Airfare purchased!

Congratulations! Doesn't it feel great? Happy travels.

Nice!!! I have not gotten that far in my planning yet.

Now just accept your decision. Do not spend time looking at other deals, do not second guess yourself, do not look back. For every Dollar you later think you could have saved, the chances are it could have cost you two Dollars. In the end, any cost difference likely will not be a "deal breaker"

You can now start to lock in some hotels and transportation, hit the key cities, but do not be afraid to leave some flex nights scattered in your itinerary.

I purchased our airline tickets (Delta also) for our Sept 2016 RS tour a few weeks ago as I was getting obsessed looking at ticket prices. I posted a question on the RS forum about what actually was a good price for airline travel to Europe. Since I was happy with the price I was looking at and it was nonstop, almost everyone replied to "go for it" and, as stated in one of replies to your post, advised me to "not look back". Well, I have not looked back and I've stopped looking at prices, just happy to have that aspect of my trip planning complete. I can now go on to thinking about other aspects of our trip. We will be arriving before our tour and staying a few days after, so there is some planning left, but I am happy that the bulk of the planning is done by the RS organization! Congrats on your purchase and enjoy your trip!

........but, do log into the airline site and keep an eye on your flight itinerary from time to time......every couple of months at first, then monthly when you get within 3 months of your trip, then every week or so until you pass the 60-day prior to your trip threshold. Even after that, it's good to take a look every so often.

Booking that far out (and I do it all the time), it is likely your itinerary may change. And, often an airline won't even tell you as each change happens......you can discover it on-line and be surprised!! If the change is not favorable, do not hesitate to find something that works on the airline's site and ask for that better routing (with the help of a supervisor, if needed).

We've had flight itineraries change about three times for two different trips in the last year, and each time the routing was not as good as the original. We even had a situation when I looked and found that my husband and I had been put on different return flights!!! What??? It took hours, but finally worked it out. But, you can also get lucky and nothing will change. Just take a look somewhat regularly. If you have to ask for subsequent different routings, it is better to do it before planes are totally full close to take-off time.

Happy travels to you!!

Adding to Margaret's comment, if the schedule doesn't change but the airplane equipment does, check that you still like your seats -- we had chosen a two-across row and when they changed the plane we were aisle-and-middle, so switched to two aisle seats across from each other.

I've just booked our flights tonight as well - our flight went from $1500/$1600 to $1050 - fantastic!! At least that part of the anxiety is put to rest. Terrific deals on Delta if you've been waiting.

I just booked our flight to Paris for May 2016, direct/Air France from SFO. Prices went down $500 each from last month. Apartment already booked, now its just waiting for the 3 to 4 months out in making certain reservations.

Thanks for the tips and good wishes. I had to chuckle at Paul's suggestion to leave a couple of flex nights - no doubt a good tip, but I'm SO FAR from being a flex night person! Happy planning, everyone

Well, Margaret was correct. Delta has changed our flight path twice already. First time was for the better, tonight not good. Our Indianapolis departure was changed to Boston?!?! 1 connection changed to 2 on both ends of trip. Very frustrating!

Since they initiated a change, you have the right to call them and get changed to an itinerary you like. Be sure to look up flights on the website before calling and be sure you have the fee waived. If you still decide to go through Boston, hope you have time to eat in the airport Legal Seafood, or go over to terminal 1 for a great barber and manicurist. I like going through Boston because it makes the transatlantic so short and there is a direct IND-BOS flight you can be booked on. You have to contact the booking agency, Delta or third party.

A similar thing just happened to us for out flight to London. The itinerary we selected - a bargain deal on British Airways - had us spending about an hour at DFW between flights. Now we're there for over six hours. It would almost be faster to drive to the airport from here. (Although then we'd have to pay for three weeks parking.)

I called BA to try to get put back on our original TUL - DFW flight, and they assure me it can't be done. So I guess we'll be starting our vacation 6 hours early, and plan to have dinner at DFW. As I recall, there's a nice little wine bar in the international departures terminal...

So Jane and amosk, could this be a new form of bait and switch where the airline sells you a favorable itinerary at a lower price and then switches you to a less favorable itinerary? Having flight canceled or flight times changed is usual, but you are both talking about new flights or itineraries.

Bets, the customer service rep could only tell me it has to do with changes in flight patterns and often happens when you book so early. I booked 11/30 for our early May trip. When I booked we were going Indy-Detroit-Frankfurt-Prague and Milan-JFK-Indy on the way home. A couple of weeks later it changed to Indy-JFK-Prague outbound, and home stayed the same (we liked this change!). Yesterday it changed to BOSTON!-JFK-Prague and Milan-JFK-Detroit-Indy. I don't know how the Boston was substituted for Indy - the customer service rep couldn't explain that one! Now we are Indy-Minneapolis-Amsterdam-Prague. I hate to think it is intentional from the airlines - and I did check to see if there were any IND-JFK flights and nothing shows up. Frustrating because of the additional stop BOTH ways now -- but we've never been to the Netherlands .... trying to stay positive as I continue to keep an eye on other offerings between now and May!

Amosk, I am planning to fly from Seattle to Prague via Amsterdam also by Delta. Second half of April there, first half of June back. Could you reveal the price so I could get some idea what to look for?

Our tix were $1100 each. Good luck with your search!

Thank you. That's a very good price.