Timing of Airfare to Europe

I think it doesn't hurt to start looking early. I am always worried about waiting too long and paying more and getting a less desirable itinerary. I usually buy on the early side and have never regretted it. I have never seen my flights go down in price. If you were traveling in the Spring or later in the Fall or Winter I would wait, because airlines sometimes have good sales shortly before those seasons. For anywhere between April/May - November I have not noticed those kind of sales. I just purchased my tickets for Sacramento-Barcelona/Paris-Sacramento traveling in Sept./Oct. I have been looking at the prices and itinerary's and when I found one that worked I jumped at it. Barcelona seemed to be a little tricky for me with the itinerary. Paris and Amsterdam are a little easier, especially since you have LAX as your airport. Can you use the Kayak alert for open-jaw flights?

"Can you use the Kayak alert for open-jaw flights?" No, just RT, although I'd love to hear if someone knows a way to do it.

Michael, that's what I thought. When I was looking on Kayak I saw that you could search multi-city itineraries, but I didn't see how to set up an alert that way. I use Kayak to get an idea about how much the flights are, but I always book on the airline website. Gwen, you are lucky to have more airlines to choose from flying out of/into LAX.

"Can you use the Kayak alert for open-jaw flights?" I also wish that there was a way to do this. However, what I usually do is set up an alert on a R/T for each end (e.g. in Gwen's case, an alert on a R/T to Paris and an alert on a R/T to Amsterdam). If either fare drops, I go back and check the open jaws. This sometimes helps to find out when fares drop.

I think it's always good to start early. I'll watch prices for awhile, set up email alerts from some websites, then purchase when I'm comfortable I'm getting a decent price. If I see a sale that is definitely cheaper than the prices I've been watching I'll jump on it. Usually there is an end of summer sale in late August/early September, but that gets pretty close to your travel date and I'm not sure it's worth waiting for an unknown.

I've already bought my tickets for September. I've been thinking of going to Croatia long enough that I knew what a good airfare was for the flights I wanted (one stop max), and I am positive I won't see fares drop below what I paid. If you see airfares you know are decent, why not buy? I don't think it's worth the hassle if you may only potentially save $100. But if fares seem really high, I'd wait.

The airlines have invested literally millions of dollars in software to extract every possible penny they can from ticket sales. If you think that someone out here knows the time when prices will be lowest maybe they're right, but I think you're taking a substantial risk.