Plane Fares

If you think prices will drop, then wait. I don't see it happening, but no one knows for sure.

You might like to review this recent discussion http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/68447/international-airfares-highest-in-a-decade.html

Thanks Frank, that was an educational thread. I'm going to try holding out a little longer I think. Hope I don't regret that... Last year I went to Dublin round-trip for $600. Methinks those days are over!

I've read there's a relationship between petroleum prices and airfares, since fuel cost is a significant operating cost for airlines. Long hauls from North America over the Atlantic pond use lots of aviation fuel. Airlines reportedly hedge and buy futures contracts of fuel, so airfares are not a (mathematical) function of petroleum prices but there's a relationship between the two. If you want to do some research, try to get forecasts of petroleum prices over the time period you're interested in. And good luck on forecasting trends in airfares.

I am waiting for prices to go down to book a flight to Istanbul in oct and with a stop in Paris. The prices have not changed in the past month and now 25 per cent higher than 3 months ago. I should have booked three months ago.

We are going to eastern Europe in early Sept. and returning from Amsterdam in late Oct., and we bought our tickies the first week of February. That looks like a smooth move although I had my doubts at the time.

I have traveled every November to Europe for the past 6 years or so. One place that always seems to be cheap to fly to is Germany. 2 years ago, I wanted to go to Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. I couldn't find anything affordable for those places, so I checked out Frankfurt and Munich. I found some R/T tickets for $600, so I flew into Munich and out of Frankfurt, and had a fab vacation in 4 neighboring countries. A vacation 4 years ago, I got tickets R/T to Germany for $420. It has always seemed that Germany was the way for this west coast Floridian to travel to Europe.........Until this year. For travel at the end of Nov and coming back at the beginning of Dec, I can't find anything cheaper than a $1000 R/T. It seems the cheapest European destination for me this year is London. R/T tickets from Tampa at the end of Nov are running $650. You may want to just start typing in every darn European airport to see what other fares are. If you find one that fits your budget, you may want to stay a few days and then train off to Berlin or find a cheap intra-Europe airline to get you there.

Im assuming you will be flying out of Seatac, correct? Well, Condor will start non-stop flights to Frankfurt soon (or already has done so), and then you could just train it to Berlin. Depending on what days you fly, I had looked into taking that home in Sept and found some $400-500 flights midweek. Check out Iceland air, too.