The price of an airline ticket

Only suggestion I have, seriously, is to go off peak. I would never go to Europe in summertime as the cost is too prohibitive. We go in either February or April (coinciding with my son's school vacation). At this time I can get super save frequent flier tickets, hotels are cheaper and no crowds. Just an idea!!

Helps to know where you are going. The common drumbeat in the media is the constantly raising airfares couple with declining capacity so the net result will be higher prices and less fire sales because the seats are not available.

I have a flight from Vancouver BC to London for 1200 all in, I think thats about what I have usually paid for summer travel.. what prices are you finding?

yes prices to Europe from the west coast are high right now, I am hoping for a price drop but who knows if we will get one
where are you trying to fly to?

Prices do seem high. We are going to Paris in early May (Rick Steves City Tour with a couple of days on our own on either side of the tour). I started looking for airfares in mid-October. On 11/1, American Airlines posted a fare in the low $700s. Within the next few days, Star Alliance and Skyteam carriers matched this fare. On 11/4 I purchased tickets for around $700 (Delta Boston to Paris non-stop). Just out of curiosity, I did something that I never did before - checked airfares after purchasing tickets. From mid-November until last week, fares were in the $1,200 - $1,300 range. This week I noticed a fare on American for $776. Most airlines have not begin advertising spring and summer fares yet, so we may see price declines soon. When shopping for airfares to Europe, I do some research on the overall economic climate pertaining to the airline industry. For example, it appears that airfares are perhaps 20% higher than they were last year, and much higher than the recession lows of 2009. This research helps me avoid "anchoring" on the last price I paid for airline tickets to Europe.

Judy, I'm in the same boat.... total sticker shock. I'm probably going to pay $1,200 from the East Coast to London, then back home from Rome. I want to pay $900... but I fear it may not go down and I'm probably just going to pay the full amount because I have nightmares of the prices going higher or the direct flights selling out. Like someone else said, I've been Googling "airline fares 2012," "jet fuel prices," etc., trying to get a sense of the price scene. It sucks that if you have kids one has to travel in June and July. Otherwise, travel on the shoulder seasons. Pete

We got a British Airways Visa when they came out last year. We use it for everything. As a result, we got hundreds of dollars off our trip to London this summer, and we also have a "companion ticket" for the trip next year.

Remember that the Olympics are in London later in the summer. Even if you are not going during the Olympics I would suspect that a lot of people changed their planned trips to go before or after those dates so all summer airline seats may be in short supply. You might be able to do better if you can avoid London.

Prices for May travel dropped last week. Usually, the airlines will drop prices 60 to 120 days ahead of departure date after they have had a chance to gauge demand. Your best bet for June would be to wait a few weeks and see what happens. Summer travel is always tricky. I'm traveling in May and I knew the prices would drop as they always seem to do. June flights might never get cheap. Keep in mind that you have a lot of college kids going over at that time and also a lot of families traveling. With the euro falling, more Americans might feel that this is the year to go. Once again, I would wait at least until mid-February and see where things stand then.

I've been daily monitoring prices from Charlotte to London. The prices have been around $1,100 and jump around around $75 +/-. In the last few days they've gone up $100 and I'm getting scared. Plus, news reports said companies are hiking prices based on jet fuel prices. Pete

We go to Europe every summer for 8 weeks and have paid 1150-1350 for the past six years. We bring our daughters home for Christmas (they live in Zurich and Berlin) for about 900-950 in December. Our flight this year (in and out of Frankfurt via Iceland Air) is 1150, and we purchased it through a consolidator (as we always do) back in September. I haven't seen cheaper flights from Seattle and the west coast for umpteen years. Condor Air has some good rates, but they fill up really fast and early. So, from a west coast perspective, your hope for a cheap fare mystifies a bit. It used to be waiting got some cheaper fares, but no longer. There are fewer flights so they can fill them to be profitable. And, I think it's going to get worse, not better, with the passing years.

I found a receipt for an airline ticket purchased by me in 1985. Leaving Vancouver B.C. to Paris in August, return October, at that time it was priced as 1/2 shoulder season and 1/2 high season ticket. Economy ticket. 1004 dollars. So, have prices really gone that high,, or did we just get used to some really low prices for awhile?

Pat has a good point; under certain circumstances, prices have actually not gone up that much over the last couple of decades - certainly not as much as much as a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread, or more importantly - as a gallon of gas. But the key phrase there is "under certain circumstances". The thing that HAS changed over the last 20 years is the sheer number of possible "circumstances". You have more options today - more airlines using more hubs pricing themselves at more levels and shuffling those prices more often and with more ruthlessness. As consumers, we can take some comfort in the fact that there are still deals to be had, but you have to be more creative and more proactive. The conventional wisdom of waiting until 90 days or so before departure to grab "sale" seats only works if the airlines have surplus seats. Naturally, they are trying harder than ever to avoid ever having surplus seats. (continued...)

(continued...) Customers not being willing to bend over backwards to save money is the key to airline profits. It still astounds me to read things like "I'll take any flight as long as it's direct and I can get 'economy plus' but why can't I find a sub-$1,000 flight?" You know why? Because the airlines know there are people who will not consider another flight even if it saves a substantial amount of money. Some people wanting to get to Brussels will never think to fly into Paris, ...wanting to get to Frankfurt and will never think to fly into Berlin, ...live in Philly and never think of flying out of NYC, etc. We buy VERY early and this year got summer fares for our trip to Italy from the midwest at sub-$1000/pp by getting $798 tickets NYC-Venice/Paris-Chicago on Aer Lingus through Dublin and separate tickets to connect the dots to Minneapolis. We thought outside the box and are willing to endure some inconvenience to save $500x5 people. If we had just done a Minneapolis-Rome search for airfare, we would be mad, too.

My friend and I were just having this discussion last week. She is looking for tickets from LA to Paris for a wedding in early June. I was looking for tickets from Jacksonville to Dublin at the end of May. I have had tickets flagged for several months on Kayak and they were running around $1100-$1250 a ticket. I noticed they were cheaper from JFK to Dublin so I did a kayak search and saw fares on Aer Lingus for $613 a person and we jumped on it immediately. I had enough airlines miles on Delta to get us to and from New York so it was a no brainer. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box when it comes to getting cheaper fares. Is there another airport that you could fly out of? Could you get yourself to the east coast on a discount airline then book tickets to and from the east coast? From what I have heard/read you should try to buy tickets on a Tuesday so the airlines have time to match each other sales. Never buy tickets during the weekend, etc. And the best advice - dont EVER look at ticket prices again after you buy - I made that mistake and noticed a week after I bought tickets to Italy, they went down about $200 a person......

Randy, For comparision purposes, if you don't mind me asking, what was the total Airfare pp ($800 + flight to NYC + flight from ORD)? We booked more direct flights for a slighter higher cost but it's our first trip and we're learning.

David, Here are our details in chronological order; 1) Sun Country airlines flight from Minneapolis to NYC purchased a month ago for $119/pp. Those prices, last time I checked a few days ago were up to $159/pp 2) We visit friends in NYC for a couple days so no danger of delay leading to missed connection 3) Aer Lingus flight from NYC JFK to Venice through a brief layover in Dublin... 4) Aer Lingus flight from Paris to Chicago through a brief layover in Dublin. Total Aer Lingus cost; $798/pp 5) Connection from Chicago to Minneapolis is not actually purchased yet, as it is a common commuter connection with dozens of flight choices. The best fare will likely be had about 60 days ahead - so in May, and will likely be $70-80/pp. If it turns out to be more than we expect, we can either take the "Megabus" for $10/pp or rent a car and drive it for about $150 for the five of us. Unpleasant as those other options sound, once you factor the time waiting around the airport for a connecting flight, driving would only take a couple hours longer than flying. So the final tally, depending on what ultimately happens with Chicago-Minneapolis, will be about $930-997/pp. I remember looking at airfares to Italy 4-5 years ago and not seeing anything from here under $1000, so I think we did well. We bought the Aer Lingus tickets after a long multiple-city/date search, back in early October, a full 8 months before our departure. Many people think that's nuts, but we've done similar six times now and the ONLY time we did not end up with the lowest possible fare was in 2009 - the year the world economy went into the tank over the winter and there were a FEW summer flights to Paris cheaper in March than they were in November.

The first thing to consider is that the airlines, and only the airlines, determine the price of a ticket. Third-party sites don't have magic access to retail discounts. Still, it's worth the time to check them against the individual airline sites because they can sometimes book multi-airline itineraries. The next consideration is your travel date flexibility, if you're locked in to specific dates there isn't much you can do. If you're flexible, some sites will check prices three days before and three days after your chosen date which could find some savings. I did a bit of looking around and found the cheapest flight to be $1410. American and US Airways were in this range and had only one stop each way.

One more thing; We do regularly check back to see how the ticket prices have moved over time in an effort to understand what is "normal" for future reference. Our particular Aer Lingus flights have hovered between $200-$350 more per person since we bought in October.

I paid $200 for plane tickets in 1972: Boston-London leaving in June and returning in August. This amount would be around $1,000 today adjusted for inflation. Re: current situation - Icelandair has sub-$900 flights from the east coast to Europe for various dates in June.

Well after looking again last week for flights from San Francisco to Europe and they are now up to around $1600.00. This is out of the game for me. Even though I paid $1000.00 a few years ago $1600.00 is too much! And the airlines need to know that. At least in the past you got something for the money. They don't even treat you very well anymore. They almost stranded us in Spain for four days last year after paying $1200.00 So we cashed in miles on United yesterday for a trip to Maui, Hawaii this year. I will let the airlines sort this mess out, they always do when they see that the general public just can't spend thousand and thousands of dollar on a summer vacation. I think the industry is in a real flux right now.