Hi - I know this has been a common topic, but I didn't see a recent post about fares. I've posted on the Germany forum about my June trip this summer with my teen daughter - flying from SFO into Frankfurt, and out of Paris in June. We are visiting friends in Northern Germany for about a week, then Paris for 8 nights. I've been watching flights since mid-December, when I decided on this trip. I booked flights on BA since those had come down a couple hundred dollars, with stops in Heathrow both ways, and what I consider reasonable layovers (3 hours or less). Price was 1600.00 each, plus the 53.00 seat reservation fee each way for the transatlantic leg, so that brings ticket price up to 1700 each if we reserved seats (which I may do if they start to fill up). I would obviously like to pay less! I've looked at Norweigan Air, but their routes/dates don't work for us, and from the West Coast, Iceland Air is not practical. I have until midnight tonight to cancel the BA tickets with a full refund. I'm just wondering what others are doing about flights, since many of you return frequently to Europe. Since our dates are fairly set, perhaps I just have to accept these higher fares, rather than waiting for a sale that may never come?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
I hate to see you waiting by the computer for advice that nobody can give definitively. That does seem to be the going rate and I don't think you'd find anything lower today, before your cancellation deadline. Based on imprecise memory, I would have expected any January fare sale to be announced by now, but those are also usually for spring, not summer travel.
Posted by
Chicago
792 posts
I think that is a typical price for a flight to Europe in the summer. You may get a couple hundred dollars cheaper if can be flexible with your dates or arrival/departure cities OR if you are willing to take an obscure itinerary. But that is (unfortunately) a typical summer rate. I do not think prices will go up significantly if you want to wait another month or two to see what happens. I would also recommend reserving a seat- because the plane will fill up and you don't want to be stuck in a dreaded middle seat.
Posted by
Nebraska
333 posts
Generally speaking, the closer you wait to your date, the higher the rate and the less likely you'll be to get the seats you want. For my trip in May (which I reserved in Oct) I paid around $1550. Those rates are now closer to what you're paying now. When I went to Europe in July of 2012, prices before December were $1300 for 1- 2 hr layover. I waited until March, looking for the big "sales" people talk about and ended up paying $1700 with 2 layovers- 1 of them over 6 hours! I've been tracking fares ever since that trip and have yet to see them below the $1550 mark any time of year. $1600-$1700 is typical. If you wait you might get lucky, but you might not. I booked early this time!
Posted by
Brooklyn, NY
3849 posts
Agree with Rankster. We booked our flight R/T Amsterdam in September for July and got $1200 fare on Aer Lingus. Booked our seats too, no extra charge, plane was empty then. I haven't checked the fares since because once I book, there is no changing so why bother. If it is lower I will just be annoyed.
Posted by
OP
25 posts
Thank you for your patient replies. I just found the 'transportation' thread, and realize I should have posted this question (or whatever one might call it!) there instead of here. After I posted, I admit to feeling a bit silly, since what I was basically asking is, "who has a crystal ball and can predict air fares. Tell me what to do!" In late December, I did see some good Aer Lingus fares (in retrospect, I realize they were great!) to Amsterdam but we were still working out dates with our German friends, so I didn't move on those tickets, and they've gone up considerably in the past two weeks. I ended up keeping the BA tickets. I thought about cancelling, mostly to extend the trip by a day or two, but we'll be gone almost three weeks (including the air travel days), and I think that will feel like the right amount for this trip. I haven't been back to Europe in 35 years, and our last two trips out of the U.S. have been to Costa Rica and Mexico, so the summer Europe airfares are just rather stunning! (even though I know the distance from the West Coast to Europe is further than to Latin America!).
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17944 posts
Airfares will always be lowest when the moon is in the Seventh House And Jupiter aligns with Mars ........ Otherwise I try and book early to get the flight I want and the seats I want. Every one has different values and tolerences but I am sort of picky. I want layovers that aren't so short that I have to run between flights and that allow flights to be a little late without risking making the next flight; but I don't want to sit in an airport for 5 hours either. Then I want economy plus seats on the crossing but don't much care on the shorter connections, then I wont fly through Chucky D or any of the US east coast airports except Reagan. With all that working against me I probably pay 5% more than average but I enjoy the trip.........but this requires that I book pretty early.
Posted by
2081 posts
Sierra,
If this is your first (only?) trip, then you dont have a lot of info to go by to compare if you're getting reamed or not. If someone happens to have traveled at the same time /season to the same location you maybe able to compare if your price is good or not.
Since you dont have a lot of time to sit on the wall to figure out what to do, i would just buy it and call it good. Buy once, cry once. Or look at it this way. Do you want to go or not?
If this isn't your only trip, then at least you will have an idea on what you paid and be able to compare it against your next trip and so forth. If this is your only trip, the just suck it up and buy once, cry once and enjoy your trip.
One thing that i learned on my first trip, and i bought my tickets 9+ months out, Was that decide how you want to spend your time & $$$. Do you want to save a few hundred bucks, but add 3+ hours and X many airport stops/transfers, or do you just want to get over there and have fun?
My first trip i decided to "save" 200 USD on my trip and that added 2 stops and 6 hours to my flight into Europe. Guess what, we have to spend at least 1300+ USD just to get over there and then our vacation starts. Just so you know, i use my Round Trip (R/T) from PDX to AMS as my comparison. Since I've done it several times, its been going up about approx. 50 bucks per year. Its the only direct Non Stop flights from PDX into Europe.
one thing you can do if you feel like it is that once you decide on buying your tickets, monitor the prices every week or day or so until you go. Input the prices in a spreadsheet along with the day. That way you can see how the prices change and if youre decide to do more trips, you will have more info as to if you should wait or buy sooner.
happy trails.