Cost of airfare from US to Madrid

There are some right now in the $850 - $860 range. Take a look at www.kayak.com every now and then. IMO hold off until mid-Sept.

I'm not going to offer an opinion on the price, but tell you this -- airlines have invested literally tens of millions of dollars in software that maximizes their revenue. It prices seats based on every factor they can think of -- season, day of week, how many people are searching for trips on that route, historical trends, etc. There may be long term trends in prices (eg. hold prices high a few months in advance to get those that want to "lock in" a fare, lower it a few months out if sales have been sluggish, and then raise it as the flight draws near) but to proffer opinions means believing you can outguess what the software is going to decide based on all the factors it looks at.

In a brief paper describing the process they write "International airlines have to manage between 500 000 and one million single prices, when all special fares on all city-pair connections are calculated in. Lufthansa for example reports up to 25 000 price adjustments per day..."

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4343529&userType=inst

What you're asking is who is willing to out-guess the what the computers will decide over the next few weeks (or months). You will get opinions. And unfortunately sometimes they turn out to be wrong and following them quite costly, as has been discussed in this forum in the past few weeks.

These days anything under $1,000 is pretty good from the west coast. I would go for it.

Look around a little more...looks like there are fares available for $827 total RT.

I don't have the travelling chops many on this site have, but we flew from Boston to Barcelona in May and paid just about $860 per ticket, RT. We bought the tickets a good six months in advance. $950 from the West coast sounds resonable, based on my one example. My only suggestion is, find a price you're comfortable with, secure the tickets and don't look back. If you get the tickets and find a cheaper price later on, it might sour the trip a little. Trust that when you board the plane, for sure, some passengers will have paid less than you, but some definitley will have paid more. Enjoy.

I'm not sure if you're still looking or not, but I just did a spot check and Delta has flights in mid-November starting at about $815 (Seattle to Madrid). Delta and Orbitz both have tools where you can search 3 days before and after your "target" dates, which is nice for planning. I also always fly Monday to Thursday, because you tend to see better rates. I've flown into Barcelona twice and Malaga once (both from the midwest) and I've never paid more than $700 RT.

P.S. Rumor has it airfare prices are about to go down again, but that's just a rumor, so I don't know how much faith you want to put in that.

I know this isn’t a contest, but how about $510 total RT ORD to MAD last mid-November…that was pretty sweet. Fares will not be that low this year…airlines have really tightened capacity to keep fares higher. The best fares I’ve seen to the places I’m considering for fall/winter are roughly $200 more per ticket than last year. You may be able to do a little better than $815 by waiting a bit, but I wouldn’t wait too long…nobody really knows for sure.

I agree the fares are ugly but if it is the schedule, routing and all you want buy it. if not wait till the fares adjust alittle downward. hopefully you have some flexibility on your traveling days. remeber tuesday is general a lower fare day to fly.

When an airline thinks they are about to send a flight someplace they offer better deals to fill the seats quickly. I'd say grab your tickets early else run the risk of missing your ideal timeframe.

you could prolly shave some off the fare you're seeing... maybe upper 850-900$

jen---when people mention the great fares they got, be sure they are talking about Seattle. It's a different market up here.

Looking at Kayak for flights in mid-November, the only ones I see under $900 are either 23-hour flights (no way I'd recommend that), or 12- to 14-hour flights that depart here early morning and arrive in Madrid early morning. Those are both bad routings, in my opinion.

An early morning departure here has you flying all day (by your natural clock), when it is unnatural for you to be asleep. (You'd also have to get up very early to be at the airport in time for a 7 am flight). And then you arrive in Spain in the early morning, tired and sleep-deprived, too early to check in to your hotel. You have to stash your bags somewhere and walk around, or get some breakfast, or something until you can get into tyour room.

We much prefer flights that leave here in early evening and arrive there mid- to late afternoon. That works well for sleeping on the plane and helping to get over jet lag most quickly.

If that $950 gets you a one-stop flight at a reasonable time (departing mid-afternoon or later, and arrivng 12 to 14 hours later)---I'd say it's a great price.

I just bought a ticket from SEA to Spain in mid October. I needed to be in Andalucia but I looked at Madrid and didn't see any reasonable flights for less than $1000, and I was flexible about when I traveled. Now, by reasonable I mean, one stop, and preferably with a change in Europe. I'm not going to turn what should be a 13-14 trip into a 27 hour trip to save $100. Interestingly it ended up being cheapest to fly into Malaga, which is the airport that is closest to my destination anyway. I thought Madrid would be cheapest but it wasn't. Anyway, I paid $918 on Air France--I'm on that very nice nonstop SEA-CDG, then have a 2 hour layover at CDG before flying to Malaga.

I would check the Air France site directly if you haven't. They (nicely) allow you to see fares a week or so before and after your trip. That's certainly the fastest way to Madrid. I saw decent fares on Delta, going SEA-JFK-MAD or Malaga, but a) flying through JFK sucks and makes the trip longer than if you change in Europe and b) there were long layovers at JFK. Oh! And the flights were on 737s and 757s. No thanks!

But, prices could fall for November. I think there's a difference between Oct and Nov--in many European cities, such as Paris, Madrid, etc, October is high season. November is not. So, it's taking a chance either way. I'm more of a "just buy the ticket and even if it falls a bit, I didn't have to worry about it" kind of person.

Unlike Lola I do not like flights that leave SEA in the evening. I can't sleep on planes and so have a miserable flight if it's through my night. I'd rather be awake and alert on the plane, then just stay active on my first day. So that is personal preference and something to think about.

Christy---that Air France flight leaves at 1:45 pm and that sounds fine, even for me. I was warning Jen off flights that leave here at 7 am---that would make for a very long day!

But the Air France flight looks great---you change planes in Paris in the morning and arrive at your destination at a reasonable hour. I'll be curious to hear how you like it, as we may fly Air France the next time we go to Venice (we usually fly BA but they make you change airports, from Heathrow to Gatwick, to get to Venice.)

The price looks good too.

Hmmmm...never heard of an Air Canada 777 with 2-3-2 seating....the loss in revenue would be too great for them to operate the aircraft. Must be 3-3-3. In any event, with this 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 seating, I try to avoid 777s altogether. Air France's should all now be 3-4-3 seating, with VERY narrow aisles. United have some configured in a 2-5-2 pattern....good if you in the 2's...bad if you're stuck in the 5's.

Lola, I've flown the nonstop AF and it's great.* They use a new Airbus (I think it's called the 330-200) which is nice. They even have a designated place to stand, and they leave the drink cart out there so you can help yourself. And good tv/movies in all the headrests of course. Last time we had a tailwind and got to Paris in 8.5 hours. From Seattle!! Of course we were parked remotely and it took another 45 minutes to get into the airport...

*As great as a coach transatlantic flight can be these days, anyway. I don't want to get anyone TOO excited.

Hi Jen,

I would sign up for the free service www.airfarewatchdog.com. It will give you unpublished airline prices.
Angela

Thank you everyone. I think we've found a reasonable combination with American through Chicago on the way there (which will allow us to have lunch with the in-laws :)) and on the way back an afternoon flight via JFK. I'm not wild about JFK, but it is one of the few flights that departs Madrid in the afternoon, rather than bright and early in the morning. I'd rather dawdle a little. Airfares seem to have come down a little, so I think I'm going to play it safe and purchase. Thanks again for all the tips/advice.