Flight costs

Sounds very expensive to me - but I don't know what your market is for flights to Europe. The less competition, the higher the prices. Isn't Charlotte an AA hub?

I would never book a flight this early anyway unless I were getting a great deal - which this almost surely is not. Prices may not go down much but I suspect they won't go up either in the next few months.

Sometimes you can fly to another European city much more cheaply and then take your own flight (e.g. easyJet) to the final destination. Sometimes it is only a little cheaper and not worth the hassle, but sometimes it can be a whole lot cheaper.

If you want to save money, consider frequent flyer credit cards - just for the bonuses. I've used Alaska Airlines awards to go to Europe several years in a row. (Using their airline partners like AA - Alaska itself doesn't fly to Europe.) See the recent thread about the "bandwagon" for frequent flyer miles. Maybe it's not for you if you don't have good credit or something - and it's probably too late to get enough miles for May 2018 anyway. But for a future trip, consider it.

That sounds a bit high but I can’t be sure because I don’t fly from CLT. I have found very good fares by booking this early, but that requires knowing what a good rate is and jumping on it. I’d watch for awhile to see if it drops. It might not - maybe someone else from Charlotte can jump in and say what’s normal.

That price sounds about right from where I sit in Nebraska. I paid $1200-1400 for my 3 trips to Europe in 2012, 2015 & 2017. I booked my flights 4 months, 6 months and 9 months out and the prices stayed about the same up until the week of flight. The only thing that changed significantly (for the worse) were the seat choices. Personally, I’d be nervous to wait to book less than 5-6 months out, based on my experiences and those of my friends. But I also need a window seat and enjoy comfort economy on the long flights.
Lisa

You are still early. The current wisdom is that on average you'll get the best fares about 60 days out. Of course, averages are made from lows and highs unfortunately. I'd look on Google Flights for your best two options, create an email alert for each, and wait.

I'd be watching the fare (daily if possible) and setting up a price alert on your preferred website. I use Google Flights. For the open-jaw option you'll need to select both flights to see the "Track" option.

Last year there were several rounds of steep fare cuts in the fall that benefited people living in at least some parts of the US. I don't know whether Charlotte was one of those areas, and I don't really expect such great deals this year. But fares do tend to go up and down, and there's a good chance you will encounter a dip at some point. If you could manage to get to Atlanta or RDU, it might pay to check those origins as well.

I would not plan to buy a specific number of days before your departure. The airlines' fare-setting algorithms do not read those articles!

Wisdom from where? I would never never wait until 60 days out to book flights. The worst time to buy tickets is when it is too late.

erectoch3, consider flying to Dublin, Ireland and booking separate flights.

I just found these fares for random dates in May:

AA direct CLT-DUB $850
Aer Lingus direct DUB - FCO / MXP - DUB $218

You could sit at the Dublin airport for half a day inbound between flights and maybe spend a night in Dublin on the way home - assuming you get a cheap hotel, you could probably save about $300. Of course if you wanted to stop in Dublin for a few days at the end instead, that would make it more worthwhile... Some people might do this to save $300, others would never dream of it, I know...

"Wisdom from where? I would never never wait until 60 days out to book flights. The worst time to buy tickets is when it is too late." I agree with vandrabrud. I typically buy airline tickets 6-8 months out unless a deal appears. Full disclosure: I reside in a market that is only sometimes known every four years.

The responses show that we all have different preferences for when to buy airline tickets, not that there is one way that is better than another. My preference is to wait, at least if I am buying non-refundable tickets. (With award tickets, you usually need to book far in advance, but with some airlines you can still cancel them or change them for little or no fee closer to departure.)

If I had bought tickets a year ago on Delta to fly to Europe for 2017, I would have been disappointed a few weeks later when they had a massive sale and fares dropped by several hundred dollars or more on round trip fares US to Europe. But, that may not happen this year, and it may not affect Charlotte (not a Delta hub). I suppose fares could go up between now and next May, too. Who knows? It's really a gamble, but I believe it's not a big risk that prices will go up a lot for May before the new year.

erectoch3, this won't help, but you can't tell when a big sale will pop up and fares will drop dramatically. Last year, for a couple of weeks around Thanksgiving, you could book tickets from the midwest to almost any city in western Europe directly from Delta for $500-600 R/T. A week later, those fares were gone and back up to $1400-1600. Then another sale in January - we booked R/T to London for $800. A week later it was back up. Totally unpredictable.

I just used Skyscanner.com, and pulled up an open-jaw AerLingus itinerary for just under $1000 (with random dates in May).

You could also consider booking a domestic flight to a bigger international hub (say JFK), and then booking international from there. With a CLT to JFK rountrip (~$150 via skyScanner) and a JFK-FCO, MXP-JFK open jaw (technically two one-ways) with Norwegian ($450 via Norwegian.com), that brings the total cost to as low as $600, depending on your dates. You'd have to factor in some extra time near JFK to make sure you didn't miss the international flight, but that's still pretty significant savings.

Those sales and fare drops were mostly in markets that are competing directly with WOW, Norwegian, Icelandic. The rest of the country stayed well above $1,000. There have already been sales announced this year, but again only in the competitive markets and through April. For example, I'm flying rt NY/Paris on Icelandic for $420 in March/April. Air France has dropped their prices to compete with Icelandic. From my home airport, it would be on Delta for $1,400. I'm using Southwest to get to and from NY. This is an example of what KKee10 was suggesting.

You can use fare alerts or sign up for AA's frequent flyer mailing list to get first notification of sales. Finally, most of us would urge you to buy your tickets directly from the airline to avoid complications with a third-party vendor. When something goes wrong the airline and the vendor pass the buck back and forth.

I'm in the - do not wait until 60 days out to book - camp. For me if I think the price seems like a fair price - I book my flight. If I think it's not and I should keep looking - I will and hope that I don't regret it. If the flights seems too expensive maybe I need to pick a different destination. Once I buy my flights I don't look back - (unless I'm flying Alaska Airlines that has a price guarantee but than it's not always worth the reduction). I'm getting pickier the more I travel - price has become somewhat less of a factor as I prefer better flight times and some times those are just more darn expensive. Good hunting! Donna

I don't know your CLT market, but I can fly for less than $900 from San Francisco Bay Area to Italy even if I decide to leave tomorrow, and that's because it's a bit too late to catch a flight to Italy today.

Similar or even lower prices are available in May.
To tell you the truth I think I spent over $1400 from SFO to Italy only once or twice when prices were really high at the height of fuel prices years ago. But I don't think I've ever spent over $1500 even then.

Have you looked into flying from another airport? It looks like there isn't much competition at CLT, so they charge high prices.

Maybe you can go to that airport with a cheap Southwest or other low cost flight (I don't know what you have in your area). Where are you located?

CLT is Charlotte, NC. Not too bad a drive to Atlanta, but folks have said Atlanta is not a good market for buyers since Delta has it pretty much locked down. Could also drive to RDU (Raleigh-Durham), but that's a small market and likely not to produce bargains under most circumstances.

I don't think there's a substitute for watching the fares and hoping to see a dip of $100 or so, unless you want to patch together separate flights. The latter approach is not without risk.

Edited to add: I checked random dates in May and found a $978 RT on Jet Blue/Aer Lingus from RDU. You'd have two stops in each direction--one in Dublin and the other in either Boston or NYC. Total travel time about 16 hours in each direction. Nothing good popped up for Atlanta.

If you're willing to fly into Milan and hop on a train, Aer Lingus/American have an itinerary under $1000 from CLT. Again, two stops in each direction. 14-1/2 hours.

There are also some under-$1000 possibilities for Atlanta-Milan, some with only one stop in at least one direction.

The train from the Milan airport to Rome takes 4 to 4-1/2 hours (mostly on a fast Freccia) and requires one change. The tricky part would be figuring out how many hours to allow between scheduled flight arrival time and train departure time if you weren't willing to buy the ticket upon arrival and pay the full walk-up fare (with I guess some risk that the first train might be sold out).

I've never tried to make a flight-to-train connection on arrival day. For me, it's better to pay somewhat more money and fly into the international airport that's closest to the first city I plan to visit.

Last year we paid 1500 for two from San Francisco to Venice r/t on AA,we flew in June. This year we are again going to fly to Venice next June. Didn’t get as good a deal this time. Flying from San Francisco to Paris on United going and returning on Air Canada. Price was 1770 rt for two. Bought those in late September. Now looking at flights to Venice from Paris at around 400 for two. I use Hopper to scan prices. Works well.

I started planning earlier this year for a trip from CVG to FLR leaving Feb and returning March 2018. Delta/Air France flights were $1,400. I heard I should check Delta website every day for better fares. I did this for over a month and one day a $950 fare appeared. I booked it in July. A day later the fare was back to $1,400.

With all that time and if you are a hub airport, why not get a credit card from the airlines? We have used American Airlines Barclay card and citicard. We have gotten several free flights out of PHL and into FCO then out of VCE back home to PHL. Our flights have always been great, on time, direct and non stop. The flight from Venice leaves at 11:45 am so it gives us plenty of time to get to airport ( some of the American bound flights leave very early from this airport). With all the new card bonuses, etc, maybe you can rack up enough miles for a free flight! Or use this for the next visit! Good luck

To add to what Marie wrote, my wife and I each got the Citibank and the Barclays American Airlines credit cards and received enough points from the sign on bonuses to get three free tickets to Italy from Philadelphia. Although we couldn't combine the sign on bonuses into one account, American lets you purchase one way tickets with points. I bought three tickets from Philadelphia to Venice using my sign on bonuses my wife purchased our return fights from Rome back to Philadelphia using her sign on bonuses.

I live in Orlando and am flying Southwest to Newark during spring break for $87 one way and then from NYC to Rome on Norwegian (awesome new 787's!) in their premium seats for $550 (48" legroom!) My kids are flying in coach for $309. I absolutely love Norwegian and can't recommend them more highly!

Keep checking this site -- people post when they see good deals to Europe, and you can jump on one that works for you.

The 60 day wisdom I cited which incited some fellow travellers is here: http://fortune.com/2017/04/06/best-time-to-buy-plane-tickets-domestic/ (it's obvious that your experience may differ). I also have been tracking our preferred annual Italy flights for a few years. Recently, I used Google Flight to track our desired April 2017 flight from Boston to Nice from November 2016 to the departure date, and there were several low points - the last was almost exactly 60 days from departure.
An additional point. When searching, remember that choosing different days can produce big price differences on the same airline. The prices are determined largely by demand models and a specific event may have spiked specific flights.

Yes, I saw that study in the Times Travel Section, but I had remembered 55 days. However, it’s a statistical study off 921 airfares averages on different itineraries, not one individual itinerary. So, she is better off keeping her eyes open from the get go and not waiting around. Whatever was found previously is now skewed by the those who wait to buy until day 54, even if that day had indeed been a magic number in one study.

I'm firmly in the do not wait camp. I might be buying tickets for July/August in December or January, as soon as some work dates are finalized and I can be sure I will have the time off. I've watched the fare and know what I'm ok paying. Yes, there may be a sale. But there may not. I've not found any pattern except very late (like a month) is very expensive, as is very early (like a year). One year I got the cheapest rates at 9 months. Another time I had already bought mine at 6 months and they dropped by $100 at 5 months out. Yet another time it was cheap at 8 months but rose by the time I bought at 5 months. It's impossible, so just watch to see what is normal and buy when it seems ok. I would never buy less than 3 months out if I knew I was going before that.

The thing is that on airlines that allow you to pick seats for free at booking (which is the ones I usually fly) you get much better seats by booking early. 8 months may be overkill, but at 60 days seats are often...less than ideal. Getting the 2-seat rows instead of the middle, is well worth it. At the very front, of course. I've seen last minute sales with only single seats in the middle of a 5-person rows available. No thank you.

Thank you all so much for your advise and suggestions!! I'm going to keep looking for a little while and see what comes up and will definitely look into other cities to depart from. I also like the idea of booking through the airline and cutting out the middle-man in case something does happen. Thank you again!

I didn't really start handicapping airfares until our third trip to Italy, which took place early this year. Through info on this forum and other places, I decided the first place to start was internally, as in what I was willing to endure. So I came up with these caveats: same airline on each leg (less chance of lost luggage), only one connection each way, layovers of no more than 3 hours (but not less than 1 hour), and arrival at final European destination around noon if possible. On the return-- leaving late morning, arrival back in Chicago early evening.

Next step was to find a couple primo itineraries, done using filters on Google & Kayak. Put a watch on both of them, and waited. I should say that I started this in early October last year for a late February flight--Chicago/Rome, Naples/Chicago, and I knew that time of year there were no nonstops. Zeroed in on a Lufthansa itinerary of Chicago/Frankfurt/Rome, Naples/Munich/Chicago--at first it was $1350 R/T, but a history check showed the price trend was headed downward. I waited 5 weeks, into mid-November, and fired in on a $929 R/T, which was, in this instance, 105 days out. And I booked on the Lufthansa website itself.

Believe it or not, I was too early. Other posters here have remarked about some phenomenal sales last fall, and this itinerary dropped all the way to $790 within a week of my booking, but only for hours and quickly rebounded to the $950 range. I still was pretty happy overall.

One more thing. Because I had saved us over $800 in waiting to book, I didn't feel bad about, on the 10-hour Munich/Chicago leg of the return flight, upgrading to 'Economy Plus', which gives the passenger an extra foot of room behind the next row of seats. Cost $400 for two, but was well worth it.

Looks like CLT has limited choices so the airline pricing reflects the supply/demand situation.

The shorter the time between purchase and flight, the smaller the selection of seats.

For me 60 days for international travel is outside my comfort zone. Depending on where and when one is flying, it might work, but if I had to bet, it would be that '60 days is best' is true in only a small percentage of situations

highly competitive markets (JFK/EWR, BOS, IAD, SFO/OAK, LAX and maybe ORD and PHL) that most of the US never sees.

The discount Coach airfares for New Yorkers have been astonishing lately. My inbox is full of offers. Major airlines like United, American, and Delta have all been offering non-stops to Italy for under $500 round-trip. One was $434. I haven't seen fares this low since post 9/11. Some of these prices were good for travel until June 2018. Amazing. The key is to catch these sales as soon as they're offered. Some don't last more than six hours.

I think that’s way too high. I just bought a June 2018 open jaw bos-venice and Florence to bos for $667 on swiss.

TAP had even lower fares but I wanted United PQMs

Get the hopper app. It’s pretty at forecasting fares.

We are flying in July 2018 from BOS to Rome with a 1 hour stop in Lisbon. We are using TAP Portugal. We found it to be cheaper than Expedia, Travelocity, or Kayak. We are only paying $987 RT PP. Also we were able to pick our seats right away and also to order the meals.

Guys, there's really no comparison between fares out of Boston (or NYC or usually even Washington DC) and fares out of Charlotte. If the OP waits to find a Boston-level fare, he/she will probably not be going to Europe.

Seems like your options are limited....I would check the flights out of Atlanta. It is a 41/2 hour drive. I bet you can save some money that way. I lived in Nebraska and it was better for me to Drive to Denver to get a flight with reasonable rates. I am guessing that Atlanta might be better than Denver. I am going to Italy NOV. 16th (Rome/Florence) then taking a shuttle flight to Paris and flying home all for about $630. I actually missed the bottom of the market....it went about 50/ticket cheaper. I would watch it but buy about 60-90 days before you travel.
Vaughn

Maybe I'm jumping the gun on this trip...I'm wondering if I should wait then. I reeeeeeeeally don't want to do a long flight with a bunch of layovers. This is my first trip overseas, I'm going to be alone for several days before my tour starts and I'm 55. I'm too old to deal with a bunch of travel BS. I want non-stop both ways or if there's a layover, then no more than 2-2.5 hours. DO cheap flights like that exist?

The only non-stop I can find is CLT-FCO on AA

CLT -MXP requires at least one stop

Picking random dates in May i found CLT-FCO ( non stop) , MXP-CLT ( 1 stop) for around $1350 RT coach.

CLT-MXP RT was no cheaper and had at least one stop each way.

Is it worth $300-$400 to save yourself the aggravation and time of multiple connections? Only you can answer that question. ( Just one less trip per week to the coffee vendor covers the cost)

Good luck

Reading more closely your feelings about this: non-stop flight, no long layovers if you have to have 2 flights, and to avoid complications if you or your suitcase miss a connecting flight, I suggest you bite the bullet but never look back. You said you’re an obsessive planner and you want to get going. So, The key is to never look at price again, and don’t pay attention to people who live in cheap markets, or people like me who can risk flying off to a cheap market for a connecting flight only because my children live there and they’ll put me up.

Flying to Istanbul is eight extra hours in the air plus layover time. An adventure for some, to be avoided by others. It seems going through this thread that you are becoming more aware of what you do and don’t want, how much risk and inconvenience you are willing to fiddle around with. So now maybe you are ready to move forward between now and sometime in January, after checking price on your route daily. Be sure to clear the cookies after checking. Happy travels.

I'm in Charlotte and flew to Germany this year for my 1st Europe trip. I'm considering London next year and for sure Italy in 2019. I've been watching fares for both countries from Charlotte for awhile now just to get some idea of what to expect. We are limited because of being an AA hub. In order to fly direct to Germany I had to fly into Frankfurt and take the train to my destination city. Coming back, I flew thru Boston with a layover in London but I stayed a few days in Boston after. I've found Philadelphia to be high as well so stick with NY area and Boston only.

Flights are pretty inexpensive for us (less than $200 to NY and sometimes even Boston) to get to NY area airports and Boston so I would look at getting flights to Italy from either of those 2 areas. You should be able to find something direct that won't cost an arm & a leg.

Seasonal flights may be another factor in the current Charlotte prices. Last Jan. 24, my son booked LA-Rome / Venice-LA and the lowest price ( low $700 range) included a direct Charlotte-Rome. The AA flight out of Venice was seasonal and didn't show up when he first started looking a few weeks earlier.

We just got back from a 2 week trip to Italy on Sat. ( a party of 4) We booked the tickets in early May(Google flights) after seeing a great price on Scott's Cheap flights. We live in Atlanta but the flight was out of Miami. So we used frequent flyer miles for the Miami part. Roundtrip to Rome was $374.00 per person. Yes, it was a bit more of a hassle but when we figured how much money we saved it was worth it. However, it sounds like you are not interested in any layovers---maybe the higher priced fare is your best bet.

I found the flights I wanted for Aug/Sept . I did not pull the trigger now that same flight went from $3054 (cdn) to $5300 (cdn) in the blink of an eye. I knew better and should not have hesitated...now I'll wait to see if it drops back - ugh!

Scott's just showed flights through May 2018 below $500 including from CLT. British, American, Iberian, Finnish airlines.

I've been monitoring mid-March prices into Paris and out of Milan (from Washington DC) for a couple of friends, and I see a decrease of about $200 in the cost of some itineraries. Not on the non-stop to Paris, unfortunately. Still, it's good to see something happening.

I'm also a big fan of Scott's Cheap Flights. His website is free, but I pay a nominal fee for an email subscription.

Although the SF Bay Area market is very competitive and prices generally good, however there are no non stop flights to Italy, except for the recently started Norwegian flight from Oakland to Rome. I’m therefore very used to one layover flights and personally I don’t find those to be too bad. If you have the possibility of flying across the Ocean from a more competitive market, like NYC, you should consider it over a much more expensive non stop from Charlotte.

"you bite the bullet but never look back." Best advise here. We buy the airline first, as early as possible. Then the Hotel. In the 10 or so trips we have booked flights to Europe, earlier always seems to work out better and we usually can get to pick the exit seats with more leg room. The price can go down slightly later, but it can also go up substantially or lock you out of that flight as an option, which to us, messes up the whole itinerary. I don't think there is a rule here of a sweet spot in price timing.