Hi
So I plan on flying into Amsterdam then flying to Barcelona. However I noticed flights in late may seem pretty expensive $1300. Is this normal for may or is this just a domino effect because of the Olympics are in Paris in July? Or is it because I am looking a day after a major holiday. Does anyone have any advice or input. Thank you so much! I would be flying from the US.
Welcome to the forum!
$1300 might be a decent price, but you haven't given enough info to know.
The US is large, what's your home airport, and what happens after Barcelona? Return home?
Do your research on Google Flights for price fluctuations. You can track prices by setting Price Alerts. You can see prices for the entire month, as often prices vary significantly by day of the week.
Always purchase tickets directly from the airlines.
You don't name your price catagory. Past experience on price doesn't predict future prices- it's all a crapshoot now, with the airlines.
Last year saw unprecedented demand for international travel. Who knows?
Good luck.
Flight prices are high for late Spring/Summer 2024. It has nothing to do with the Olympics in Paris, but supply and demand. Even with the high prices, there are a lot of people traveling these days. $1300 is a good price. From our airport in St. Louis via Chicago, prices for a main cabin ticket are $1600 or more. $1300 sounds like a basic economy ticket from the US to Europe. Just be aware that these tickets are the basic package meaning you get no e-credit if you have to reschedule, no selection of seat, etc.
I would buy your ticket sooner than later. People will begin to start making summer travel plans over the winter and I only see prices increasing. Also, search on other sites, but I do recommend buying through the airlines only because if there are issues with your flight you can resolve them much easier if the flight was purchased directly with the airline.
My opinion, which has nothing to back it up except for inference and experience,
is that the airlines have set prices high for 2024 based on a) the Olympics in Paris
and b) the experience of (summer) 2023. What would be interesting to know is if
the demand/purchase data is confirming their analytics.
If so, you shouldn't expect to see prices come down. But if 2023 was a one-off,
and lots of people decide not to travel because of the Olympics, well, you might
start to see some moderation in prices. We have already seen some sales for
the saddle seasons.
As many other threads have noted, there are multiple ways to make your itinerary
work. Brussels is not very far from Amsterdam, nor is Dusseldorf; flying into those
cities followed by a short train ride might work. Booking an open jaw and then
getting a cheap intra-Europe one-way to BCN is another. Getting miles and booking
with miles is another. Being flexible with destinations and schedule is the most obvious.
It's important to know the refund/rebooking conditions of a ticket when you buy it in
this day and age.
As you mentioned arrival into AMS and then (connecting? or days' later?) to BCN, some context would be helpful to understand if the $1,300 you're seeing is for a round-trip or multi-city fare. If it's the latter, $1,300 isn't bad for convenience of flying into one destination and not having to double-back to fly home. Assuming this would be Economy class seat/s, as each airline's Premium-Economy fares have really gone up since the pandemic, and now routinely fetch over $2,000/seat. My family and I are likewise flying to Europe in May, and we locked-in airfare when the flights became available last June. There are occasions when prices may drop closer to travel date, but we didn't want the stress of tracking/timing (possibly missing) the flight dates and times we wanted. Good travels!
We are also flying to Amsterdam in May from SFO. When I first looked into flights last June, the flights for Business class was~$5400 on Delta/KLM. I obsessively checked every day. One day the flight cost dropped $2000 and I immediately booked two tickets. So, my advice is look everyday on the Airlines website.
Katie, I was doing the same thing around the same time, summer 2023, and also hit a great business class fare under $2000 RT, LAX to Amsterdam. There's no science to it, just dumb luck, persistence, and hope.
Good luck to all!
Amen Katie and Pat, that is exactly what I do. Look every day getting to know the average price and jump on a good one. I'm too old to fly coach so I'm always looking for a steal on Business class. Ryan are you planning on seeing Amsterdam and then seeing Barcelona? Which is exactly what people from Europe say to me: I'm going to see New York then Los Angeles and the Grand Canyon. Why why? If you're going to Barcelona and want to save money, I have used Level which is a very cheap airline, if you live close to one of their hubs that might work for you. They flight direct to BNC from about 6 places in the USA. They are nothing special they are just cheap. I would get the Premium Economy ticket. I live on the West Coast so it's easy for me to fly out of LAX, SFO, or SEA. Another thought about Amsterdam and Barcelona, when the weather is good in one it will be nasty in the other. So if you are going to BCN/Spain I would NOT go in Summer, great place to go in winter or off shoulder. J
We were looking at airfares earlier and only found budget fares the first couple of days of March. After that it was full price airfares. March airfares are often reduced and we fly at the end of March and into April at relatively low prices. It's almost like the industry is optimistic that 2024 European travel will be heavily traveled.
When airline flight analysts get back to work after year end holidays, they'll be resetting the airfares for the upcoming months. Hopefully prices will be better than $1,300.
When airline flight analysts get back to work after year end holidays, they'll be resetting the airfares for the upcoming months.
Analysts? I think it's safe to say that the analysts will increasingly be aided by AI tools, and most likely solely AI systems soon, if not already in place. Over time, AI will improve in its ability to set future prices based on current inquiries for future trips, and all the Google flight tracking and other methods of inquiry are just providing more data for these systems to learn with.
I was just looking at flights in April from LAX to London and prices seem quite reasonable.
We just got our May Open Jaw, Premium Economy (my legs insist on 38" seat pitch), Portland to Rome, then Barcelona to Portland for $1800, and thought that was a steal. What Pat suggested; we used Google Fights to research options, and then asked them to notify us when prices changed. It worked!
Shoeflyer has the right idea. We try to get across the pond as cheaply and best as possible, then use the inter EU airlines, or trains to get us to our final destination. But on this trip, we booked the final two hour leg of our trip home using points; We got a BCN to the US direct flight, and then booked our final flight to PDX ourselves.
