Best time to book flights to Europe for June/July 2008

It is a dice roll. I personally would wait until Jan and maybe a little into February. But that is no assurance that the price will go down. The dollar is continuing to decline at a rapid rate. That makes the other end more expensive. The other risk is scheduling. To get a cheap ticket you may have to accept a poor schedule. $1400 seems a little high but you are flying at the absolute peak time when demand is the highest and have less need to discount. We did Denver/Rome and Zurich/Denver on a good schedule in late May and early June for $1000 and in Sept Denver/London/Denver for $900. I am GUESSING that something in the range of 1200 might be a good price. Good luck.

I'd say that's awfully high, especially for London. Wait until at least January - keep an eye on airline websites for fare sales - they should post Spring in a few months, then summer. Definitely sign up for fare alerts at farecompare.com - they'll e-mail you whenever your flight price decreases, but it's only about 6 months in advance, so I'd wait until at least Jan. to think about buying. When I flew to London in June a few years ago we got round trip from Omaha for $750 - which is a lot smaller than Seattle!!! A few of my favorites for low-fares are kayak.com and mobissimo.com - check these frequently, especially Tues/Wed. A.M.

Margaret,
I'm with Frank; I'd wait. I have seen tickets to London round trip for that time lower than they are right now, so I personally would wait and watch. Also, if you can swing the weight restrictions you might consider flying round trip to London and then a cheap airline to Munich. I would expect it to be down a couple hundred min. I have been watching with Kayak.com. The site checks the other sites. There are a few others, but I like that kayak checks all the standard (travelocity, orbits, ect.) Good luck. I paid $980 out of Portland this past summer.

Margaret,
Just to give you some perspective on price, I just used Kayak.com to mock up a price from mid-January from Seattle to Munic and mid-February from London-Seattle to see what a 'low' price would be for comparison, since these are becoming within the window of lower fares and during the off-season.
The cheapest prices with more than one layover during the trip were $683 through cheaptickets.com. The cheapest price with only one layover during the trip were $698 through orbitz (NW Airlines). The cheapest direct from an airline with 1 layover is $741 booked from United.
So this gives you an idea of how cheap that itinerary can be. But as mentioned, you're going during peak season, so the prices will likely be higher.
You may want to wait to see if they drop after the beginning of the year. Use other airline sales as your guide to when certain months start to come down. But if you're not a gambler, you could book early to try and lock it in.

I always cringe when giving advice on tickets but this is what I have found. Last year went Spokane to London and Paris to Spokane. In late August, the ticket was 1250 (NWA) and when it went up to 1387 in Sept, I bought. The price went up to as much as 1700 but never went below 1387 again. This year I have been watching RT to Dublin. I have miles with Alaska so used them to Chicago and then RT from Chicago was 842.00 (American) when I bought last week. This week it is 1003.00.In August, it was 700+ I prefer to get there quick so I go for shorter flights that sometimes cost more. I check kayak.com constantly and then try to book with the airline direct. From Spokane, I almost always have to go thru Seattle so I check both routes. If you know your dates, my advice is to book as early as possible. I think that because people don't check fares a year out, they don't realize how cheap they start out. You can't compare a flight price in Jan to one in July. Best of luck.

Twenty years ago I got RT ticket Chicago/London for $275. Probably as good an indicator as the Omaha ticket several years ago. Given the volatility of fuel prices and declining dollar, I am not sure that last year's prices are much of an indicator other than to indicate that you probably will not see fares that low for sometime to come. Also, remember that the cheap dollar has made traveling to US a cheap vacation for the Europeans and the airline don't care where the round trips starts. And the airline have continued to reduce their overseas capacity. So there are not a lot of empty seats floating around that need to be filled at discount prices.

Our recent flight to London from Denver on a Wednesday night in mid September appeared to be more than half full of returning Brits and there was not an empty seat on that plane. I was surprised. Cheap ticket may be a thing of the past for a while.

I strongly disagree that cheap tickets are a thing of the past - I've found amazing rates to London and Frankfurt recently from the midwest. I flew the same route 3 years ago and I paid $100 less this year than I did then. It's all a matter of knowing where to look and when to search. Fuel prices and the declining dollar do not have a huge impact on air travel - it's all about when you are flying and demand. Time and time again I have found that the cheapest ticket are released about 3-4 months prior to the flight and the best way to get a good deal is to check often, and by often I mean almost daily.

Fuel prices and the declining dollar do not have a huge impact on air travel ---

There are several writers for the WSJ that need to know you source of information on that subject. Remember we are discussing a discount ticket for mid June to mid July. We are not discussing travel in March or January or other severe off times.

I am well aware that we are talking about a ticket for high-season and I have also found very reasonable fares for those flights in the past. Not twenty years past - one year past. And while fuel does affect air travel to an extent, it is still very possible to find good deals. I have not noticed a big difference in fares over the last 2-3 years. I fly abroad frequently and while I'm sure our experiences vary, I have never paid more than $800 to anywhere in Europe in the high season.

Not sure what midwest airport you fly out of but a June/July ticket from Chicago to Frankfurt is 879 right now. But from Seattle, where Margaret is flying from, it is 1166. There is still a big difference in prices from the west coast no matter what time of year you fly. I would love to pay 800 but for the last three years, I was never able to get a ticket for under 1200.00 in the summer. I agree with you that you need to check on a regular basis - I use Kayak - sometimes they drop for no reason but it is usually only for a day or two.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Yes, it does make a huge difference in cost if travelling from the midwest as opposed to the west coast. $1200 was around the price I was expecting thus my surprise when I found it was 1460-1490 depending on the actual day of travel. I do prefer to travel BA or SK so we can stick with the one connection in either London or Copenhagen and avoid connections state side, which may also limit my shopping around a little. Still though, I'm kind of leaning toward holding off until the New Year at this point but I will continue to check fares every couple of days or so. Thanks for the heads up on the various websites too, I checked Kayak and Mobissimo last night. Thanks again. Margaret

I think it safe to wait and 1200 could be a reasonable mark -- We flew this summer Denver/Phil/Rome and Zurich/Phil/Denver for just under a $1000. This past September Denver to London and back in the middle of week was $980. This past Spring farewatch keep flashing $800 fares but every time we logged on the fare was gone. Since we are both in education and have to travel during summer, we are very familar with summer fares and they are seldom cheap,