Blondie21

Is it still advisable to buy airline tickets 6 months in advance to Europe to get the best prices?
Does purchasing tickets open jaw, let's say fron New York to Pisa, and from Venice to New York make a difference? I would think they are always more expensive no matter when you book. Instead of a multi-city search, if you search one way for each of these does it make any difference?

Do you think it is too late to plan such a trip now for September? Would a travel agent get the best deal?

Thanks

bobthenavigator

There is no right time since it is all based on supply and demand. The airlines look at bookings 6 months out and again at 120 days and 90 days. They react with discounts if they have too many seats unsold--on specific flights. Your only good strategy is prayer and persistence. I hope you use ITA software to search---or Kayak.com. Good luck !

Dukey1

ticket sales are totally computerized; the machinery constantly re-prices sometimes minute to minute based on load factors nobody is looking anymore...and open jaw tickets aren't necessarily more expensive

ellenem

"Instead of a multi-city search, if you search one way for each of these does it make any difference?"

Yes, it will cost dramatically more to buy one-way tickets.

greg

Does it make difference if you search one way for each of these cities over multi-city for the routes of interest? Of course, there are differences -- usually an enormous difference. You don't need to have someone answer this for you. Just plug the destinations and dates yourself, and you can quickly find out which one you don't want to use.

The two approaches are the same for Airlines that price a segment at a time like Southwest Airlines. But transatlantic flights are rarely priced this way.

fmpden

We use open jaw for nearly all of our trips and rarely find open jaw to be more expensive. One year it was $200 cheaper to go into Rome and home from Zurich than a RT to Rome. Of course, you have to use the multi city option on the search engines. Two, one way tickets will always be very expensive unless it is an airline that only sells one way tickets. I am not aware of any international flights that are sold that way.

ira

Hi B,

>Does purchasing tickets open jaw, let's say fron New York to Pisa, and from Venice to New York make a difference?

Not usually, although they can be higher or lower depending on how the computers feel at that moment.

>...if you search one way for each of these does it make any difference?

That is the expensive way to do it.

>Do you think it is too late to plan such a trip now for September?

Since you are only 4 months out, I suggest that you start paying careful attention - like daily - to prices.

Good luck.

HellieF

I recently booked JFK-PSA, FCO-JFK. I paid about $50 more than I would have paid that day for RT JFK-FCO.

To check prices, I used Bing (its travel search features were discussed in a recent NYT article about finding fares). They have this cool thing where they analyze whether it's likely to be a good moment to buy, or whether it's better to wait. (I had to use the R/T JFK to FCO search, as they don't offer this analysis for open-jaw routes.) For that route, they were saying it would be good to wait, but we were getting antsy and didn't want to miss out chance to grab a nonstop in both directions. So we booked our tickets. Sure enough, the Rome-only flight went down a tad over the next couple of days, but our route went up something like $150 overnight!

I don't know what it all means, except that you can do your homework and wait for the optimal moment, but as has been stated above, airfares are in a constant state of flux, and at a certain point you just have to hope for the best and take the plunge.

nytraveler

Open jaws tickets are NOT any more expensive - unless you buy two one-way tickets. What you need to look for is a multi-city or multi-destination itinerary. Then you will pay half of each RT fare.

If you are going high season it probably makes sense to buy tickets as soon as you have the dates. If youa re going in low season I would watch carefully to get and idea what sale prices should be (given the increase in fuel prices over the last year).

kybourbon

Some Pisa flights are seasonal so you might not find them for your dates. Often Milan and Rome will be cheaper than other cities and have better connections.

ellenem

Delta has nonstop flights between JFK an both Pisa and Venice. According to the current schedule, the Venice flights seem to be daily while the Pisa fights are 4 days a week.

JFK to PSA = Delta #136
PSA to JFK = Delta #137

JFK to VCE = Delta #86
VCE to JFK = Delta #87

kdann

You get to save a lot by booking flights few months prior to your trip! I always book my tickets minimum 3 months in advance unless it is urgent and last minute.

You also get to save when you book round trips. It is advisable.

Also for the Best deals I find cheaptickets.sg to be quite helpful. I have saved on many of my tickets by booking through cheap tickets.....

kybourbon

Finnair has a deal if you can find it for your dates.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...r-only-814.cfm