Hi!
Just when I decide to go to Austria or the Alps end of May, I see on expedia and elsewhere that airfares to Innsbruck are close to $1900 from May through July from Denver, CO. Although I might expect that for July I am not expecting that for end of May.
I am open to getting to the Tyrols via other airports, but not seeing any reasonable air either to Munich (around $1,500-1,600).
Should airfares drop at all, even for May (as best guess!)?
Thank you and kind regards,
Annie
The problem is that, unfortunately, you cannot book only a month in advance and still get a great (or even good) deal. You need roughly a six month window before your trip, and it helps when you monitor fares for several months out before taking a leap and actually booking. On top of that, spring/summer travel is peak travel - so, no, I would not expect fares to drop although I'm sure they'll fluctuate day by day and hour by hour (as they always do).
In checking Denver to Munich ( Innsbruck and Vienna) for some random dates in May (6th for 16 days) I see that AA has a possible fare for $864 RT. I was looking on the www.itasoftware.com website and didn't actually go to the AA site to try to book it. If you can find a fare like this book it and don't look back. There was a 13h flight option with a stopover in Philadelphia.
You appear to be stuck with a high airfare for a trip the end of May. I searched various airports and dates...the best I came up with was Milan with a R/T cost of about $1,500 on American Airlines.
Depending on your exact dates, flying into Zurich might be an option. (A lot of the results I'm seeing are "hacker fares" that capitalize on $860 flights from Chicago to Zurich via Berlin, but there are others.)
As a Denver resident, that is about what you should expect to pay from Denver at that time to year. Middle of May is the beginning of peak season. Last week of May, first week of June - it is all about the same. From now till then I would not expect a big drop in prices unless the recent terrorists activity cause a serge in cancellations. On occasion I have seen a drop in the last two week when the last of the middle seats need to be sold. But that is big gamble.
Thank you, everyone!!
I learn the hard way. :( I had seen months ago air for under $1,200 but I didn't book.. Sigh...
khbuzzard, where did you find $860 airfares?
Thank you, again. I really appreciate the help on this forum!
Annie
Hi Annie,
I found the fares on kayak.com, departing May 24 and returning May 31. (I just chose two dates near the end of May - I haven't checked how available these fares are on other dates.)
For Chicago to Zurich, it shows several itineraries on airberlin at $849. That's the price through various ticket aggregators - the price through airberlin itself is $860.
For Denver to Zurich, it shows a bunch of "hacker fare" itineraries priced around $1050. (You may need to scroll down and uncheck the "hide longer flights" box to see them all.) Basically, get yourself to Chicago by whatever means you can, then take airberlin to Zurich. You'd need to leave yourself a ton of time in Chicago, though, because when you're on two separate tickets you have no protection if your flight is delayed and you miss your connection, which is why so many of the flights are so long.
There are also some hacker fares that make use of an SAS flight from Chicago to Zurich via Stockholm (outbound) and Copenhagen (on the return). They're about $100 more.
Saving money on airfares is always a challenge and thinking creatively can pay dividends. However, be mindful of utilizing different airlines/tickets and what happens if you miss a connection, managing LONG layovers and multiple stops and then having to purchase yet another airfare and suffer yet another flight to reach your final destination. I sometimes pay more than rock bottom prices as the expected pain of flights from el cheapo tickets is akin to waterboarding.
I checked AA tonight and itasoftware.com. The flight that was <$1000 RT this morning is now $1218 tonight. The route is DEN to MUC via PHI. It is a 13h flight.
Thank you, everyone!
This is very helpful! I checked kayak.com and fares from Denver to Munich were reasonable :)
I really appreciate all your help!
Happy Travels,
Annie
I would play around with google flights. It gives you the cheapest flights over multiple days/months and you may be able to find a better deal from Denver or another airport.
One other idea. My way to save on flights this summer was to fly through Canada. The struggling Canadian dollar made my money go further. I'm not sure how this works from Denver, but I thought I would mention it.
Annie,
Using google.com/flights the cheapest I am seeing is $1,349 from Denver to Munich during last week of May - first week of June.
If you can cheaply get yourself to LAX, you can fares as low as $860 RT from Los Angeles to Munich during the same time period. In general, it looks like major hubs like LA, Chicago and NYC/Boston will get you cheaper rates than Denver if you can find an effective/cheap way to get to those cities. This is pretty much what my husband and I are doing this September -- we're going out to visit family in Massachusetts and we snagged RT tickets from Boston to Berlin for $400 each! Even with the flight to/from Boston, it's a few hundred dollars cheaper per person than it would be to fly to Berlin from Seattle.
Best of luck!
