$1500 to Europe economy in May- buy now or wait?
 

I'm flying my family of 4 to Rome from Ohio end of May. $1500 is the cheapest out there and I've been looking for months. This seems way higher than the last time we flew to Europe a year ago. Then it was about $1200. Why is it so expensive right now? Should I buy now or wait and hope they go down?

Thx!

Is the $1500 for round-trip per person?

Yes, MoBro, $1500 per person round trip. Economy.

€ is much stronger than last year compared to $.
Maybe it plays a role ?
However I just paid 800 € Rio Paris.
And I see very low price NYC paris or Bruxelles.

So is $1500 US to Europe standard now? Or is this high? Seems high to me?

It's far far far too early to get the best priced seats for Europe in May. If rates go down (and that's an "if" not a "when"), they won't go down until after Christmas. The best sales I've seen extend only through March 2018.

However, if price is the only criteria for you, then you should look harder. There are now several budget airlines flying to Europe with extremely good rates. Wow Air and Norwegian are both offering very good prices. Rome is a difficult ticket because flights from the US are fairly limited and very seasonal, so they are expensive. If you were willing to fly somewhere else, you might find a much cheaper rate. Or if you are willing to connect, the same.

But I also don't know when you're flying. If Memorial Day weekend, then the answer is probably you may not find something better. But in mid-May I'm seeing prices from $900 to $1200 on various airlines from Cleveland. Try Google Flights to find the widest range of options.

Also . . . From <i>where</i> to <where</i>? City pairs/routes can make a HUGE difference.

You're hitting summer-season fares at the end of May. Go a month earlier, in April, and the fare from Columbus (as a random example) will be around $800.

End of May is high season fares. Usually the first week or two of May the fares are lower.

It must be your dates, as I just easily found several airlines with a RT fare of about $1200 (CMH-RCO on 5/22 and 5/29), both United and Delta and all their codeshares. These have one stop, of course, there are no nonstops, but nothing terrible in terms of times. If you are going from Cleveland, fares are $1300 RT on those same dates on KLM/AF/Delta. If flying from Cincinnati, real bargains, only about $930 RT on those dates from UAL or AA and less than $1000 on other major airlines (eg, Delta).

If you are going from some small town, all bets are off. It is possible you are just picking a wrong date, sometimes moving by one day makes a big difference.

sorry, I did mean FCO, of course for Rome

Buying airfare is always a crap shoot. I agree that if you can fly into another airport than Rome, you might find better prices. And fly open-jaw, so you don't have to backtrack to your arrival city.

Besides the price, be sure to check the layover times you will have, and the total travel time. We recently flew to/from Europe, and I noticed some flights had up to 13-hour layovers. After shopping around, I was able to find Lufthansa nonstop for us, to/from Munich. It makes a big difference, if you're on a good airline. I prefer to pay a bit extra, to avoid the chintzy airlines. On Lufthansa, you get hot meals, full service the entire flight, with snacks, drinks (wine!), and a clean airplane with all the bells and whistles (even though we fly Economy).

I bought these tickets a few months ago, and noticed that it was much 'cheaper' to fly with Mileage Plus awards, than to pay in cash. I only used 75,000 miles to fly Denver- Dublin, Dublin-Sevilla, Madrid-Denver.

>>End of May is high season fares. <<

Not IME. "Highest' season (for leisure travelers/economy tix) is from about July 1 - first week in September. May is often significantly cheaper.

But again, from where to where and exact dates are important.

Thanks for all the advice!

Unfortunately, my dates are not flexible, as I have to wait until my kids are out of school, and also I have already paid half down for our villa on the Amalfi coast.

May 30-June 10 Columbus, OH to Rome

I really only want 1 stop, to make it easier on my kids. That stop would be in the US on the east coast somewhere, or Atlanta.

If you have more constraints you are less likely to have better prices.

To go to Buenos Aires from Bruxelles I checked from paris Düsseldorf Amsterdam and Bxl.
I finally went Bxl Paris Rio Buenos Aires.

I think you're looking at a city pair where there's not a lot of competition. Columbus isn't exactly at gateway to Europe and Rome doesn't get the competition in transatlantic flights that, say, London or Brussels get. Hence the higher fares.

You might do MUCH better if you are willing to travel to someplace like Cleveland, Detroit or Chicago and fly out of there.

Just did a quick check on Orbitz my go to site for getting an idea as to various fares. I plugged in mid- May and they have flights from Columbus to Rome with stop in New York for $1100.

Just looked at Air Canada. Found $1109 fares for your dates from Columbus to Rome with a stop in Toronto. Seat selection is an additional $80 per round trip.

Have used AC before and found it to be one of the better carriers from North America. Toronto terminal is great. However, the walk from your arrival gate from the US to the terminal is a haul. Don't remember if you need to transit Canadian immigration upon your arrival but this would offer you quite a bit of savings.

Gordyloo recently posted where review your transit through Canada. I used your example and it said you may need to be re-screened through security in Toronto.