June Airfare's

Have you looked for flights the end of May? Sometimes the rates jump up at the beginning of high season.

We did Portland to Frankfurt early June last year for $545 R/T, then took some of the cheap inter-Euro airlines (search on whichbudget.com)for the rest of our flights. We also got cheap inter Euro flights on Lufthansa last June, and for our Christmass trip.

Check JFK to ANY hub in Europe (FRA,London, Munich, etc), and then use the discount Euro airlines for the balance of your trip.

We did not find the cheap flights until about three months before our departure.

Sign up for the auto-notice feature on some of the search engines (orbitz, farecompare.com, etc)We let Orbitz notify us when a few cheap seats came up, and then we jumped.

For flying to ITALY in June, I think the published price for airline tickets will not get much lower than $ 1000. (flying from JFK. includes all airport fees and taxes). Flying to Milan should cost less than flying to Venice. I do not recommend an overnight flight to an airport in an other country in Europe, and flying from there to Venice, because you would arrive at Venice airport in the afternoon.
When I fly to Europe, I want to arrive at the destination airport at an early time in the morning, and quickly go to a hotel or B & B, and sleep there for two hours. Rick Steves says stay awake all day until 10 P.M. But I think that is not necessary. People need to sleep a total of 8 hours in each 24 hours, to maintain normal health. When traveling in Europe I think good health should be the number one priority.

I would take the ticket now - or soon - as it will only get more busy as you get closer, unless you are very flexible with your dates and could do a standby style - take the under 1000$. But I agree Milan would be closer and easier to Train over to Venice. The big carriers like Swiss and Lufthansa have special deals right before the season (look in Feb or March for those - but lookout for hi fuel costs and euro prices!)

Re: sleep- I agree with Rick - stay up later so that you can avoid jet lag. Sleep/siesta on the plane if you can do that (i cant)... but thats what works for me. Saying everyone needs 8hr each 24 hrs is like saying everyone needs the same amount of food. Everyone is different (many may be similar)... but do what works for you. Health is important - and getting a full nites sleep within the first 32-48hrs is more healthy than 2 hour naps. Take Airebone tabs before and during the flight too to keep you defenses up! but these are just my opinions and it works for me.

For a point of reference: I just paid $1,550 for a NW flight non-stop SEA - Prugue R/T next Aug 15 but only bought this early so I could get a frequent flyer ticket to go along with the purchased one. NW gives out frequent flyer tickets to Europe in the summer at the rate of about one per plane.

I wish I had a crystal ball for June airfare, too. I'm going June 14 Portland to Paris and then June 29 Milan to Portland. I've found tickets for $1552 on NWA. I found cheaper on Air Canada, $1000, but that included an additional connecting flight. Going with my two teens, so this will be a healthy sum. Is an additional connecting flight worth saving 3 x $500? I'm also wondering if I should wait; however, I talked to customer service at NWA and she said the return flight was "starting to fill up", which makes me think I shouldn't wait too long. I'm new to NWA and flying to Europe, do the prices go down?

Flying into Milan won't save me anything .....I can fly JFK to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to Venice and Rome to Frankfurt...Frankfurt to JFK -- For around 1050

Hi Patrick,
I am going to Rome end of May from Florida and the prices are high,around $1440,but I decided to buy anyway because of the rising oil prices.Glad I did because the ticket price went up $550 for 2 people, so it's up to you if you want to take the chance.Good luck
Al

I'm also looking for plane fares to Italy but in mid-June. I'm flying from FL to Venice or Genoa and have only seen them in the 1300-1500 range. One place I checked told me that I was early and that they may come down, and that the best days to check were Wed and Fridays.

My friend and I had the same problem - flights to Italy are so expensive! So we are flying roundtrip in July to London Gatwick on Zoom Airlines (a smaller airline, I don't know where they fly from in the US), and then using easyJet to get to Rome from London, and from Venice to London. I think in total it is costing us under $1200 Canadian - much better than the $1800 open jaw flight we found with Air Canada!

Caitlyn, I am planning on using Zoom also, hubby used it this year, booked him in premium economy Vancouver to London, and it was still cheaper then AC.He also was quite impressed with Zoom, and since we have always used AC in the past we were a bit nervous.
AC open jaw to Rome and return from Paris is very expensive, and Zoom doesn't do Italy, so I am Zooming to Paris and catching a cheapo airline to Rome, much like your idea.

I am planning a trip in July , so I am watching fares closely, it is nerve wracking, LOL

try flying into Bublin on AerLingus... they have often cheaper reates with hops through Shannon or Dublin, then take other discount airlines to Rome or Milan etc.

Well I had to change dates to leave May 14 and Return May 23 .......... I am going Coach since the upgrade to business/1st class is crazy ...........So far the best price I have seen is JFK to Venice and Rome to JFK -- Non-Stop On Delta is 998 pp

I would HIGHLY recommend looking at www.wholesale-fares.com. I'm planning our trip to England next year and round trip for one person will be about $700. It might be worth checking out.

I guess I'm a gambler when it comes to tickets. I just read an article in the paper that gas prices are going up in the spring so I have already bought tickets to Paris in January, Sonoma in July, and Milan in October. I am afraid if I wait, the price will go up even further.

For Milan, I was able to get a business class ticket for a little over $1300 using cash and miles at Northwest. More miles than I wanted to use, but what else am I going to do with them. I may be sorry, but I usually buy my tickets quite in advance and have had pretty good luck with it.

For my flight May 14 return 23rd ......JFK to Venice there are about 81 economy seats left and Rome to JFK there are 92 economy seats left ...Flight hasan't moved off the 998 RT in weeks.Delta Airlines non-stop

Check on Flights in april same flights ...flight was same $$$ 998 pp ..............Check for early March and flights were 721 pp .........Looks like the longer you wait it out the lower it may go

Patrick...that may be more a sign of the season rather than distance out from booking. April's a more popular travel month than March