Flights

What are your travel dates? I think $1,400 is way too high out of a big market like Chicago. My advice is to track fares over several months instead of looking at one or two data points - fares change constantly.

We are leaving on May 31th and heading back on June 14th. It was $900 just a few weeks ago, but we were waiting to book our trip. When is the ideal time frame to book?

I usually just buy when the price is right, probably more like 5-6 months in advance. From Minneapolis, I pay between $800 and $1000. My son and his wife live in Chicago. They paid about $800 to go to Paris with an Iceland layover. I think $1400 is outrageous, actually, especially to Paris. Is Geneva the problem? I took a high speed train from Geneva back to Paris on a previous trip. Certain destinations tend to be cheaper. You could try airports close to Geneva. I got a good rate once, in and out of Basel with Delta/AirFrance. It also could be days of the week or time of year. I use Orbitz for a general overview and then go to each airline (for me pretty much Delta or IcelandAir) to check rates and explore various days and times.

I also think that 10 months out, airlines may not have all flights determined.

I know you are flying from a big market but I'll say the 90 day thing is not true in all markets. Many times by 90 days out the limited flights out of my small airport are filled. You're also risking not getting seating you want by waiting that late.

I'd go with the advice to watch and wait and be ready to pounce if you see a drop in prices but I'd want to lock in 3-4 months in advance.

No, it doesn't.

Are you looking at multi-city prices or prices for two separate one-way tickets? The former should be cheaper than the latter.

I like to use Google Flights for this kind of comparison. You can set up to be notified when prices change. Mess around with it using your dates to see what you can find.

I looked at multi-city flights using some dates in May. I found nonstop flights from Chicago to Paris on May 7 and returning using one-stop flights (the only option possible) from Geneva to Chicago on May 21. The price was from about $850 to $950 round trip, depending on which nonstop airline you use.

If you're willing to fly Icelandair with a stop through Keflavik both directions, the price drops to $688 RT.

Where are you finding such high prices?

Edited to use your dates: I tried them and I see your problem. It's partly because of flying on 2 Fridays. Almost all prices are $1000+ and $1400+ seems to be a popular number.

Switch those dates to May 28 and June 11 and the Icelandair price is the same $688 I found for earlier in the month, as are the prices of most of the others airlines.

Switch your dates to June 1 and June 15 and the Icelandair price is the same, but the others remain high.

Switch to May 29 and June 12 and Icelandair is $648 while all others are about $900 to $1000.

Switch to May 30 and June 13 and Icelandair is back up to $688, but the other options are still between about $900 and $1000.

If you are married to those dates for some reason, the cheapest I saw was $1007 on Icelandair, but you'd have to make 2 stops on the way home.

There is no "ideal time to book" because rates are set dynamically and they change all the time - they can go down after being up, and vice versa. If you look at prices over some time period, you'll have at least several data points to compare. When a price finally meets your desired level/range, then you book. Obviously don't wait until last minute but there's no silver bullet or magic about when that ideal flight will appear at the price point you want. The more flexible you are about dates, itineraries, and airlines, the more likely you'll get as price you'll be happy with. Don't forget to check the discount carriers - IcelandAir, Turkish Air, etc. They have some competitive fares.

Personally, I think 10 months out is far enough out to give you a pretty comfortable cushion to take your time when making your purchasing decision. You have many months to track fares without any pressure to buy the ticket right now.

If you're flying in/out of Chicago, that sounds like way too much for a coach seat. (Are you flying coach?) I pay only slightly more than that to Europe with multiple connections because my airport has few direct flights anywhere outside the US, but the multiple legs raise the cost of the flight.

I've read that it's a good idea to check your prospective flight each day and vary the time of day. Airline prices can rise/fall, but bottom line - decide on a price that works for you. If you see flights go below that, grab your seats. Then do not look at prices again.

I've also read that the price of your flight can vary depending on the days of the week you fly. You may be able to find a cheaper flight by traveling a day earlier or later. And don't forget to check the cost of flying two one way trips vs. round trip on the same ticket.

I have paid that amount for a r/t flight SFO to Paris in the summer, usually June. Maybe booking 6-7 months prior to departure might be cheaper.

I start checking prices at 10 months prior to our trip and usually purchase prior to 5 months prior.

I use Kayak to find lowest prices and then go directly to airline, preferring Delta or a Skymiles partner. We fly from Jacksonville, FLA to Europe and find an average fare to Europe runs from $1200-1400 pp.

My advice is similar. Track flights for awhile. If you see a deal that is too good to pass up, go for it. Otherwise, you don't need to book until the 2-3 month range.

I now avoid Google flight tracking, all the other sights offer tracking as well. I noticed a strange oscillation in prices on Google (up, down, up, down) compared to other sites. I strongly suspect they are using marketing techniques to get people to jump on tickets (before it goes back up) rather than getting them the best prices.

$1,400 might not be bad for direct flights in summer. My last round trip was $560 total from DC to Paris through Iceland (in June), and the three before that were at or under $500 (May and September). Do I think it's worth saving $900 for a 1 1/2 hour stop in Keflavic? Yes, for me that's a good trade off.

"Experts say 90 days ahead is best." Experts are not paying for my flights and have nothing at risk when issuing blather and earning the related income. Tracking flights almost a year out and then striking when an acceptable fare is revealed works well for me and well beyond 90 days out.

Rules of thumb for ticket purchases are only trustworthy for the previous year. Also, theoretical patterns for North America are almost certainly no use for trans-ocean flights. My habit, offered without guarantee, is to shop in late December or through January for a trip such as yours. Buy, then stop reading the subsequent offers. And yes, a multi-city itinerary is the way to go in most cases, but only using a multi-destination search function.

Delta's profits last quarter were affected by higher fuel costs. They are planning to increase the cost of flights and eliminating less profitable flights. I try to consider that and purchase a bit earlier this year than I normally would.

"Experts say 90 days ahead is best."

Self-appointed "experts" are usually just idiots shilling for some personal gain (commissions, ad revenue, clicks). Be careful whose marketing spin you are taking as "expert" advice.

There is no simple answer to the (endlessly-repeated) question, "when is the best time to book my flights?" There is no shortcut, there's no magic, there's no "one weird trick". You need to invest a little of your time in searching for what you want and then tracking those options, over time. Once you do that, you will get a sense of what's reasonable.

Note that there are many factors that will have an impact on your flight experience. Cost is just one of them. Smart consumers do not shop only on one single criteria to the exclusion of all others. For example, if I was shopping for a flight to Europe, and I found a ticket that routed me through Toronto to Newark to Atlanta to Minsk and then an airstrip 40 miles outside of Barcelona, and I had to sit in a tiny wooden box next to the plane's toilet, but I could get that ticket for just $19, I would pass on that "bargain." People whine and complain a lot nowadays about how horrible air travel has become, but the sad fact is that the traveling public is just getting what they ask for: they will put up with anything to shave a few dollars from their ticket price. When people shop only on one criteria - price - they often get what they deserve (hours of misery). You need to decide what's important (and what's not) for you - the actual seat(s) you'll be in, flight schedule, routing, stops, service, etc. - in addition to the price. Don't forget to factor all that in.

That said, $1400 R/T (open jaws) in June sounds a little high to me, but not astronomically so. You can probably do better. May 31st = Memorial Day long holiday weekend for Americans, and probably a holiday for many Europeans, too, so this may be a busy time with higher prices. Also, Geneva isn't exactly a top hub for price-driven airlines. Try shifting the dates around a little, look at alternate airports.

I agree with most of the others: no magic solutions, monitor fares for a good while before spending anything close to $1400, try to be flexible about travel dates and be sure you're doing a multi-city search rather than pricing two one-way tickets unless you're looking at airlines that specialize in one-way deals (Icelandair, Norwegian Air Shuttle, Condor, etc.). To that I would add:

• Consider returning from Zurich or Basel if one of those is much cheaper than Geneva. From my origin Geneva is usually a lot more expensive than Zurich.

• Check daily in September and October, which have offered some fare drops in the last two years from some origin airports.

I’ve seen similar high fares when checking San Francisco to London 10 month’s out. United seemed to engage in this practice. Fares came down in the intervening months. So as others suggested, continue to monitor and book when you see a fare that you like.

I'm looking at a couple major carriers for next May. Prices have gone up about $200 since May. Most flights are running $1450 to $1550. But flights are surprisingly cheaper from PDX to FCO returning from VCE than from PHX so the airport you're flying out of makes a difference.

$1400 sounds quite high from ORD to CDG, although I've never done an open jaws flight returning from Geneva. So, I'd wait and see what the fares do, I can't imagine them being higher than $1400.

One other thing to consider when booking very far out: What are the potential curveballs that life can throw at you? Do you have enough in savings that you can absorb major expenses that might occur before the trip? How stable is your job and is there any chance that getting that time off won't be allowed or could be cancelled? And, of course, you'd have to ask the questions of your traveling companion.

We are looking at flights and trying to decide if we should book 10
months out or wait. The current cost seems to be around $1400 going
from Chicago to Paris, and then Geneva back to Chicago. Does this
price seem reasonable?

To me, that seems very expensive but then I fly out of JFK and am not familiar with ORD originating airfares. Follow The Points Guy and keep a look at skyscanner for opportunities to jump on sales. Keep an eye on Flyertalk too.

That's about what I paid for my open jaw flight from my small market airport into Vienna and out of Geneva (leaving in three weeks). I watched the flight prices for months and months and finally decided to buy.