Kealoha

We're planning an open jaw flight from LAX to FCO, then CDG to LAX, last week of April to second week of May.

So far, tickets range from $2600 to $3200 for three passengers--out the door.

Should I wait after the holidays or should I jump on these tickets? Thanks in advance.

where2

I am no expert but I am waiting to buy tickets from LGW to CVG in April. They are currently about $1200 each direct on Delta. My mom came last year in May (CVG to LGW) for $650. As I recall there were some sales in January.

Viajero2

I am waiting the late Jan-Feb prices for a May trip to Spain and a Sept. trip to Ireland. That said, the prices are looking outrageously high even now and there is a chance I will still travel but different, cheaper dates, which leads to a question; how flexible are you on dates. If you are not, take what you can now; those prices are really not that high for open jaws departing from the west coast.

Dukey

IMO if those "late January-February Prices" were perpetually reliable why would anyone be buying tickets now?????

rbnwdln

A lot depends on how willing you are to monitor air websites in the next few months. You may find a sale if you are vigilant. I know for sure that if you check kayak.com, etc. every day (5 times a day!) you will find something that makes you say, "Book it!".

Viajero2

That's the definition of risk management. Look it up.

daveesl

I'm doing the waiting game now to book my daughter's trip to Japan in March. I believe I'll save $100+ by waiting until mid-January (I hope).

Dave

FainaAgain

I'm waiting for April, checking websites daily, and signed up with Orbitz, Kayak, and airline websites e-mail notifications.

Christina

Your cheapest fare is less than $900 a person, which doesn't seem so bad to me for that itinerary at that time of year. I'd be willing to buy for that price myself, but it's up to you. I don't regularly monitor fares to/from LAX, though, but that's just my opinion by comparing them to East Coast, which is an entire flight away. If it were the exact timing and flights I wanted with as few changes as possible (I assume you must make one), I'd buy them for $860 each, which seems your lower fare.

Kealoha

Apparently, I'm not very good at this waiting game--low tolerance for risk (unfortunately, not the same for investments) sooooo I booked our flights today through www.flycheapabroad.com. I paid $2560 out the door for 2 adults, 1 child fare, LAX to FCO, CDG to LAX from April to May. I figured if I calculate the hours I've spent the last 2 weeks scrounging the internet for cheaper fares, and the fact that I'm driving DH up the wall with my nail biting, I better quit while I'm ahead.

I was given some other attractive options though such as flying into Munich, and out of Paris for about $650, and taking a Condor flight from Munich to Rome for about $49. We would have saved $350 going this route but I'm not much of a gambler when I'm traveling with my toddler--if it was just me and DH I would have done it since I would not mind getting stuck in Munich. But its a good deal that's why I'm mentioning it--maybe someone else can benefit from this suggestion.

beaupeep

I was having this same dilemma the past week. My mother and sister are coming from the US to visit me and my husband in Switzerland for the first time. They want to fly direct to Paris and then leave from Geneva. Last week the fares on the dates that we wanted were at $1,000 per ticket RT, this week they were $1,343 so I called AirFrance and was told that the last two Fridays in April to fly out of Boston were nearly fully booked which is why the fares went up and so we switched our dates to middle of May for $900 per ticket RT and I just went ahead and bought them because I was spending WAAAAYYY too much time checking on the internet daily, no make that hourly, trying to find cheaper fares and could tell I was getting way too hyper about it. Just got the tix and now can just relax.....