Who is going to Europe in September 2008? How much is your plane ticket?

Hi YK,

1. $787

2. LAX/CDG/LAX

3. US Airways

4. Mid September (not asked)

reverse.. MAYBE going to the states.. have been floored by high arifares to cvg /ord or ewr from vlc.. around 1,100 EUROS!!!!!!

they dropped to 750 one day.. and now are back up.

i have never seen anything like this year.

ho hum.

No one's going to Europe in Sept???

Jacksonville, Fl - Paris CDG

Last week of Sept

One FF ticket ($194 to transfer some miles and book the FF ticket)
One paid ticket $985
Both tickets on Continental

I've been watching since January but don't have the stomach to wait a long time.

(1) $975 including taxes, etc.

(2) DFW-CDG/LHR-DFW

(3) AA

(4) 9/4/08 - 10/6/08

Bought tickets a few months ago -- figured the price wouldn't get any better.

I am going in September, but I am using FF miles, so I can't help.

Going SFO-CGD and back from Rome to SFO in September but using FF for two Busines Elite on Delta.

Travelling in Sept from Australia,

- Airfare $2100.00 (x4)

-From Adelaide to London

-Singapore Airlines

That was the cheaper earlybird fare booked in November.

I bet that makes you feel better about your costs.!!

bkd with carnival cruise out of ny
to rome,and return
charged 1025p/p
hope this gives you an idea

About $1150

SEA/CDG

Air France

I'm not going in mid-September, but I couldn't resist checking airfares. If I were to buy today, I would buy this, most likely:
YVR-LGW
CDG-YVR
Total cost about $837 CAD all-in. Roundtrip to London would be $858 all-in.
Prices are variable by about +/-30, depending on which exact September days.
This is on Zoom.

Not Sept but June

Flying Miami to Paris then Rome to Miami openjaw, changing in Madrid via Iberia, $850 booked in Jan as my dates were not flexible at all,.

Using FF miles, paid $97 taxes.

MBS-DTW-CDG

Northwest/Air France

Arrive Paris 9/24, depart 9/30

I'm going to Greece on Delta for $1000

Hi yk; We are flying US Air to CDG at $807. US per ticket. The flight was found on airfare.com Iris

yk; We are flying out of Boston, to Paris, on Sept. 12th and returning on October 5th. Iris

Flying out of Boston in September on Lufthansa - Business Class.

Cost = 0 - got 2 free tickets using my miles!! Yippee!

I'm going to Athens from Minneapolis. If I remember correctly, it's $1100-$1200 RT in mid-September. Gulp.

Leaving August 27 Kalispell, Montana to Germany.
$987.00
NEVER any deals out of our airport though it is serviced by Delta, Northwest, United and US air

I'm surprised/amazed how many of you are flying with FF miles. Good for you.

For the rest of us, looks like majority paid around $1000 or more.

2 lucky ones got theirs for ~$800.

I'm actually planning to book
BOS-CDG-QXG (Angers) with the second leg on TGV as an AA codeshare
Then return
BRU-JFK-BOS

Current price is $1083.

If I leave out the TGV leg, the price drops to $1028.

The difference is $55, which is around €35.

Topping this.

It's been 2 weeks since I first posted. I'm still checking fares daily, and not surprisingly, fares have gone up some (which I attributed to rising oil prices).

Now the prices are running between $1100-$1160.

Still holding out for a fare break.

yk - I just put BOS-CDG into kayak and it came up with $908 on American - departing Sept 18th and returning Sept 25th (I put in random dates). Might be worth you having a look with your dates as it'll save to $400 on a couple of tickets

I'm not sure of your exact dates, but on Lessno.com, BOS-CDG for Sept. 15-23 is $680 total. But it's on United/Lufthansa. I've been surprised by the cheaper airfares I've been able to find on that website, and so far I haven't seen any downside.

$2000 from west coast to Milan, Business Class on USAir

Going Sept 25 - Nov 4 - used ff miles but have to purchase a ticket IN Europe to get to Italy - it will be around 250.00 and I paid about 300.00 total with tax etc for the ff ticket - so about 550.00 for two tickets.

SuQue - WOW! That's an excellent fare for Business class!

wombat - thanks. I looked at kayak and the cheapest fare for my dates/cities are available thru vayama. The problem is the AA flights booked thru vayama are under fare bucket Q - which doesn't earn any miles on the transatlantic leg.

WT - I've looked at lessno a couple of times, but when I select American Airlines, it never was able to pull up any itin for me.

On one hand, I'd love to save $100-200 or even more with the flights, OTOH, I very much want to fly AA for the bonus miles and the chance for upgrade using miles + co-pay.

If UA/Lufthansa is able to offer the fare for less than $700, there must be other factors than fuel cost. It does maybe give hope AA will go down yet. I understand about the miles accumulation and the business class upgrades. With UA (I guess not Lufthansa), you could do paid E+ upgrades most likely. If you were able to save $500/ticket, then you could use that to do a mileage run on AA .

I don't see AA listed for that route on Lessno (maybe it's too expensive to be listed in this instance), but I have seen AA listed on other routes (my own searches) on Lessno for considerably cheaper prices than I've seen elsewhere.

"No one's going to Europe in September 2008?"

Yep, going to Russia, but Skymiles are taking me there! 90,000 for First Class and I got the first date and time I requested. Score!

I am flying in Sept from DFW to Barcelona (connecting in Amsterdam) for $899 on Northwest/KLM. I also tracked for months, and the lowest I saw was around $800, but I wasn't ready to book yet.

"No one's going to Europe in September 2008?"

We're going to Spain, but it's part of a tour thing, so I don;t know what the air portion is...

Open jaw, ATL-BRE via CDG, and returning BOD-ATL via CDG (on Delta and AirFrance equipment, booked through Delta). This trip is for work, so I didn't worry too much about finding the absolute lowest price, instead opting for most convenient schedule, and paid $1166 all in.

I go to Europe almost every September and prices are generally in this range: neither as high as summer peaks, nor as low as the winter lull.

Hi WT - when I went to United.com, the price I got for the dates I needed came out to over $1200.

On Lessno, the cheapest is around $830 on LH (operated by UA) - but I can't figure out a way to find out the fare bucket for the flights. Do you know how?

I don't know how to figure out the fare bucket for a Lessno ticket, yk, but it may well be one that you're not used to seeing in any case, as some fare buckets are only sold through discounters.

Does AA tie your earned mileage award to the fare bucket? Delta doesn't penalize for discounted fares, but I know that some carriers do. In any case you'll still have lounge access and exit row access.

I'm going to Azerbaijan / Georgia / Armenia, which are counted as European destinations for Delta SkyMiles purposes, so 50,000 SkyMiles instead of $1,400.

IAH - ATH

$1126

CO (fare was basically the same on BA)

9/6/08

Therese - on AA, "Q" fares do not earn miles on transatlantic flights. Q is the consolidator fare bucket for AA.

YK, I think the only way to find out the fare bucket is to get it in writing from Lessno. I should emphasize again that I haven't personally booked them (yet).

1800flyeurope.com might be worth checking too - I see some less than $750 all-in fares around your dates there too. The same concern about mileage earning would apply there too, as I don't know what fare bucket they use.

We're flying Newark to CDG next month for $535 RT including all taxes and fees. I think the fare is still available. The catch is it's coach on Air India.

It made the difference on whether we could go or not!

But it's apples and oranges in any case, isn't it? yk is elite with AA, not UA, so even if the fare bucket doesn't earn miles it doesn't make any difference, does it? Unless yk's got status with UA as well and I managed to overlook that crucial bit of information.

FREE with AA airline miles--don't know why more people don't do it.

Not going in September, but leaving on Thanksgiving Day (11/27 - 12/4).

I can comment on Lessno.com

Flying from Orlando, FL to Paris.

Purchased 3 tickets for $1693.00 or about $560 per ticket.

Tickets are on Northwest. I believe they are "V" class. Personally, I don't fly enough to care if I actually get miles for this flight...just glad they didn't cost me an arm/leg.

yk-- USAirways has non-stop to CDG from Boston at $766 all through Sept. So does British Airways, SwissAir and Lufthansa.

You are not stuck with AA; you are making the desicion that the use of AA lounge, a chance of Exit Row seating, and bonus miles is worth approx $400/pp.

I don't think it is; but that's me....

Viajero2 - When I plugged my dates in on USAirways website, the lowest fare I get is $1030pp.

For all of you who are so helpful, my dates are not flexible (as we have a wedding to attend) and we are flying open jaw. So our dates are
9/12 BOS-CDG (preferably to QXG Angers)
9/21 BRU-BOS

I wasn't familiar with lessno but just checked price to London in October ($738). Does this price include taxes?

Yes, at least for every route I have checked, taxes are included in the listed price. If you click through, you can get a breakdown of this total (like $600 fare, $120 taxes and fees, or whatever).

The price that Lessno.com gives is the total price, including taxes and fees.

For what it is worth, I have NYC-CPH and BOS-CPH in my Kayak Daily Buzz alert and those fares have been showing in the $700s during September for a while now. I can't comment on all the possible European options, but I gather that fares have retreated a bit since the spring. Or at least, there are more bargains to be had.

BTW, I highly recommend the Kayak Buzz service to those that like to track airfares. I delete it without reading many days, but it definitely helps in assessing the general state of airfares for specific routes.

If you check which routes are new for varoius arilines under the Open Skies agreement, you may be able to get good deals. I did very well on a new CO flight to London from EWR last month.

yk:

If you ever figure the fare bucket at lessno.com, would you please post it here? I also found a great fare at that site using AA and partner JAL which I couldn't duplicate at aa.com. I would really like to use AA, if possible, as I am elite member. Thanks, yk.

For first week in October
1. $750 including taxes
2. Boston to CGC via Philadelphia
3. US Air

JFK/MADRID/TENERIFE/JFK - on Iberia
$941
Departs Sept. 8 - I wanted to go two weeks earlier, but the flight was at least $500 more.

First time to Europe...hope its worth it

1. $1,922 taxes included; 2 persons
2. Chicago-Rome; Bologna-Rome-Chicago
3. Alitalia; Oct 9 - Oct 25

I just priced our business class tickets (to Asia, not Europe) for next year at Lessno and there weren't ANY savings I could see.

Delta direct flight SLC to CDG 980pp
Easyjet Cdg - MXP 58pp

2nd week of September to Italy

1. $825 per ticket including all taxes
2. PHL/FCO/PHL
3. US Airways

Because of my job, I have to work around deadlines and can only travel at certain times of the month. I book my trips as far in advance as I can (this one was booked in Oct. 07), but I've been pretty lucky with airfare.

yk and others:

We're leaving in 2 weeks flying N/S IAD-MUC (Wash.Dulles-Munich) and our tickets purchased a couple months ago cost $818.80

Airfares are known to fluctuate throughout the day, often as much as 40%, so you've got to be "lucky" to find the best price ...... or download the coolest software from "http://www.Yapta.com" which checks fares 4 or more times a day and alerts you to the best price. You can set the parameters of your search and it's dummy proof, so anyone can use it.

It works for searches before you buy and also tracks your flight fares after you buy, so that you can demand a rebate or voucher if your fare drops after purchasing.

Enjoy your trip.

If I leave a day earlier (which is 9/11), I can get the whole itin for $1020 all-in. It adds an additional leg BOS-JFK-CDG-QXG. The JFK-CDG departs 9:30p and gets in at 11am, which is a better time for sleeping.

I'm leaving from Southern Florida to CDG on Sept 4, returning on Sept 23 rd.. And I always look to travel on Tues ,Wed, or Thurs for the lower prices. Meanwhile if I leave from Miami it's $170 more, the same for Fort Lauderdale, but if I leave from West Palm Beach it's about $130 more.


One stop either in DC with United, or Atlanta with Delta and price varying from $868 to 899 to 926.

Surprisingly found better prices myself than the live agent did. or even Kayak.

Anyway will keep checking for even better and thanks to all for the website suggestions.

Using Skymiles,Newark to Geneva, coach, Continental
Return Frankfurt-Detroit, business class,Northwest

I'm flying from Newark, NJ to Shannon Airport Ireland r/t in May. Cost? Almost $1,000 on Continental. Unbelievable.

Seems like the prices keep going after every day.

Went up another $20 today.

I can fly Aer Lingus (w/change in Dublin) for $861 for my dates.

But the fare bucket for this price won't earn any AA miles for me.

The quest continues.

I'm flying Delta, Sept. 18 return Oct. 9. Paid $936 for an open jaw flight.

Flying out of Savannah on Sept. 18 to CDG

Flying out of Nice on Oct. 8 to JFK

Flying out of LGA on Oct. 9 to Savannah.

I purchased the tickets in October. I had been monitoring the prices and even though it was almost a year out, since it was below $1000 I jumped at it because I had a gut feeling I wouldn't get it any cheaper.

When I checked the other day the exact itinerary I will be flying the price was $1700! If I booked now I could do it for close to what I have but not with the flights I wanted.

Departing Sept. 9 Houston/IAH to Paris/CDG

Returning Sept. 21 London/LGW to Houston

Continental Airlines $950 (includes all fees and taxes)

This is what my mom is paying, I'm traveling on a FF ticket. This didn't seem like a good price, but given the fact that fuel prices won't be getting better, I figured we might as well go ahead and book it.

I'm English so obviously flying TO USA not from USA but got a ticket last week Manchester (UK) to Chicago - return - for £310 - aprox $650 for September. Via Amsterdam which is better than Heathrow. So try KLM.

We wanted Northwest tickets from DTW, Detroit to Gatwick, London 7 May to 21 May. In mid-March we paid $682, and although I thought we could do better waiting longer, the price only went up from there. I'm fairly certain that last year the same trip cost $580.

If you haven't already booked your trip, check this out: http://airfare.travelzoo.com/european-airfare/401485

These deals go fast sometimes, but it might be worth checking in to. We paid $1150 last year from western US to Venice and $1083 the year before!

Bookmarking for the any good suggestions here. So many sites that I'm now not only blurry-eyed but cross-eyed

Well my lovely fare in the $800's has disappeared, and since I'm not leaving until Sept. I'm still looking at flights. the Open Jaw comes up with worst prices and stops than booking segments separately, for instance I'd rather have a stop over in Atlanta than Philadelphia -

Trying to go from MIA/FLL area to CDG to ATH and back to FLL for September.

Prices seem to have gone from $1300 to $2000 +

still looking...maybe more toward the Fall last minutes will come up ?

End of August thru mid September - Rochester, NY - Berlin, Frankfurt - Rochester $716 USAir.

Being a small airport we seldom get great deals but I've been watching the flights since November. Comparison site of choice is kayak.com, booked directly on the airline website.

Another 2 weeks passed by.

Tickets are still $1180pp for my dates.

If we leave 1 day earlier (9/11), prices drop down to $1085pp.

Since there's 2 of us traveling, we'll save $180, which is enough for an extra day's expense (hotel + food).

I'll continue to keep checking. Hope the airlines will start advertising for fall sale soon.

Hi yk.

We are not leaving September, but two months ago, my brother found an aifare, SLC-LHR-SLC for a summer trip (mid-June) for $670 (all inc.) on USAir. On the other hand, we are traveling this Thanksgiving (albeit off-season), SFO-LHR-SFO for $620 (all inc.) on BMI (serviced by United).

How a out looking into flying to LHR first then go from there. Sometimes it might be a lot cheaper. We travel with our kids all the time so it's x4 for us...hence off-season travel most of the time.

Hope this helps. We usually use Yahoo Travel to check fares...

It seems like most people who got a good deal are flying US Airways.

DH & I really prefer to fly BOS-CDG as we still need to catch a TGV train to Angers. We are attending a wedding, so the fewer stops the better.

When I was younger and poorer, I didn't mind multiple connections in order to save $. But with the flight delays, security etc going on, it seems worthwhile to pay a bit more for less headache.

My mother is going to visit me and from PHL, her round trip tickets are about $750; she used miles to upgrade to PE.

From LHR, we are flying to Berlin together and then catching the train down to Dresden for a week--the RT airfares (London-Berlin) for that are roughly $270 each at the current exchange rate.

Sacramento, CA to LHR departing on Aug 24; returning on Sept 9. $1080 total with taxes included.

This is to the FF milers above:

Has anyone else noticed unusual availability this year? Not necessarily Sept, though there are some tickets to be had (Delta and affiliates). I'm seeing SkySaver fares in June/july (and I mean THIS summer!) ATL departure. Multi-city: some combo of Nice, Geneva, maybe CDG. Good itineraries, too.

There are plenty of fares available in Nov...Sep and Oct scattered days. Even next April isn't bad. I was really surprised. Haven't gone all the way through to booking yet, so maybe I'm getting false hits.

Anyone else noticed this?

Jeanne,

The othere day I was shocked to see wide FF availability to many cities in Europe from Newark on Continental for the summer months! This is unheard of. Of course, this is the summer when I'm not going to any of those cities so I can't take advantage of it!

Yes, many of the delta offering were CO through Newark. I just wonder if it has to do with the high dollar?

That's how I got my FF flight for Sept - Delta miles/Continental flight.

I have miles ticket on AirFrance for Sept just in the last few weeks and it is with Delta miles.

We are also fl ying from Boston to Dublin onto Barcelona ONE WAY and give or take it was about $450.00...

It's been 6 weeks since I started this thread.

I'm actually surprised the ticket prices haven't gone UP in the last few weeks, esp given the fuel prices and also w/AA cutting routes etc.

Anyway, I have put my tickets on hold for now (good until midnight tomorrow) and they are $1108 each. Not bad considering it's only $20 more than what I found 6 weeks ago. I don't think I'm gonna wait and hope for any fare sale at this point. Also, these flights have the exact ones I wanted, with minimum connections and minimal layover time.

YK good luck!!

Roundtrip to Milan---using 50,000 FF
miles from Delta. Flying out of Newark on Continental.

1) $504 return, total
2) Halifax to Copenhagen, Stockholm to Halifax
3) Icelandair

Booked in late April.

We bought tickets in January on AA from Saint Louis through Chicago to Brussels from Sept. 3 to 20 for $942 with all taxes and fees.

Final update:

On 06/03/2008, 11:41 am; I wrote:

<< I have put my tickets on hold for now (good until midnight tomorrow) and they are $1108 each. >>

Anyway, I should have bought them right then and there, but DH someone convinced me that the price might come down again, so I let them go.

The day after, the same tickets went up by $60 per ticket!

After some more thought and searching, we decided to fly out one day earlier as it's cheaper to fly on 9/11 than 9/12.

I finally bite the bullet and bought the tickets 2 nights ago. They are $1088 each, which is about $100 more than what they would have been if I had gotten them 1 month earlier. Oh well.

I just checked the prices again today, and for the same flights, the ticket price has gone up $9 per ticket already!

Bought my Paris tickets in April for Sept08; they're up $120 now than what I paid.

Departing from JFK 9/27/08 to Rome (FCO) returning 10/11/08. Booked Alitalia for 2 tickets at a little under $1,800. Only problem, Alitalia may be in bankruptcy by then. Any thoughts about Alitalia anyone?

The days of seat sales and last minute tickets sales may be over folks... Anyways the 50 bucks you save on a ticket is now going to be paid back in as most airlines are going to start charging for luggage!

Booked last month for end of June
2 tickets JFK-ZRH $2285 each , Business Class. Used 600 miles for each

Today I booked one Delta FF ticket on Continental from Dulles to Rome and one paid for ticket at $1200. These are for Sept.22-Oct.9.

I had to try really hard to coordinate a paid ticket to match the FF ticket schedule. There were a number of FF ticket choices that would have meant my spending $2000 for a ticket on the same plane- one would have had a three night layover in Paris- too bad I couldn't get that one!

Now I need to do the fun stuff of planning itinerary and hotels/convents!

Open-jaw: Washington Dulles to Nice and Florence back to Washington Dulles Sept. 24 thru Oct. 13th grand total $985.00 (ouch...did that hurt)

Going to Scotland - Sept 29 - October 12. JFK - EDI $727 (including all taxes/fuel etc.). non-stop with Delta.

Just looked again, and price is now $940!! (I bought my tickets 2 weeks ago.) More if you go on a costlier day (like Friday).

I know I am being a show off but I can't hardly contain myself since I was able to get 3 tickets to Paris Aug. 5 to 21 with FF
The way things are going this may be our last trip to Europe for a long while.

I have A/France tickets from Asheville, NC to CDG..9/10 - 10/10 $979, purchased in Jan.

I have FF tickets for 4/14/2009 - 5/13/2009,Asheville to CDG... just able to purchase.

Next will be November of 2009..hard to tell what they will cost!!

$1212.00 SFO Venice return Naples SFO
of that total over just under $400 was tax and airport fees.

Just bought Chicago-Amsterdam round trip tix the first week of October for $700, all taxes/fees in. Codeshare between United/BMI. Thanks to yk for starting this thread; it's been very informative!

I'm flying airmiles but my travel companions have been searching for ages and the best they could find, being extremely creative was $1,100.00. Buffalo/Madrid/Barcelona and return Madrid/Fort Lauderdale (previous vacation planned)

Can you believe this?!?! 2 weeks after I bit the bullet and bought our tickets, the prices today (for the same exact flights) are down $135 per ticket!

Unfortunately, AA no longer offers a refund for the difference. Well, it does, but it'll charge a change fee which is more than the price drop itself.

Since my mother is older and lives in a motel in Ireland I have to get over there as often as I can...about twice a year right now.
And, I'm coming from CA which adds to the cost. I love the convenience of flying Non-Stop from LAX to Dublin and Aer Lingus has provided that very nicely thank you!

So, was I thrilled to see that they had a SALE where they TOOK OFF the TOTAL FUEL CHARGE!! For 2 that is a savings of $540 each seat!!

So, we fly out mid Sept. to first of Oct. LAX-DUB for $661 each RT!!!

With the higher costs now I am very happy with this price and my non-stop to boot! Sadly, I know that Aer Lingus is stopping that route in November for the winter (I hope just for the winter!)...so, I had to jump on this..and I almost did not see this sale!

Shadow

We leave on September 3 (a mere 69 days). Off to Croatia this year. We purchased all of our tickets back on February 3. We depart Chicago on AirIndia ($610.60 each) for a direct flight to Frankfurt. We will stay with friends over night in Stuttgart (renting car and driving there) and then fly to Zagreb on GermanWings ($70.35 each). We depart Dubrovnik on 9/21 via TUifly ($77.09)back to Stuttgart, drive to Frankfurt next day and fly AirIndia non-stop to Chicago. Taxes, surcharges and fees amounted to almost $350 per person. The car ends up being about $25.00 per person each way. This is quite comparable to what we paid last year for our trip to Slovenia. No matter, we are going to Croatia!!! Shirley

We have tickets to fly from Texas to Nice and then Barcelona back to Texas. Our tickets are just over $1,000 each. We purchased them in April.

Not September but Thanksgiving week-- I bit the bullet a week ago, and the price has gone down about $25 now.

I was able to obtain three frequent flyer tickets using Northwest for Detroit - London/Edinburgh - Detroit. I purchased a fourth ticket for $1200 on Continental. The tickets were obtained/purchased four weeks before our mid July trip. I was amazed that I was able to get WorldPerks tickets at the base point value four weeks before our trip. Of course, it has made for a very busy few weeks of planning a trip that I would normally spend months planning. Still, I'm not complaining.