This thread is for those out there wanting to travel in Nov & Dec. I have been tracking airfare for a possible Tampa to Paris, London back to Tampa since January. It has not come down at all. Now round trip to London has come down $40 since January, not nearly enough for me to jump up and down about. I am used to traveling in Nov & Dec and have never paid more than $890 for a flight (I paid this much in 2008 in the height of that years gas/oil crisis). Now, I know gas/oil prices have soared this year but they are slowly coming down. I have not seen any sign of winter airfare coming down. In fact from Tampa, the cheapest airfare to Europe during the time I want to travel is $700 r/t to Dublin, and I just don't want to go to Ireland.
So for those tracking air fare for 2012 winter travel, what price are you willing to settle with for air fare? If the R/T ticket for London would hit anywhere in the $700s, I would snap it up in an instant.
Posted by
Vancouver, WA, usa
37 posts
I've been watching fares for sometime. I am willing to fly from anyplace ....to Europe. We live in Mexico sometimes, in the Pacific Northwest sometimes...but am willing to leave from any city in North America to just about anywhere in Europe for a reasonable flight, during the "off seasons". In my own personal experience; and I haven't tried in every off season, etc...but I'm finding rt's for around $1K per person, and one ways are just about the same price, which is confusing to me. Wish I had better news, but what I can tell you if you fly into Dublin, and don't care to spend time in Ireland, Ryan Air has pretty cheap flights out to nearly all major destinations for pretty reasonable rates...which tend to be reasonable to just about "giving tickets away" to fill the airplanes. Ryan Air can be confining though, as they don't allow a whole lot of baggage, and it's like flying back in the 60's on charter flights, so it's definitely NOT first class accommodations.
Good luck to you.
Posted by
Bay Area
3551 posts
From my experience you will not see any lowering of fares for winter until fall or later. Hopefully you are using all the forecast websites and consolidators like cheaptickets or expedia. Remember tuesdays generally have a lower fare. London has xtra airport fees upwards of $100 so using UK airports always incur add fees. Other european airports now also incur these add fees. Do not give up. I just returned from an open jaw to eastern europe from California rd trip for less than $950. Most were quoting approx $1300. Also my fuel surcharge was actually more than the flight price.
I was pleased w/ my fare & service on Swiss Air.
Posted by
South Yorkshire, UK; formerly St. Louis, MO, USA
317 posts
I wouldn't give up yet. My experience has been that you wont see fares come down until the end of September or October. Also - regardless of season, Heathrow is expensive to fly in and out of.
Posted by
Kansas City
180 posts
I would just keep watching! We paid $845/pp from Kansas City.. for an August flight, during the Olympics! I would hope Nov/Dec could be gotten for cheaper than that, especially since you're closer than we are! We used Hipmunk.com I love the price graph because you can put in an entire month, tell it how many days you want and do a +/- any number of days. For example.. I did August, 10 days, +/- 2 days and it gave a great graph. I couldn't find the price we got anywhere else, so I jumped on it. The next day, fares were at $1140/pp.
Posted by
OP
St Petersburg Florida
951 posts
Jennifer, your summer time airfare is cheaper than what they are offering right now for mid-late november, that's for sure. I will have to check out the web site you mentioned.