DB

I guess the cancelled flights are responsible for us seeing the higherst fares in years. I'll have to remember this next year. My experience in looking for Chicago to Switzerland fares for late June was the following.<BR><BR>Jan-Feb Forget it. No discount fares. Everything about $2000.<BR><BR>Mar-April. Finally some relief. Most fates aound $800. Some as low as $650.<BR><BR>May-Those waiting for cheaper fares are screwed. Fares now over $1000. Sometimes $1200.<BR><BR>So for me. The best time to buy was around March. I'll remember this next year.<BR><BR>

CR

You might check those e-fares that the airlines offer. I found a R/T airfare from SFO to Zurich for $469 on American Airlines. A lot cheaper than the standard $900 I saw running around. Snagged that fare as soon as I saw it.

Dan

Was that SFO to Zurich fare for a long weekend only? I get American e-mails but saw nothing like that, other than the weekend deals.

DD

With the airlines flying at close to 100% full I don't think there's going to be any bargains for a long while.

trying

DB: Where have you been looking? There are lots of sales and deals in winter through May. Of course, you need to plan ahead a little. We flew to Paris and out of London in late April, early May for less than $500 RT, but we purchased a couple months in advance. Sign up for frequent flier miles and email notifications for all major airlines.

lisa

I agree that the fares have been higher to Europe this year. Last year I was able to get DC to Brussels on USAirways for $450 roundtrip for late May/early June, and DC to Rome for $430 roundtrip on Northwest/KLM for late August/early September. This year the lowest I was able to find was DC to Paris for $498 on USAirways in late May/early June, which I jumped on in February & am glad I did. I subsequently saw Continental fares of about the same, but they were very short-lived.

DB

Trying,<BR><BR>Thanks for your reply. Yes, there were excellent fares for April and May. However late June, July, and August have been the highest in years. I did grab a good fare in April, but it took a lot of searching to find one.

Marcus

It seems that June 15th has been the cutoff for bargain travel. This is usually the case, but this year has been especially brutal for travellers watching their $$$$.<BR><BR><BR>

elvira

travelocity.com<BR><BR>I just pulled up a r/t Chicago to Paris $471-$512 on SAS; BritAir $582.<BR><BR>Fly into Paris, take the train to Switzerland. R/T on SAS to Brussels $496, then europebyair to Geneva.<BR><BR>In this market, you've got to be creative and tenacious.

DB

Elvira,<BR><BR>What are the dates for those fares. Late Jun, July or Aug?<BR><BR>DB

Marcus

I just searched Orbitz for June 19-26 between O'Hare and Paris. I got $978. For Wednesday to Wednesday travel no less.<BR>

CRP

<BR>I guess we were really fortunate to get a RT fare of $315 from Phil. to Milan for Oct.<BR>We used Orbitz --- but I had to "check" the web site several times a day for about 2 months to finally get the fare I wanted.

Marcus

OK people. The key word here is "summer" travel. Not April, May, or October.<BR><BR>

elvira

Dates show mid-June. Sorry, I was thinking mid-June, not late June when I did the search.<BR><BR>Have you checked consolidators or sites like priceline.com or hotwire.com?

Monique

I was able to get $630 (including taxes) from Boston to Zurich, returning from Prague for this August. One day in April, British Airways dropped their fares by almost half. The sale didn't last long! I jumped on that offer!

mark

I got great fares for September ($480 - Dubrovnik) and October ($525 - Prague) but fares to Ibiza for the beginning of July have hovered around $1200. I've looked into flying to London and then taking a smaller carrier but to no avail. I looked into then taking a ferry but flying to Barcelona on Continental was $2200 (yikes) . After 9/11 Iberia stopped flying to Barcelona directly. Also - Spanair has reduced flights to the islands. I thought I might be able to work a deal living in NYC but peak summer travel looks pretty tight / expensive.

DB

Another good point Mark. Many non-stops to medium size cities have been eliminated resulting in more connections in London and Paris. Chicago has always been a great city to catch non-stops. Since 9/11 we have only one non-stop to Switzerand. To Zurich on Swiss. No more non-stops to Geneva. 8.5 hour fights are now 10 or 11 hours. Oh well.

xxx

Elvira: Tried travelocity.com and selected RT chicago-Paris mid-june. Lo and Behold it came our to $6200/person!! not the $471-$512 you wrote. So I tried to do flexible dates and it does show the $471-$512 fares BUT try clicking on the dates where those fares are available and everything is sold out from mid-May!!

Puzzled

<BR>"Well, those European Summer fares never did go down." Even more puzzling is that fares from the UK to the USA have not gone down either! I'm searching for a decent return fare from Glasgow to Newark/JFK/Philadelphia for the end of October, low season, and can find nothing under &pound;450! I was led to believe fares to the USA would dip after the events of 9/11. They haven't.

Wayne

Unfortunately, in response to the original inquiry, this year's experience is irrelevant next year. There is no way to tell how fares will be priced next year because much of the pricing depends on the world situation, what with terrorists everywhere. If you want to travel this year, wait until the next terrorist attack in the U.S., which the government promises us will be any day now, then watch those ticket prices go down.