suec1

After watching and checking for months, I went ahead and purchased Oct. airfare, ATL to ZRH return FCO to ATL - price was higher than ever ever paid before but we needed to travel on certain days and really did not want to connect thru Iceland. Oddly other connecting flights (CDG, JFK) were not any cheaper than direct flights! I will keep checking, just as a reference point for next trip, but what do you all think? Are these high fares the new normal, even for shoulder season? Is there still a shoulder season?! We ended up paying about $1300 - yikes! I've started making a list of places I have yet to visit in the US!

herself

Just booked Bos to Shannon returning from Dublin to Boston for $697.99 for October. I was afraid to wait. $1300 is yikes!

doug_stallings

The days of really cheap (i.e., $400) airfares in the off-season are over. However, fares this high were certainly not the new normal last fall, when there were sales galore. And it's hard to know what will happen this fall. The economy in the U.S. seems to be picking up even as Europe (except for Germany) falls. So who knows?

You've booked too early to take advantage of airfare sales, but I booked a trip to Berlin last October for $800 round-trip (via Zurich), so I suspect you could have done better. But I understand your hesitation if you are locked into certain dates.

Connecting flights through London and Paris are almost always high because of their taxes. But is there a specific reason you did not want to connect through Iceland if that can save you significantly on your travel?

suec1

I like Delta and direct flights(and I realize that will eliminate possible bargains) I went ahead and booked for several reasons - Delta published some spring "sales" about a month ago - for late April and May travel - almost all the sale fares were not much better than the everyday fares I was seeing for Oct. Also, on the flight from FCO, seats seemed to be filling up, esp. for a Sunday flight resulting in higher fares showing up. So I booked for a Monday, for about $100 less.

Anyways, I'm good to go now - just wondering what other Fodor's folks are budgeting for their travel or are they curtailing some of their Euro-trips.

BLT83

I had $1000 budgeted for my airfare. I wanted to go to Berlin this summer, but nearly everything I was seeing from the Washington, D.C. area (where I live) was in the $1250-$1300 range. Fortunately, I was able to find a flight to Copenhagen for a little over $800, and then I bought a separate connecting flight to Berlin for about $100. I've never been to Copenhagen, either, so I'm going to spend two (or maybe three) days there.

grandmere

I just booked Delta non-stop PIT-CDG and paid over $1200 for Oct., also. I wanted non-stop, and it's the only show in town from here, so bit the bullet to make sure we had seats. I fear it's the new normal!

opaldog

I had a specific route so I didn't have a real big choice. I ended up buying three separate tickets, two of them nonstops. BOS to CDG on Icelandair beginning of October, one way $448; CDG to LIS, one way on Air France $76 and LIS to BOS one way nonstop on SATA Airlines $513 for a total of $1037. I purchased now because the airfares were inching up on Icelandair and SATA.

This is the most I have paid for airfare to Europe. I have traveled in Feb., March, April, May, Oct., Nov., and Dec.
Last year it was BOS to CDG and BCN to BOS for $642 on Aerlingus in the beginning of November. The year before that we got an amazing fare on Spanair (no longer operating) that was flown by USAir, BOS to MAD rt for $350 in early November. We will never top that. The fares are definitely higher now.

Mrs_Wilde

I wanted to fly from DC to Dublin in June and found the airfares pretty high ($1000+) and that was with two stops (BOS & PHL). I've been watching airfares for about a month or two. My alternative plan was to fly JFK round-trip to Dublin and take the Amtrak train from Union Station to Penn Station and the Megabus for the return trip. Airfare was $690 on Delta, $49 for Amtrak and $4.50 for Megabus. Some people may not like the transfers involved but it was worth it to me to pay only (I can't believe I'm saying "only") $743.50 to get there. Time to get creative!

kybourbon

>>>Also, on the flight from FCO, seats seemed to be filling up, esp. for a Sunday flight resulting in higher fares showing up.<<<

Unless you are looking on ExpertFlyer (a paid website), seat maps don't mean much. Tour companies often block a number of seats and end up not using them. Delta also holds back blocks of seats (some to assign at the gate). ExpertFlyer (or similar paid sites) are the only accurate load you can see.

I'm starting to see some price drops for fall on multiple airlines, but they might not be for your exact dates/cities.