Airfare for next summer

I did a quick search on IcelandAir for mid june of next year. They fly from Washington DC to Paris and it was currently about $1000 a person RT. I have never flown them, but there are certainly many people who have and you can look on this site or others to check their reviews and to see if this airline would match your family's requirements or not.

I notice there have been a number of threads about the prices for next summer, yet the prices from Toronto look pretty good right now.

For example, I see in June flights from Toronto to Dublin on Air Canada for $718CAD; and Toronto to Paris, home from Rome, in June on Air Transat for $741CAD. I prefer to go in September and they are sky high - might reconsider my preferred travel month!

I'm not sure why it is coming in cheaper -- usually we pay much more than you do down south of the border.

Those prices are totally typical for summer flights to Europe.

With consolidation within the airline industry, four airline alliances essentially control the supply and thus the price of all flights into and out of Europe from the U.S. They're getting very good a projecting what fares people will pay.

We usually travel in the Spring and Fall--and went for $728 3/28/2014 to Budapest.

When airfares go to a level we consider unreasonable, we're using Canada and Hawaii as backup destinations. We also cruise to the deep Caribbean when the prices really drop to low levels. We're leaving for an 8 day cruise for $279 in 3 weeks.

Come back to the market after the first of the year and watch for one day airfare sales. Hopefully high prices will result in low seat demand and the airline alliances will reconsider their 2015 pricing. Europe is not the only place to go in this world.

Supposedly if you look too far in advance, airfare prices are higher since the airlines is not feeling pressured to get rid of the seats. If you wait a few months, you may get lucky and get a sale.

That being said, I think that price is pretty standard for summer in France. You may be able to knock the price down a few hundred dollars if you play around with your departure/arrival cities. For example, for some reason prices always seem to be cheapest between O'hare and CDG compared to other destinations in Europe. So sometimes it is a huge cost savings to fly to Paris and take a budget airline or train to my final destination. But of course you have to balance the savings with the added travel time. Good luck to you!

No use griping about the airlines, they own the planes and know how to fly them. From their perspective, "Its about time you cheap (exp. del.) paid your own way! We've been loosing big money hauling your sorry (exp. del.) all over creation for the last 20 years. Pay back's a (exp. del.)!"
Flights from Canada are cheaper, even the exact same flights in reverse (Europe-USA-Europe) are cheaper, flights of the same distance from India are way cheaper. Americans have a giant target pasted to their foreheads and it says "The Money is HERE".
I checked out Carol's suggestion and I smell "Road Trip!" Not only will you save $700 to $800 per person, you'll get to check "Iceland" off on the bucket list.

Visiting Iceland or Turkey might save a little money when going to Europe. Those living in big cities in the East might also save going through Dublin.

Ashley,

i was doing some quick checks for my trip next year and noticed that the R/T from PDX to AMS have gone up 300 on the flight.

Greed overcomes all doubt and im sure many other things will go up in price but not our wages.

Happy trails.

Check out aer lingus (Ireland's airline). Just bought tickets for June $1300.

Hi Ashley, sounds like a wonderful trip! I'm watching airfares to France for next May and I think it's just too early. I'll begin more serious tracking soon but plan to wait until January/February to buy. I'm not expecting any great deals but hope to pay $1200-$1300.

RE: I know fares keep going up, but this seems outrageous.

For what its worth:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/airfares-remain-stable-despite-decline-in-airline-competition/ar-BB7OC5V

Antitrust advocates warned that the decline in competition would surely lead to higher fares. But so far, that hasn't happened.
In fact, the number of fare hikes imposed by airlines actually declined over the last three years.

But fares don't tell the whole story, says Diana Moss, vice president of the American Antitrust Institute.
She said airline mergers have allowed airlines to reduce service to small markets and raise passenger charges, such as checked bag fees. Airlines can also raise prices by offering fewer seats at the cheapest fares, she said.
In short, Moss said it's too early to tell how reduced competition will affect fares.

And you can add seats getting closer together and narrower as airlines try to maximize the number of cheap(er) economy class seats. Those of us whose ancestors immigrated to America and can't or don't want to afford business/first class seats are experiencing steerage travel.

Those numbers are the norm, especially for the summer. The past two summers we went to Berlin/ Zagreb (Luftansa) and Prague/ Zagreb (British Airways) and paid around $1500 each July. I already purchase my tickets for r/t Amsterdam for next July with Aer Lingus at what I consider a bargain at $1200. Those of us in the school system are stuck with summer travel and start looking early to try and get the best deals. we check a variety of websites, cheapoair, Travelocity, etc then usually book with the airline directly. good luck in your search.

I've paid about $1600 the last 3 summers (july) to fly from NC to Rome.

Just a note on the Icelandair idea. My wife and I flew Icelandair to Brussels and back from London last May. All went fine (with one qualification, below), and it was very cool seeing Iceland from the air. One great thing about this airline is that you can stop in Iceland for some short period of time (3 days? sorry, don't remember) and then continue on with no added airfare. Not only would it be great to see Iceland (we'll do that next time), but a stopover there would defuse jet lag, since you're roughly midway between the east coast and Europe.

As for the qualification, watch out if you're transferring planes. They booked us into Ronald Reagan airport and (4 hours later) out of Dulles, around rush hour. Had I not noticed this, we could have been sitting in traffic in DC while our flight to Europe took off. We took another carrier from Fort Lauderdale to Dulles, and just ate the cost of the Icelandair flight to Ronald Reagan (which we were able to cancel).

The price Ashley quoted on Air Canada for next June is several hundred dollars lower than what it cost me this past June (from Toronto, that is, since I don't know her departure city. ) In turn, prices on US airlines from the Midwest were more than $300 higher to Paris. That's ignoring the discount on the Canadian dollar, too. So if you have access to a US city AC serves, it's worth making comparisons.

Forecasting next year fares is like forecasting the stock market. There are so many factors that pricing both real and emotional that anything today is guessing at best. The price of fuel is a big factor and if the middle east gets worse and the price of oil hits new highs then fares could be higher. If a terrorist organization brings down an airplane than fear kicks in and no one wants to fly so that could bring the fares down in a hurry. The best you can do is to look at the historical pricing pattern for your flights and then start watching for next year and if the pattern is being repeated. That MIGHT give you a hint of when the low point could occur. It is a dice roll at best. Good luck.

Thank you everyone. I will keep checking a little later. Our dates are limited to summer because the grandchildren are in school. Perhaps the fares will drop a little. I certainly don't expect fares be be any better next year, so I guess we'll just have to accept whatever they are charging this year. Last year my husband & I flew to Paris on Open Skies in prem economy (their prem econ is closer to a business class seat) for about 1250- 1300. Even with to flight to Newark we paid less or no more than what I'm seeing for an econ seat this year and enjoyed far, far better conditions. That's why these fares were so shocking. But, no telling what Open Skies is charging this year.