International Airfares Highest in a Decade

Buy those lottery tickets - at least the is the only way I am every going to get rich (and then fly First Class!)

Then there was an article (can't remember in which publication, there was a link under "News & Events") that said that several carriers are cutting flights in the fall, including Delta, Air France, and BA. Even my standby fares have gone up, but I'm still not complaining.

Since airlines are so dependent on fuel prices. Airfares are closely related to oil prices - which are due, at least in some part, to the value of the dollar. QE2 runs out of money in June, so the fed effort to keep interest rates (and thus the dollar) low should end - potentially sending the dollar up and oil prices down a little. The Arab spring also created a lot of uncertainty that pushed oil prices up. Supposedly oil supply and demand fundamentals are going to push oil prices much lower - probably not in time for summer fare sales but I still have my fingers crossed for later this year.

Thanks for the good news, Steve. And why does somebody from Bixby check Los Angeles to Paris flights, anyway?

I receive fare bulletins on a regular basis from one of the airlines, and routinely check others on various sites. I haven't been seeing too many reductions in fares from Canada to Europe. The prices were fairly steep when I booked my tickets a month or so ago, and to "add insult to injury", the airline tacked-on a fuel surcharge the day I booked. Given the increased fuel demands from emerging markets such as China and India and the limited supply (especially with the current uncertainty in the middle east), I suspect any air fare price reductions will be temporary. On a related note for those considering a driving holiday, there was a note in the paper this morning about the discrepancy in fuel prices in various cities. The prices in western Canada seem to vary between 1.179/liter in Calgary to 1.349 at many locations in the interior (some stations in the Vancouver area are as high as 1.399/liter - to put that in perspective, if my math is correct that's about $5.288 / US Gallon). Cheers!

That might be true generally but it certainly wasn't for me. I paid just over $1k a person for PDX-AMS-MAD BCN-AMS-PDX in April. That's less than I paid for PDX-AMS roundtrip a year before at the same time of year.

Good eye, Ed.

As Yogi Berra said, "It is Deja vu all over again." We are reverting to the 1950's when only the very wealthy could fly.

I purchased a $1600 rd trip fare SFO-Edi. The fuel surcharege alone was alomost $400 for June travel. If they keep these fares they have lost me as a customer. It is cheaper for me to go to Asia now.

Found going direct to Continental was less than all the cheep ticket sites. Also, I did not find this years tickets any more than last years. This is from Houston, the most expensive major city to fly out of.

Unlike Paul's reply...I unfortunately did find fares much higher this year than last. I fly out of LAX. I had been watching fares from LAX/Madrid and then return Athens/LAX for months for a late August/early Sept trip. It was constantly around $1400 to $1500 on all airlines I could find. I switched to a RT LAX - Madrid but still in the $1300 - $1400. I kept hoping for a drop. Finally, about two weeks ago, found a flight on American for $1275. That was as low as I had seen...although still higher than I hoped for ...but I bought it. Havent' checked since I bought to see if it dropped more, stayed same or back up. No matter what I figured I was just gonna have to suck it up on flight cost. NOT going was not an option for me! Will have to cut costs elsewhere.