To book or not to book

Great thread:

I am too, sitting on waiting to see what airfare will do for June 2011. Flying from the East Coast Boston to Rome. I have seen it stay around 1300-1400 at this time.
I will be interested to watch this thread and see what others are getting.
Happy Travels

Trying to provide advice or forecast on a future fare is a dice roll at best. It "seems" a little high and I might be tempted to wait a couple months but your two qualifiers - preferred airline, non-stop - might greatly impact the price. Everyone says that fare will be higher next year.

We too are monitoring air fares for June 2011. I'm certainly no expert on air fares, but right now from the west coast to Rome it's $1454 per person. You'd think from Chicago it'd at least be a little cheaper. This will be our 3rd trip to Italy. We have always started in the south and flew out in the north, because of the heat.

that sounds pretty pricey for coach seats. when i was looking for our airfare this december, my open jaw itinerary was similar out of houston, and the tix were around $1000 a piece.

I know there is no exact science for this, it's basically a guessing game! A couple of weeks ago it was over $1500, so it did drop a little bit. Perhaps I'll continue to watch for another month to see. I'd like to have it booked before the end of the year, espcially since we are going during prime time. And we definitely prefer the nonstop flights. I'd rather pay an extra amount to avoid a layover!

Now, when is it too soon to book hotels...are there usually advanced rates offered?

This very question was just discussed. The very good travel agent that I worked with has suggested waiting until January for travel in May or June. But it is indeed a roll of the dice.

Don't think it's too early, we're already book for April. Remember B&B's are small, may only have 9 or so rooms so you really do have to book as soon as you have your town dates.

might i also suggest an apartment, rather than hotel. we've got one booked for this coming december, and over our 10-day stay, we are saving around 200 euro vs. one of the RS recommended mid-level hotels in rome. plus, the apartment comes with a full kitchen, and washing machine. somthing to consider. we booked one off of vrbo.com...

Just don't use Hotwire, less you want some discomfort and ticket agents that have no idea who you are. Never again...

What people report as a price they see and what they can actually book are two different things. The only real numbers apply to flights actually booked. The teaser fares are almost never open after you have followed them to the booking stage. The person that found that exceptional fair is the exceptional traveler that posted here to say that they got a deal: 1 in 500.

I would buy and lock in as early as possible at the best rate you can find now. For us an 8 hour layover and lots of transfers are acceptable if it saves us $500 dollars. That might not be acceptable to you. It depends on what your tolerance level is at airports. We pay the premium for on time service to the destination, but coming back we get the cheapest, and which is usually the most circuitous, pattern available since there are no reservations to be meet in coming home.

That seems kind of high and I think you should be able to wait a while before booking. In 2009 I booked our flight in mid-April of '09 for a July 6, 2009 flight flying open jaw from Minneapolis into Venice and out of Milan, total price includ. taxes, etc. was $965 on Delta. My husband and I recently returned from an impromptu trip to Italy booking our tickets 2 weeks prior to leaving--$1,235 per tkt. which is the most we have ever paid for flights to Italy or other parts of Europe over the past 7-8 years.

It is a guess. I would wait only beacause rates do seem high and they do not seem to be changing much. I agree with the post wait until end of January as hopefully airlines will feel the decrease of winter travel to europe

I think it's too early to book at such high rates. I really think they will start to put things on sale in a few months. It's still very early. In June 2009 I got airfare from NYC to Spain/home from Paris for $800 pp. That was exceptional, but I would think you should be able to get closer to the $1,000 mark.