Tips for my sister, who waited too long to book her flight?

When is trip taking place?

I am seeing flights on Air Italy (formerly Meridiana) with a connection at Malpensa as low as $750. But price depends so much on dates. It could be $1500 on certain dates.

Be flexible on dates and there are deals, But when you it must be on this date returning on this date, you could pay a big price. I use this tool for finding flight deals. https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

We are going flying out June 26th and our villa rental ends July 7th. We are going to Paris after that, but my sister is flying home. (Basic itinerary is Rome for 3 days, rent car and drive to villa outside of Sinalunga, and then we drive to Pisa and spend the day, taking an evening EasyJet to Paris. My sister doesn't want to go to Paris, but is in for everything else.)

Playing with dates, prices for the return leg appear to drop beginning July 12. I speculate that there is high demand from people incorporating the (US) July 4 holiday weekend in their vacation plans. Hanging around a few days results in lower flight costs, but of course higher lodging an living costs. I guess it comes down to the question of who do you want to give your money to? The airline or Italian hotels and restaurants.

Even Norwegian Air is expensive, like $1300-1400 for those dates. That is the Plus fare which includes meals, one checked bag and seat selection. It is $200 less without those, but I don't think she should do that.

Maybe look at Wow airlines or Condor?

I feel her pain. A few years ago I listened to a self-styled expert here who claimed there is a "sweet spot" for buying tickets. I think it was 4 months ahead, much later than I usually buy. But I listened as flights seemed more expensive than usual when I went to buy 9 months ahead as usual. InwIted to four months ahead and no joy. So I watched, and the fare just kept going up. It ended up costing an extra $2000 for our family of four. Lesson learned.

I hope your sister can find something and doesn't bail on the trip.

Hi Stacey,

Check British Air and Iberia who partners with BA. I really like BA; always found them to be very good. I can't comment on Iberia. I fly out of Logan and RT is with BA including connection. Scored the same RT low air fare as last time. Keep checking airlines.
Sometimes they have quick specials for a limited time - could be hours; a day or two.

Based on your criteria, I plugged in the info on BA. Fares are about 1,000 now. Iberia is running over $700 but under $ 750. Fares are "economy." Totally agree to secure airfare as far in advance as one can - many months if possible. So it's worth it to keep checking daily and book a fare that one deems reasonable.

Definitely just need to be more flexible with the dates and possibly airports. If you have 3 days in Rome before going to the Villa, they could arrive a day or two after you and still make the same transport to your villa. Maybe they stay a day or two after you go to Paris too. It might be nice to have some time to yourselves on the trip.

She needs to look at all possible date combinations to see what would get her the best deal, but I'm afraid it might have to be the 'suck it up buttercup.'

We are going flying out June 26th and our villa rental ends July 7th. We are going to Paris after that, but my sister is flying home. (Basic itinerary is Rome for 3 days, rent car and drive to villa outside of Sinalunga, and then we drive to Pisa and spend the day, taking an evening EasyJet to Paris. My sister doesn't want to go to Paris, but is in for everything else.)

Stacey; this is a tough one as July 4 is right in the middle of your trip and at least one leg of her flight would be on a weekend. The cheapest I could find out of JFK to FCO is $1118 leaving on June 26 and returning on July 8 and that is on Norwegian Air through Copenhagen both directions. Remember Norwegian Air is a discount carrier, there could always be "extra fees" before everything is said and done! All of the non-stops are just a hair under $1500. A travel agent is probably not going to do much better. Commissions on air travel are not a big source of income anymore.

That Iberia flight price looks great compared to the others.

Adding to her problems will be getting three seats together. The prime seats get sucked up early so she may find a lot of middle seats. Take a short with the travel agent. Doesn't cost anything until you buy the tickets. I have the feeling she may be dragging her feet for other reasons. Even if we knew some magic, do you think big sis advice will be more accepting now??

Stacey, your mother I think is right unless her daughter's income is vast. Your sister could very well back out because she handled travel planning poorly and consequently, they can't afford the airfare. This will be a tough lesson for her yet odds are, she won't repeat her mistake of dawdling again if she and her kids are left home. I feel especially for your mother as I'm sure she was looking forward to traveling with her daughter and grandchildren. Your sister took that joy away from your mother.

Unless her wealthy friends want to gift her and her children ff miles for the roundtrip transatlantic trip, she's out of luck. She can set up a fare watch with skyscanner but given the trip is next month which is a very popular time to travel, she won't find cheap fares like you got. Or your mother might dig into her savings to pay the astronomical airfare just so she can be together with the family in Italy.

Continental--you hit the nail on the emotional-family-drama head. That all being said, my sister is by no means poor. She's actually relatively well off-- it's just that her friends are even more so!

Lots of good advice above. I'll just add...

1. Flexibility is key. Be flexible about everything: date of flights (arrive days earlier, depart days later), time of flights, willingness to accept miserable lay-overs, crazy routings, awful middle seats on horrible airlines, fly in to and out of any city in Europe (and any city near the east coast of the US) - you can add always a separate positioning flight at either end (but figure that into the cost, and of course be careful of mis-connecting to those because on separate tickets you have no "protection" from your main airline if you miss the flight). Invest your time now in the search and search diligently (honestly, with some effort you can usually do better than asking a travel agent to look for you - you have skin in the game, they don't, and they have other paying customers to tend to - your exhaustive search might take many hours which they won't invest on your behalf).

2. Snarky put-down: Try asking you ask your friends with lots of money (the ones who told you not to worry about booking early) to pay for your flight. Probably best to keep this one to yourself or file away for future needs... ;)

3. Listen to big sister - sometimes she's right!

I look at it this way: It's a sliding scale, with two extremes...

• A: You do the work early, then you save money, you have plenty of good options to choose from, and you get a great experience.
• Z: You wait to the last minute, or you choose to not be flexible, or you choose to not put in any effort...then you get an expensive and/or miserable experience. Or maybe you don't get to go at all.

Your sister is currently closer to the Z end of that scale than the A end. At this point the only ways to move the needle away from Z towards A is by paying $$$, or maybe by putting in a lot of effort, being flexible, and accepting various compromises to the experience. This is the choice we all make every time we fly - it is a real choice, although it may or may not be a conscious choice the first few times you make it. Sooner or later most people figure it out!

Not everyone figures it out. I have a friend who always waits until the last minute to book his flights. When he comes home, I ask "how was the trip?" First thing out of his mouth is inevitably complaints about his horrible flight.

I repeat: what is wrong with that $700 Iberia flight?

If that is still available and she passes it up, there is something else going on.

Sasha-- I looked at Iberia's site, and didn't see a $700 flight. I saw a $700 outgoing and a $1500 return.

I have also read many times that booking about 21 days out is the "sweet spot."
I beg to differ as I have always found better fares much farther out.
For instance this summer we are going from Anchorage to Oslo on Icelandair and returning from Glasgow to Anchorage.
The fare was $1,220.00, which is what we paid.
Now this same route is $1,908.75
Big difference!
So I always book as soon as I know I want to go somewhere. Also, it never really feels like I'm going until the airfare is booked.
Your sister has learned an expensive lesson!

Hi Stacey,

True. The flight I saw this morning on Iberia from JFK to FCO was hovering around $720 to $750 and the return was not $1500 one way - it was a bit more returning, but not that high - I can't recall the exact figure - but it was over $750. I believe the total would be close to $1500 or $1600 RT. Still very high. But if she wants to go, she may not have a choice. Fares change quickly sometimes.

She should check all airlines now at morn, afternoon and evening. You never know, she could strike a deal. But, it's doubtful she will get a RT fare for cheap.

Correction: I was on the BA site this morning and saw a flight that Iberia was partnering with BA. Sorry for the confusion. By the way, are your sister's kids young or adults?

Using Google Flights, one way she could save money is by doing one stop flights. I'm seeing that she can reduce her costs substantially by flying with one stop each direction and by not flying home on Saturday, the 7th. The RT prices are $973 or less per person.

For example, she could fly Delta via Berlin to FCO on 26 June and return on Delta via Detroit on 6 July for $846 RT. Likewise, she could come home on 10 July for the same price.

She and the kids could spend some time on their own and still save money! She needs to click on the Dates box under Flight Insights to see a calendar of options and costs.

If she insists on nonstop flights, yeah, the prices are about $1500 to $2000 per ticket.

With a very quick 'n dirty, lazy cursory search, I'm finding dozens of options from EWR to FCO and back, leaving plus or minus 3 days on your preferred travel dates. Yeah, some of them involve flying Aeroflot or Ukraine Int'l Air (not my top choices, but...you can't have everything). Lots of options via Norwegian.

There are plenty of options under $1000. Maybe not beautiful options, but come on, look at the calendar.

You (or your sister) can make this work, if somebody gets in gear. If not....then maybe the cost of the flight wasn't the real issue here, no?

Thanks, for the advice, everyone. I've been texting her off and on while you all replied. Now, she needs to get off her butt and do it!

Thanks, for the advice, everyone. I've been texting her off and on
while you all replied. Now, she needs to get off her butt and do it!

Stacey, you have the patience of a saint. Seriously. She blew you off and NOW she wants help? Or is she STILL not doing anything as you mentioned she needs to 'get off her butt'. LOL You're still one great big sister!

Thank you again, everybody! She's booked! We got a nonstop flight on Norwegian for $1400. She opted for the nonstop because she didn't want to do a transfer traveling solo with kids.

And thank you for the "good big sister" compliments. In her defense, she just bought a new house and moved, so her focus has definitely been divided.