saw them. Out tickets were $820 each, and have been consistently around $1225 each since then, except for the exceptions shown. That's Lufthansa. The trips via the British Air - and that includes the Iberia and Finnish Air you have found, they are all code shares on the same BA flights - have consistently stayed around $1150. There have been movements of a couple dollars back and forth, and I believe that is related to variations in the exchange rates.
I would say if you are happy with the times and the planes in use, grab them now. Out of curiosity, I just plugged Chicago to London round trip using Tuesday-Tuesday March 24-31 (flight legs in the middle of the week are generally less expensive) and aw a ton of flights (actually a lot less because of the code shares) for $990 non-stop or $962 flying through Boston on the way out.
You all are wonderful - thanks for the tips/research on my behalf! Think I'm going to take Sarah's advice "buy the tickets and don't look back" :-) Can't wait to visit London - thanks again for all the help.
Emily
If your travel days are flexible, try www.studentuniverse.com. I saved several hundred dollars moving back my departure date one day! I like the travel matrix on this website. Have fun in London!
But you have to be a Student to use Studentuniverse.com...
ita matrix will let you play with all kinds of day/date combinations
I have been booking my own air flights to Europe for over a decade. The best prices I end up getting is always done the 2cd to 3rd week of January for anytime of the year and I go directly through which ever airline has the best fare and convenience for flying to and from. We fly out of San Francisco and I usually get the best price on United. It is a major hub for them. Have had good prices on Air France too. And usually end up doing it on a Saturday or Sunday when I have more time to do all that looking.
