Did we jump too soon on early summer airfares?

Sharon: Relax…what’s done is done, and you ended up with a decent fare. And, don’t let buyer’s remorse strike when you have such a great trip to look forward to. I’ve seen fares of about $1054 from ORD to MAD for the same timeframe, so $1024 from ATL is in line. Plus, I’m not so sure fares will drop for your itinerary that time of year. You sound like someone who might be concerned about protecting your investment…consider purchasing inexpensive travel insurance.

You cannot put a price on peace of mind. You now know you have tickets secured for a price you were willing to live with. At some point in all trips I make the decision to "stop shopping and start looking forward to" -- so I probably would have done the same as you.

Don't make yourself crazy -- don't even check on prices between now and your trip. Start focusing on other aspects of your trip.

Like... for example... laying out every detail of your Spain portion for me... we are going in early summer 2011. (Me, wife, three kids 10, 8, 7, and possibly wife's aunt....)

That would be an excellent price from my side of the country, and seems reasonable from yours, given that it is a) not off-season, b) they are predicting higher prices to Europe this year, and c) it is a non-stop.

I agree with the other poster. You've bought the tickets. Obviously at the time, you felt it was a reasonable price that you were willing to pay, which is really what it comes down to.

Move onto to the next (& fun!) stage of planning.

Amen, Jim & Liz!

Sit back and relax, Sharon, and don't even glance at the airfares any longer from here on out!

I have had the luck to catch some really bargain basement fares along the years, but I also paid good money for fares when I needed them for a particular time and occasion. Everything is relative in life, especially in the travel department.

Anybody's guess, but you probably could have waited and it would have gone down a couple hundred bucks.

Nice to go nonstop and nice to just have the tickets bought and be able to get some serious planning underway.

You can sign up for a refund alert on Yapta and request (credit/voucher) if the price goes down. Not sure if Delta plays or not, but I am guessing they do.

Could you have saved a couple hundred bucks? Yeah, probably - but just think of how much less tress you'll have without having to worry about airfares, and then waiting to get airfares to plan your trip!

Now you can just sit back, relax, and plan at your leisure. Well done! =)

Sharon,

Remember that your point of arrival and departure are two different cities, and for the dates of your trip and non-stop too, I would be satisfied with $1024. Flying from Calif. for that price to the continent is very good indeed. At best, you might have saved maybe $120-180; and it's hardly ever a sure fast thing anyway. Bottom line: don't beat yourself up over it.

I agree totally with the other postings that now you can really focus on planning the trip, now that the ticket price is behind you. Happy Travels

Thanks to all for your kind responses...I'm feeling good about the airfare purchase and we are well on our way to planning the trip!

We've sketched out an itinerary, took Michael's advice and signed up for Yapta (in the unlikely event that airfares go down enough that we might get a refund), secured a rental house with friends for 2 weeks in Provence, and reserved a hotel room for our last 3 nights in Paris!!

I appreciate your encouragement!!

Ok, for someone looking to still buy 2 tickets for almost the exact same time frame, when would you all recommend buying? I'm watching but we're really trying to budget as much as we can.... Leaving from PHL to probably Zurich if it's needed.

Corey....there's really no "good time" to buy. Sign up for fare alerts at various airlines that fly your route....check fare comparison sites like kayak.com, yapta.com, travelocity, expedia, etc, get a feel for what the prices are now, and sign up for their alerts. When you see something you like, grab it and move on. For example, Kayak is showing a fare of $785 US leaving 14 May, coming back 5 June....not a bad deal.

Sharon,

The fares you quoted seem to be fairly reasonable. As the others mentioned, it might be an idea to sign up now in case they increase.

I'm also looking at airfare for a departure in the spring, and the best I've found so far is Cdn$1400 - 1700 (inbound Rome, outbound Frankfurt). I'm on the airline E-mail list, so hopefully there will be sales in the next few weeks.

Cheers!

yeah, as someone who has been watching fares for a while now, that seems like a great deal. we're trying to fly out of Philly or NYC--ideally philly--and I've all but given up on open jaw flying because it is just SO insanely expensive. it is cheaper to fly from philly to paris, then immediately paris to florence, then florence back to paris, and then paris to philly--and even THAT is WAY more expensive than what you paid. feel good about it!!!!

Tracy, if you are planning on going before May 15 Delta has a sale on now from New York with restrictions of course. Will there be better sales down the road? Maybe, maybe not.

http://s.xp1.ru4.com/click?_o=5&_c=44944&_x=44946&_b=45250&_d=0&_g=5351&_a=63472&_p=44954&_s=0&_pm=0&_pn=0&_pl=0&redirect=http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations/deals_offers/fare_sales/new_york_flights/index.jsp