Reading the ETIAS site to figure out how & when to get a Travel Visa for a 90 day visit this spring

Until the process finally opens on an unknown date there is nothing to be done. The scheme is now running several years late, so confidence even of a spring 2025 start is not exactly high.

The ETIAS is not a Visa, it is a travel authorisation which is a different animal.

I don't know what the 6 months is all about, but there is nowhere in the world you need to apply for a Visa or travel authorisation that far ahead. As and when it does start the application and approval scheme is expected to be very fast.

Any site claiming to do it now (or in the future at a far enhanced price) is a scam site.

There may be confusion on that site offering one for £80 as some countries (eg India) do need a VIsa for Schengen (an actual Visa, not ETIAS) and their scheme is live now.

Personally I wouldn't bother until a few weeks prior to departure, and even then that would probably be a little early. Certainly wait until the details are announced.

In addition to the great advice from Stuart and Simon, I will add that your airline is going to be notifying you of the need for ETIAS as well. They are not going to want to get stuck with having to fly a passenger back to the US if they are not able to enter a country so will be on this as soon as there is something official.

If you don't look at the forum every day, I'd definitely give yourself a calendar alert to take a look 3 months before your departure date to see what other forum members are saying!

We were first told it was to start in 2023. Now we are told it's April of next year.

You see how none of us here are getting nervous because we're still not sure it will start next April,

Once it does, you'll get plenty of notice. It's not supposed to take anytime at all to get the authorization once it's up and running.

And as noted, it is not a visa. It's basically a registration that will cost you 7 Euros. We do it for people coming into the US.

My reading of the ETIAS website indicates that it is simply a system for pre-approving visa-less travel. It is for short-term entry only (up to 90 days in 180 days).

My recollection from your prior posts is that you have an EU and a US passport and your wife has a US passport only. I don't believe that either of you need a visa to stay longer than 90 days. This is what the right of free movement means. As an EU citizen, you have the right to travel to any individual EU country (not the whole Schengen zone) for up to 90 days without restriction, and your non-EU citizen spouse has the right to accompany you without a visa.

Here is the relevant language:
Length of stay
If your non-EU family members have the required documents, they are entitled to accompany or join you without any conditions or formalities for consecutive periods of up to 3 months per EU country visited. They are not subject to the overall limitation of up to 90 days in a 180-day period that applies in the Schengen area. You can combine stays in different EU countries without an overall time-limit (as long as the conditions of the EU rules on residence are met). (emphasis mine)

The "required documents" are a valid US passport.
The source:
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-family/index_en.html

My experience (as a holder of an Irish and a US passport):
When I entered Iceland in 2018 and said I was staying in Europe for "several months," the officer pointed to my Irish passport and said, "You need to show me that one, then." Which I did, along with my dependent child's US passport. Because he was 12, she didn't ask whether he planned to stay with me the whole time (which he did, of course).

Edited to add: This is WHY I got my Irish passport, so that my son and I could travel in Europe for a year.

Don't worry about it until they issue firm dates.

Even then the process will likely be quick, go online, answer a few questions, submit with payment, and you get a response in a few minutes to a couple days. It is not a complicated or lengthy process.

All it is, is information provided up front

The ETIAS doesn't start until some time next year, however the EES system starts on 10 November this year. This website explains the process - https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees_en . It appears that the biometric data will be collected when the traveller arrives at Passport control, and the EES permit will allow 90 days in the Schengen zone. Passports will not be stamped after this is implemented. As far as I can see, there's no cost for this?

This is going to be one of the great travel scams of all time. Not the governments that are charging us the seven dollars of whatever it is but the scammers. They’re going to set up websites that people are going to go on and pay $50, $200 etc.

I go to Dominican Republic about once a year and they have a similar thing that’s free. You have to fill it out the E ticket before you go. There are a number of websites where people get scammed in paying $100, $50 whatever for this Eticket and what the scammers are doing is taking the information they had you put on there Website and putting in the official system and sending you back your QR code. Just makes such a huge opportunity for people who do not pay attention to what they’re doing or just don’t know to get ripped off.

Personally I wouldn't bother until a few weeks prior to departure, and even then that would probably be a little early. Certainly wait until the details are announced.

This. As someone who hasn't even bothered to get US REAL ID drivers license yet (what's the hurry?), the ETIAS seems like another "give it some time to sort itself out" situation. When it actually starts being a requirement, you can guarantee that the system will have to be "friendly" to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who will use it. Add in the realization that airlines in particular will be very highly incentivized to make sure every ticket they sell is one they can stand behind.

This is going to be one of the great travel scams of all time. Not the
governments that are charging us the seven dollars of whatever it is
but the scammers. They’re going to set up websites that people are
going to go on and pay $50, $200 etc.

Citizens of visa-waiver countries traveling to the U.S. have been required to obtain a similar document (ESTA) for well over a decade; 2009 or 2010, I think. The caution from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection folks has been to use only the official website https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov (make sure it's locked and ends in .gov) and also avoid those offering to facilitate the ESTA process for you, often for a large fee. It currently costs $21.00 USD and is good for 2 years unless your passport expires before that time.

That ETIAS is expected to be good for 3 years (less depending on passport expiration) and expected to cost €7 equivalent is sort of a bargain in comparison, if that's what it turns out to be. Yep, the thing has been dragging along for awhile!