Sales for June flights?

Since we live in the Denver area and make that run frequently, let me answer your question more directly based on our experience. Since we were tied to the local school district that is the time period that we normal fly out of Denver over the past years -- last week of May to mid June. We have never paid less than 900 and most were in the 1000 to 1200 range every year. The two direct flights (London and Frankfurt) are very popular, are full, so there will be no or maybe min discounting of those flights. We have also connected through Chicago for slightly better pricing. And once through Phila with USAir - never again. The other issue with waiting beside price changes is seat selection. I would rather pay an extra hundred and get two seats on the side rather than being stuck in the middle for eight to ten hours.

Meghan - be warned that BA has now started charging significant $ for advanced seat assignments. So if you fly BA be prepared to pay a lot more for seats. If you are willing to chance it, I believe you get to choose your seats starting 24 hours before departure.

Hi Meghan, I live in WA State and we are lucky to have BA direct from Seattle to Heathrow, just like Denver. I recently booked on BA an open jaw in May/June from Seattle to Heathrow, with a return that goes Paris/Heathrow/Seattle. I got it for about 1250 bucks, about 50 dollars more than any US airline company, which would have required me to layover on the east coast coming and going, unacceptable for the close price difference. Playing with dates/places on British air, I found them cheaper with open jaw from discreet places rather than bigger airports, and right in the price range you are hitting, e.g. it will cost me more to return from Paris than it would have from Genoa or Nice with the same connection at Heathrow. I think you are in the sweet spot for prices and with fuel sure to go up this spring, if you are comfortable with your days/times, go ahead and book it. If you do book BA, be sure to use a CC that doesn't charge a high transaction fee for the conversion, and also, as someone else here mentioned, you cannot book seats until 24 hrs. before departure. You need to be on top of that so you don't get stuck in the middle! Good luck.

I think flights are running $150 - $200 higher this year than the past few years....

YMMV

The total cost for seat assignments if connecting (as in Meghan's case) will come out to be $30+$15+$15+$30 = $90 per person for a round trip economy seat. For 2 folks that is $180 and for a family of 4 this comes out to $360. This is for economy seats - it is a lot higher if you are flying premium economy or business.

I know for some this is not a lot of money for some - for me, I'd rather book on another airline where I can still get my seats assigned ahead of time for free.

"Yes, at this Traveller's Helpline, in the year 2009, a person said : one airline (I think it is not based in the U.S.A.) requires passengers in an airplane to pay extra money for the privilege of visiting a toilet in an airplane."

More accurately: one airline (based in Ireland) has a CEO who believes in the "no bad publicity" maxim. He makes nonsense announcements he has no intention of implementing (e.g. he's going to charge for the loo or refit 'planes for standing passengers) and gets loads of free publicity as they're repeated across the travel press and message boards.

Can anyone comment on flying into Brussels? I've found tickets for $956, from Denver into Brussels and then out of Berlin. We were originally thinking of flying into Amsterdam, then making our way thru Brussels to Germany. But the AMS tickets are about $200 higher.

Thoughts?

Brussels is a very smooth and easy airport. I've never flow "in" to Brussels -- but have flown out of Brussels. (2003 -- Boston-Amsterdam-Zurich... 17 days later... Brussels-Amsterdam-Boston).

I'd rank Brussels on par with Amsterdam and Zurich for ease of navigation, and ahead of Frankfurt and Hamburg.

Meghan,

I've flown into Brussels (BRU) a number of times, most recently in April 2009. I've always found it to be a very user-friendly airport. From the airport, it is easy to catch a train into the city where you can connect to other points.

Call a travel agent.

If you're willing to buy a consolidator ticket (with the conditions inherent in those tickets), you might get a better price.

Read this FAQ:

www.hasbrouck.org/faq
on consolidator tickets.

Also - I discovered this thread on Flyertalk yesterday... a list of reliable travel agents you can call.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/united-mileage-plus/113379-list-uniteds-consolidators.html

All of these TAs sell for many airlines, but the discussion is for folks trying to buy United tickets in order to maintain/take advantage of their status.

Lots of recommendations for "Wendy in Dallas."

I'll be using the list in that thread for my next international trip in September.