A lot of talk about rising airline ticket costs. Lots of news articles too.
Must be true! But I haven't seen it.
I make the same trip often so I have some track record
To Budapest
March (2022) $770.00 from Houston
July $1,069 From Austin
November $976 From Austin
February (2023) $820 From Austin
Anyone else have any actual purchase history that might provide a clue?
Your SPAMer reported.
Meanwhile, have found flights between Philadelphia or Newark to the British Isles to be markedly higher for this coming spring than what I paid last fall and this February for April and September 2022. Close to double.
Here’s our post COVID history. All out of SeaTac in Business class. All on Delta.
September 2021 - $3300
April 2022 - $3700
September 2022 - $3600
March 2023 - $3600
September 2023 - $3800
I am finding everything to be higher by a pretty significant amount. About $400-600 overall per ticket more.
I’ve kept a very informal chart for about the last 10 years since we tended to travel the same routes out of SEA. I actually remember paying $1200 for economy out of SEA in 2007 on American which was an a fare with the possibility of upgrade to business. I got the upgrade for $200 on the way home out of CDG. Once I started charting business fares they ranged from $3500-4000. The big difference was, I used to be able to score $2500 on a business class sale and that has pretty much disappeared. I keep track so I know when to grab a good fare.
From our previous airport, LAX, and our new airport, SFO, we’ve never paid more than $1,000 for an economy European summer flight. We’ve managed to catch some wonderful fares ranging from $444 to $866 every year since about 1995 when we started traveling 1-2 times a year. Our two flights in 2022 were about $900 each. For 2023 we will probably be paying over $1,000. We’ve been tracking 2023 summer fares for several months. Our granddaughter bought a basic economy summer fare, SFO-MXP for $670 a month ago. A week later that route was $1,200+. We have finally focused our destinations and dates so we will be prepared to pay whatever soon.
Unfortunately, the trip had to be cancelled (refundable) but TYS-FCO via Philadelphia in early December was $700.
I’m in the beginning stages of planning our spring trip for my husband’s 50th & I’m noticing flights are much higher than previous years. We’ve considered flying out of Atlanta but sticker shock has put that on the back burner for now. I’m hoping flights are higher due to it being the holidays & airlines hoping to cash in on people who purchase airline tickets as gifts. Time will tell.
For 2023 I turned things around a little bit. I found my airfare first, and then I planned my trip.
Iceland Air had a sale where I could go round trip Seattle to Multiple locations in Europe Round trip in Saga Class (equivalent to a domestic first class) for a little less than $1200 in the spring. I knew that was about the best price that was going to be out there for that level of comfort. I found a RSTour I had been considering (best of Southern England) that matched within the sale parameters and trip was planned!
As a plus, with Saga Class I earn 250% of miles flown as miles on the Alaska Airlines frequent flier program. That works out to 24,000 frequent flier miles. That would be enough for a round trip flight to New York on Alaska.
So this year, flight first and then the trip planning to have the best value.
Since people are adding prices, I will add this info about the posts above.
In late fall 2021 I paid $476 for Philadelphia-Edinburgh and Dublin-Philadelphia for April 2022 in basic economy on American. In March of 2022 I paid $312 (!) for Newark-London and Dublin Philadelphia on American in coach, and additional seat for this flight purchased in July cost $483 (long unfortunate story, but getting the AA Mastercard ate up $400 of this via cashback).
Just booked a flight to London for May that also now includes Iceland stopover to visit son and d.i.l. If not doing Iceland, the London trip would be $773 from Philadelphia, or $680 to go from Newark and return here, again on American in coach. If bought through BA (as first flight could be codeshare) would be even more as their seat purchase fees are, and always have been, way more than AAs. FWIW, via Icelandair this Newark to London roundtrip with stopover was $421 in Economy lite, seats still made this less than economy standard. Plus about $15 each way to get between here and Newark, which is surface transit and has nothing to do with the airlines.
I'm just not seeing the giant price increases. Maybe on the flight 6 months out, but I suspect a part of that is the airlines hedging their bets on future operational cost, and prices may be better if you wait.
Well, flights FEEL higher, but that is completely unscientific I am seeing my usual ads for cheap flights but they all seem to be a couple hundred higher than previous years. And I know costs were high summer 2022, but the only summer travel I have to compare it to is 2021, which was a steal. I am also starting to travel more specifically - picking destinations for purpose, rather than just for cost, which means I have less flexibility on pricing. I hope you are right that costs are evening out. I am again looking at miles for a lot of my long flights, because the dollar prices are more than I want to pay. I think I am going to have to learn better how to find the cheap long haul flights and then use the cheaper short intra-European hops to go with those.
We took a trip to Hawaii every year pre-covid, flights always $400-500 for nonstop since there’s just 1 flight and well worth the ease of travel. I had to wait and wait for $450 to show up at last with a Google flight alert - and I had to move 3 days later than we always do for new year week.
Had I wanted my “usual” dates it never came down below $850
My point: I think both sides of this story are true. Flight prices are up, but if you wait for sales and are savvy you may be able to zig-zag around the raised fares.
I had been tracking Calgary to Rome and Calgary to Paris since last summer for an April trip and I've seen everything from $1000 to $2800 on the same airline for economy seats. Usually, anywhere in Europe we expect to pay around $1200 but with patience, seat sales dropping it to $600-700. We didn't see it drop that much this time and settled on $1000.
Delta starts selling tickets 11 months in advance, and that's when their economy and Comfort+ tickets are the cheapest. So I booked my Comfort+ tickets for my tour next year as soon as the return date came online; and it's similar to previous year. However premium select is much more expensive regardless of how early one books it; this is likely because airlines realize more passengers are willing to pay more for more personal space as a result of the pandemic.
Tickets continue to be cheaper overall if you fly on Tuesday and Wednesday.
July 2023 Washington DC to Edinburgh, $2943 premium economy total for 2 people. Booked it in August 2022. Best I can find now on Google Flights is $4000.
Mindfulness, that's been our experience, too. Booking out far in advance has worked every time. Luck too, I'd guess.
What I am finding on AA is that the tax you pay using points (which are about the same amount of points) the tax is double or tripling. ORD to FRA is 120,000 points and about 900.00 dollars round trip.
Purchase history: Pre-pandemic flying always Economy in the summer usually dep in May or June to Frankfurt FRA or Paris CDG the non-stop overnight flight from SFO , I paid somewhere no extra frills (seat choosing , etc) between $ 1100 to $1600 r/t on United , Lufthansa or Air France. These were the only carriers, no others, I used for these destinations from SFO. Departure was always from SFO to these arrival cities.
We bought Delta Airlines Main Cabin tickets MCO - Zurich (RT) in November last year for $1200.00 (via JFK), for travel at the beginning of September 2023. Those tickets are now over $1700.00.
I’m finding decent fares on Iceland Air out of Seattle to European destinations. We paid $930 from Seattle to Frankfurt and $730 from Seattle to London for our two international trips this year. We use our Alaska air miles to get us to Seattle from Anchorage. Always in economy.
I've been looking at prices for a fall trip to AMS and into Denmark and Norway for a couple months now. It's not a direct comparison, but I spent $3K on Delta One last April direct into AMS and out of Paris. For the fall 2023, I am seeing $3700ish just for premium economy with one stop or less. The cheapest I've seen was when I first started looking back in December, for about $2900. I had no idea I should have grabbed those tickets. It's a real bummer.
Pricegang: I feel your pain. Last September I was looking at flights from San Francisco to Geneva for August/September 2023. Premium economy was around $1100 to $1200. I was very busy at the time and with the holidays approaching I naively thought I could wait until after Christmas to do a serious search for fares. I was thinking maybe after Christmas the fares would drop a little. Obviously, I was wrong. $1200 became $1800, now $1900 and rising. Some airlines are as high as $2200. Air France is just utterly ridiculous at $2500-$2600. My limited economic skills tell me this is a long-term issue brought on by a perfect storm of pandemic inflationary effects, the war on energy lead by the Biden administration, and the pent up demand for travel by people stuck at home for the last few years of the pandemic. I don't see these issues and more being resolved anytime soon. Good luck everyone.
To Budapest
March (2022) $770.00 from Houston
July $1,069 From Austin
November $976 From Austin
February (2023) $820 From Austin
REVISED February (2023) $853 From Austin
REVISED above: And i just changed my February flight date from 25 Feb to 18 Feb; the increased ticket cost was $33.00 (12 days prior to the flight). Same flights, same day of the week. Of course to all of those prices you have to add about $75 for seat costs and they are all Economy Light (carryon only). The upgrade for a checked bag is about $160 more on the current flight.
@jeffreymf, it's to the point now where maybe we skip Europe this year and do a big road trip or go somewhere in the States instead.
Sometimes you have to be creative and make lemonade. Of course it has to be places you are interested in.
9/10 SFO to GVA
9/26 GBA to IST
9/30 IST to SFO
Turkish Air with exit row seats on the long haul sections the price is $967.00
(skip the stay in Istanbul and you are stuck with a very, very long layover in Istanbul, but same price)
I just received an email from American announcing a "fare sale" to Europe. There may be amazing prices right now or near term if you want to visit off season. I then looked LAX - LHR in June - prices reasonable for non- stop flights. I then replaced LHR with FCO - order of magnitude increase. So apparently everyone is going to Italy and bidding up prices.
Conspiracy theories aside, aren't airline seats priced as a commodity? Compare prices for winter travel vs. summer - costs of labor and jet fuel are basically the same, but cold weather prices can be much lower - fewer people flying.
Together with our partners British Airways, Finnair and Iberia, we take you on your next trip across the pond. Explore historical sites, architectural marvels, famous museums and savor delicious culinary offerings. Book now and beat the summer crowds with great fares to your favorite European spots. ( AA email)
Seems I am on the same mailing list as markow
I guess if you find the fares now are bad, its likely to only get worse
Book now and beat the summer crowds with great fares to your favorite
European spots...
From the merriam-webster dictionary:
great
adjective
ˈgrāt Southern also ˈgre(ə)t
Synonyms of great:
1a: notably large in size : HUGE
The most insane cost of a flight that we have had was back in 2007 going from SFO to CDG and we paid $1700 pp for regular economy on Air France.
Thankfully all of our other flights before and after that have been much more reasonable.
In 2021 we paid about $800 pp from SEA to KEF.
In 2022 we went to Iceland twice, one in February and again in October. They had great deals on their packages, so we got the February one for $1600 total for two people for 5 days. The October one cost us $2200 for 6 days. Same thing where hotels and. excursions were all included. That was a steal for 2 people!
We head back to Iceland in July and I bought our tickets in September and paid $885 pp. Granted, this is high season, but really not much different than in 2021.
Out of curiosity I've been looking at my flight costs to Europe since 2014:
So is it higher, or back to normal? The only difference I've seen when I've been searching for a 2023 destination is that I wasn't finding as many, or as generous of seat sales
