Airline ticket prices: Yikes!

Not talking you off the ledge. 🤣 But you will probably have to: pay the price after you get over the shock; or accept longer, less convenient routings; or get creative. And creative may depend on the time you have available - which may not be huge. I am currently looking at potential flights into a place that isn’t my prime destination and then catching an intra-European hopper flight. Costs me time but saves me money. Sigh. Haven’t bought yet…..

Sign up for Google flight alerts on your preferred routes so you can track prices starting today. If you see a price you like, buy it immediately (don't wait even a few hours - it won't last). Prices may also adjust after the holidays, I've purchased many spring trip tickets in early January.

Denver has multiple direct international flights including at least one budget carrier (Edelweiss). Sign up for airline deal emails for those providers. If you have flexibility in dates or itinerary, be flexible. And prices are up for everything, you may need to adjust expectations. Good luck!

Well, May is prime time for those destinations. I don't think I'd wait as late as April - prices will almost certainly just go up from there.
You're doing the right thing to keep an eye on the price in Google Flights, but you could also consider a positioning flight: book a flight to a hub like Boston or JFK from where flights to Europe are generally cheaper, and then book your Europe flight separately from there. That may involve two stops, or the savings may not be worth it, but it's a thought.

BF is asking me if we could find cheaper flights into a neighboring country and train to P, V, or B. But not sure I want to add the extra time. Will still look into it I guess?

Kayla.p, really good suggestion! I will check that out.

Morgan, the travel demand continues to increase, while the supply remains fixed, and prices are apparently reflecting that. Maybe the “supply” isn’t completely stagnant - maybe more flights are being added to meet the demand, but there’s no “extra” Vienna or Prague being created, to accommodate more tourists flying there.

Shorter International options to Europe from DIA - Lufthansa, United, British Airways, and Icelandair - don’t seem to be hurting for passengers, so they’re not cutting prices. We’ve been pretty reliant on British Airways Avios frequent flyer points to make trips more affordable, but those Avios are dwindling as we use them up, and more expensive flights aren’t encouraging.

Edit: I wasn’t aware of Edelweiss - well, direct flights to Zurich, what do you know! And now, Aer Lingus is apparently going to be flying out of DIA soon. We lost Norwegian, but are gaining others. I really don’t like flying domestically in the U.S. to connect to a flight to Europe. That’s extra time and money.

If you take kayla.p's suggestion, make sure you have plenty of time to switch from your Denver-wherever flight to the international flight. You'll likely have to leave secure area and check in with airline again, especially if you have luggage. In some airports, this is a terrible idea.

Re: flying somewhere else and taking train to your final destination - make a spreadsheet that calculates both time and cost for each option you're considering. It wouldn't be worth it (to me) to get a "cheap" flight to somewhere in Europe, and then have to find transportation from the airport to the train station (not every city has a train station at the airport), then get on a potentially long train ride to the final stop. Time is money - only you can decide what option is your preference, but you have to pencil it out. You have time to pencil. :)

I just got an email from British Airways that they are having a sale on airfares through October 31. Might be worth checking out. Here's a link: British Airway sale

Texastravelmom, I think you are right. I may need to get over my only-one-stop rule. Looking at the British Airways site Mardee provided (thank you!), I'm seeing flights with two stops at around $1000 each. For open jaw too. 18 hours total flight time.
Edit: Nevermind - that is the price for each way, so back to $1700 each.

It's why I fly basic economy. I can usually get to Budapest for $1000 with 2 stops. And be flexible with dates if possible. One day one way or another can save hundreds.

Google flights has a good filter. How many stops, minimum and max layover times, price and more. Then you use their date matrix and it will show you the prices based on every departure and return date possibility within a certain period of days. I've saved a lot that way.

Well, my international travel policy is that there is enough stress traveling, without compounding it by buying multiple tickets on different airlines. If you take @kayla.p's suggestion & your first flight is cancelled or late, your international carrier will NOT compensate you or put you on another flight. So you would LOSE the value of the entire international RT flight, which as I understand it, is the issue! (Or you'd have to be speedy & get onto the app and rebook, but on your travel date, it will be even more $$) The ONLY way I would do this is if they are both on the same alliance, & even then you'd have to have a steel will to talk back at check-in to get your luggage (unless you're doing carryon only) checked through. Some agents are fine, others aren't! Please don't plan on retrieving luggage and then rechecking and getting back through security to make the connecting flight, unless you have many hours, but I just don't think this is worth the stress.

IF you wanted to buy a cheap air ticket inside Europe, let's say you flew RT to Amsterdam on UA, onward on Ryan Air as an example, the same would be true in reverse. If you miss the outward bound flight from Prague, UA is under NO obligation to re-book you out of Amsterdam. Gosh, I hope that makes sense!

One silver lining - IF you book with a major US carrier, there are no longer cancellation or change fees that I know of. So if the flight price drops, you can re-book & either keep the difference in your account for up to a year to use for any travel, or according to one person on the Forum, there's a way to get UA (I won't comment on other carriers) to re-price the ticket & get a refund for the difference, but you'd have to call them to get the details.

Definitely sign up for all the relevant airlines' email specials! You could hit upon something great & good luck, deep breath!! PS, You could fly the Budapest to Vienna leg on a cheaper airline, or take the train. So you'd only be stopping over in one place, into Budapest & out of Prague on one ticket.

Yes, if I were going to Budapest roundtrip in May/June from DFW, I could buy it today for $800 on Turkish, with only one stop in Istanbul. So maybe you look at a U.S. hop somewhere. Just a random thought. Sometimes it takes some research. And sometimes you just have to put your priorities/needs in order…..

Morgan, there are also other ways to "save" on airfare.

Many people will join airline frequent flier programs or get credit cards that earn points that can be transferred into frequent flier programs for tickets. Many credit cards will give some pretty hefty signup bonuses. I would only advise the credit card/point route if you are comfortable paying off the balance each month. Otherwise, the interest charges would eat up any possible savings.

I generally stick to Alaska Airlines and its partners since I live in the Seattle area. You may be more interested in United Airlines and its Partners (Star Alliance) living in Denver. If you have a good credit card (I have Chase) you can transfer points into several different possible airline programs for free flights.

Travel demand is (pardon the expression) sky-high. The airlines certainly know this (better than most), and they're using that to squeeze customers like never before. If you're looking for cheap (even if you stretch the meaning of that word), you may now be looking at itineraries with multiple, long stops, painful layovers and absolutely crazy routings that make no logical sense at all (meanwhile, new planes are flying lots of long nonstops between smaller cities than was ever possible in the past).

It's not some random freak of nature or a computer glitch, the airlines are doing this very intentionally, giving you the option to spend your way out of some of that pain. Want fewer layovers? A more rational routing? Even – gasp! – a nonstop flight? Oh, sure, you can get that, you'll just have to pay more. Maybe a lot more.

Three stops on the way to Europe and 30 hours en route - what fun.

Yeah, I'm looking around the same time frame and destinations, and $1900-2200 and up is what I'm seeing. I'll be tracking and hoping for a Thanksgiving sale.

I routinely position myself in places for international flights. For example, I’ve got an international flight coming up over Thanksgiving and I’m flying out of Boston because that was the best deal but I live in Atlanta. And in this case, I leave for Boston at 7 AM even though my flight to London doesn’t leave until 730 that night. I have about 10 hours in the Boston airport to kill. I also do carry-on so it’s not a real problem with my luggage

I have been tracking prices from Saint Louis (STL) into London for early June for a Wedding party. Prices are very high on all the major carriers. AA, Delta, and United for the main cabin ticket (not basic) are almost $1800 - 2,300 round trip. They actually have gone down about $300 this weekend to $1600 R/T. On AA. This has been the only week I have seen a slight trend downward. I ended up purchasing two tickets out of Chicago at $1430 about a month ago. We may drive to ORD or fly the day before on AA on a separate ticket using points. I actually tried to amend my original flight but doing so was going to cost me a lot more than just the $200 difference and I would not keep my upgraded seats on the ORD to LHR leg of the trip. I think the Airlines are getting a little crafty in their pricing when you want to change. In my research over the past few months Boston, JFK, IAD, and Durham NC were the cheapest East Coast places to fly to Europe. Of course, you have to get there and domestic flights are not cheap these days either. So I think you will have to buy your tickets soon and just pay the price from your local airport. I really think they won't get any cheaper going into January.

Sometimes booking travel for a week earlier or a week later even sometimes a day or two earlier or later might yield significant savings. It depends on your flexibility. Check flight costs as if you’re going on an earlier or later trip and/or especially play with the days around the tour for flight costs. I’ve had great results this way.

This last summer, I was getting despondent over fares when looking for west coast to Amsterdam for next April, 2024. As seniors, we prefer business class, and out of San Diego fares were running $3500-$4000 each, RT. Historically, we had paid $2200 average RT. I had been tracking prices for quite awhile with Google Flights, and there was no significant decreases.
I finally decided to look at LAX to Amsterdam, Munich, Frankfurt, and Zurich. One day, I found a $2200 fare to Zurich, but since it was out of LAX, decided that was too much inconvenience, but it did prove to me that low fares were to be had. Few days later, I found the low fare to Frankfurt. Finally, I found the low business class fare LAX to Amsterdam. Google Flights did not send me the alert for another 24 hours. None of the travel bloggers picked these prices up. I did post the find here on the Forum.
We used the AARP discount, and stacked that with British Airways Visa card discount, with a final price of $1850 each RT business class. We booked directly with British Airways.
Is LAX inconvenient, yep, but for us we made the choice the price was worth it.
Interestingly, I also checked the fares for the other seat classes on these same flights. Economy and business class were the SAME price, and premium economy was more than business class!! So- set your alerts for all classes of seats. I had just assumed that all seat classifications would reflect the discount.

I did spend considerably time on this project, so if one subscribes to the time is money approach,it may/ not work for you.
Good luck!

Well, nevermind - those cheaper priced tickets I saw on BA were only the each way prices (duh), so I'm back to $1700 each even with two stops. Ugh! But that was a very pleasant hour while I thought I was going to save myself $1400 to put towards accommodations. lol
And, Mister E - I'm looking at the Google Flight matrix (I think) and still not seeing anything better. It's actually showing more expensive flights.
So, back to square one I guess!

To echo some of what Pat shared, we often look at our 'neighboring' airports when fares get out of control at our home airport (SEA). I have save thousands of $$ leaving from YVR to europe instead of Seattle. It is not the case every time, but if you keep checking all of the airports within a reasonable (subjective) distance to you, you may find some good savings. It takes us about 2+hrs to get to YVR from our home vs. 20 mins to SEA but if the price is right, I'm good with the extra distance/time.

Additionally, I have purchased rt tickets from SEA to a big hub in europe (usually CDG or AMS as we typically fly Delta) then, later on, purchased an additional rt ticket from the european hub to my final destination. So far, I have always been able to have Delta link both reservations together so that I can check my bag to my final airport. This only works, though, with Delta's partner airlines (ie: Air France/KLM). This also can be a way to save some costs.

The SEA/YVR trick is somewhat ironic: two weeks ago, as we were standing in line waiting to board our flight home from Istanbul to Seattle (the flight is chronically late, in both directions), I struck up a brief conversation with the couple behind us in line. I noticed their Canadian passports and other Canadian-isms. They shared that they were from Vancouver (BC) and often drive down to Seatac to catch flights to save money. They told me they saved "several thousand dollars" by taking the flight between SEA and IST, rather than the very similar flight from YVR. It can work either for you or against you.

And now I have to hear my spouse gush every day over how strong the US dollar is against the Japanese Yen (she wants to go exchange a few thousand bucks into Yen whenever the rates get like they are now). So fluctuating international currency exchange rates may also be a factor in the cost of your tickets.

I want to emphasize checking ALL fare classes. As I said earlier, the day I found our great business class fare, the economy fare was exactly the same as business class , and premium economy fare was higher than the business class fare. This lasted 24-48 hours. I was pretty amazed!
Good luck!

I used to fly to Kyiv or Odesa, returning open jaw from Budapest. It was good for about $300 savings even after the discount airline from Kyiv or Odesa to Budapest. And I got to spend a few nights in one of two lovely cities.

https://thepointsguy.com/deals/europe-business-class-flights/?utm_source=TPG%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8149749&utm_usr=46dad7fc24affb19274408f700d377bd2eb06a092deb25078d42dcd6e549e64f

I haven't checked these out, but just saw the post.
Good luck !

I know this is not what you are looking for but if your timing is flexible there are tons of flights from Denver to lots of places in Europe in the $450 range in March.

Also on the "if your timing is flexible" theme ...

I just checked May 7-21 (random mid-week) United Denver-Prague and Budapest-Denver: in the $1700 range, just as you said.
Identical routing Aug 7-21 (also mid-week): $1200.

Both United Economy (not Basic Economy) and 13.5 hours, total, each direction.

CW, welcome back. Those May prices are crazy. August should be the same I would have guessed. I know many say to buy as early as possible but I have seen prices go down up to 90 days out. That's when I use to have to buy my flights because I just couldn't plan further out, but I did check the fare a lot sooner and on a number of ocassions they went down before I purchased. But to be clear, wasn't always the same flight i had been watching. Was common for a more expensive flight to drop below the cheap one i was watching. Actually, exactly what hapened to me about 30 days ago when i bought my return ticket to Budapest. One day later $150 cgeaper on a flight that was more expensive 3 months ago than the one i had been watching. But no one listen to me cause I would feel terrible if the 1700 turned into 3000.

Wife and I use our Chase Sapphire card for most everything. When it comes time to get flights to Europe, we go thru Chase travel.

So, for our last 2 trips, we have paid $2.86 for airfare. For 2 people round trip.

My son does the same Paul.
The last many trips, i’ve gotten the lowest price 3 mos out.

The month of May is just a good time for me to take vacation from a work perspective. But August could possibly work too. Although I did pre-order Vienna State Opera tickets for May 18, so I'd have to forgo those.

I need to look into those travel credit cards. I usually hate to use a card that has an annual fee, but if our intent is to travel once a year going forward, maybe the fee is worth it.

I'm keeping my eyes on Google flights for now.

Thanks everyone!

I think you can find an airline credit card that accrues miles and doesn't charge a fee. It will have limited benefits, if any, but it's worth considering. Check the details, though. I know Delta has a card that charges international transaction fees, and you don't want to use a card like that when traveling.

Meanwhile, I just bought multicity tickets for my husband and me, going to visit family for Thanksgiving. I was shocked at how little the tickets cost - even though our trip is less than three weeks away !

A pleasant surprise.

(Routing: CDG to LAX inbound to the States, then after a couple of weeks, Tulsa to Atlanta back to CDG. On Delta - with one flight operated by AF.)

About those airline credit cards - The devil really is in the detail. I would check out 'The Points Guy', lots of info about current best deals. Personally, I find the annual if worth it for the benefits of all the miles I accumulate. But if you're going to be hopping around between carriers it just doesn't make sense (unless you stick with one alliance). They also have some travel insurance which can be useful.

BTW, Most hotels will be more expensive in August, and the weather will be hotter, I would definitely stick with May.

Morgan, the annual fee ($100?) for Chase Sapphire credit card (or similar) is well worth it when you save thousands on flights.

Paid the annual fee once.

Honestly I found everything they advertised on free sites like Flyertalk. Did not bother to renew

The Points Guy seems a bit delayed reporting sales, I have found. It's not like this site breaks the news before anyone else. Is your experience different?
Safe travels to all!

I don't see any advantage whatsoever in using ThePointsGuy, just thought it was a decent place to start researching airline credit cards! The UA credit card annual fee is worth it to me as I'm near 2 Star Alliance hubs in Sweden & CA, but might not be worthwhile for those who want to jump on the lowest price from a variety of carriers. UA just converted my card to a Gateway card, no annual fee, but the benefits differ. I have a higher status so don"t mind the changes. @Pam got that AMAZING deal on British Airways by using AARP and her BA credit card, I thought that was pretty great!

For those in the US living near the Canadian Border ,there is a website /fb page you might want to subscribe to.

https://www.yvrdeals.com/

This section is for deals from Vancouver, but you can change it to get alerts about deals from many other Canadian cities too.

I’ve found , and taken the flights, two great deals with this in the past few years: CAN$450 YVR to Madrid return, and CAN $600 YVR to Copenhagen return.

I set up google tracking about 4 months ago on a flight to Budapest in December and returning in March. Dont know why. I will never use it. It was the cheapest flight on that date. The price on the day i set it up was about $980. I get the email notices when it changes and in the last 4 months it has bounced all over the place. A high of $1300 about a month ago and now its down to $1054. BUT, they are showing an alternate flight which was not the cheapest 4 months ago that is now $970.

Regarding driving to Vancouver BC or to Seattle, and parking for the time of your trip, say 2 weeks, how much does parking cost? Is it still worth the savings on the flights?
I’m not criticizing but just curious.

Thank you SJ for the website!
We live in MN, but have flown out of Winnipeg multiple times. Doing so has saved us thousands of dollars. Yes, Vanessa R, we have found that sometimes it pays for us to fly out of Canada vs. the US. even with the travel time and parking. We could also fly out of Fargo, Sioux Falls, or Minneapolis. Sometimes Fargo is the cheapest (surprisingly!) and it's the closest, but usually Winnipeg is the cheapest. It takes seconds for us to cross the land border entering and exiting Canada. The drive is easy--almost NO traffic until we get to Winnipeg. The only thing that stinks is that we can't use our Global Entry upon landing on our return flight.

Now the December flight that I began tracking about 4 months ago is cheaper than it was 4 months ago. And the flight that I didn't track because it cost too much, is cheaper than the flight I was tracking. Its a crap shoot guys. If I had to guess, the terrorism that began in Israel and the protests that spread around the world are hurting tourism and the airlines are lowering prices to fill flights.

Dang!!! The one way I purchased about 6 weeks ago to Budapest on the 14th for $654 is now over $1000. But it was the cheapest flight with reasonable connections. Now, there is a Lufthansa flight for $388!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@vanessa. Taking the train Seattle to Vancouver $28 advance purchase. Sky train to airport approx $5. No parking involved. Works the same in reverse. Train then light rail.

Pre-Covid I booked international flights 6-8 months in advance and felt I paid a decent price. Now I book three months out....and it's a wild guess! Recently I rebooked a late November flight with Delta and received $300+ in e-credit. At the time I never imagined prices would drop like this. Glad I kept that Google Flights alert active. So just keep checking, buy at a price you're comfortable with, and rebook at a lower price if your airline offers free changes.

Carol now retired: Thanks for the info. It’s good to know. Now if we can get the ferry system to be as efficient 😊 you’re in Lynnwood so I think you know what I’m talking about.
Vanessa

Anyone else notice prices crashing in the very short term? I am guessing the violence around the world as a result of the war in Israel is impacting travel. I suspect it iy only takes a few percentage shift in passenger numbers to put an airline in a world of hurt.

I just booked my ticket Seattle to Istanbul for Sept 2024. It cost me $5.60 and points I had earned on my credit card through normal spending for business class, nonstop, on Turkish Airlines. I could have converted those points to $880 cash, but that certainly would not have paid for business class. I felt this was a good bargain.

I read with great interest how a poster up thread thought premium travel credit cards have no real value for flights or travel. My experience has been opposite. I’m on a trip right now stateside and I have been enjoying benefits since I started. First, I had a nice breakfast at a restaurant at SEA courtesy of the priority pass membership that comes with my card. When I arrived at my first destination, I checked in for a two night hotel stay that was paid for with points I had transferred from my premium credit card to the hotel’s loyalty program. I rented a car for a day trip and didn’t worry about needing extra insurance because of the coverage through my credit card.

People get the best value from these cards if they travel at least a few times a year, but I would not discount them out of hand without actually looking at the cost/benefits for your personal travel needs..