Wow...Glad I booked when I did
 

Booked JFK to Paris and back Rome to JFK for $842/ticket on Feb 15 through Delta. I just did the same itinerary and the price was $1242! And to think I was going to wait, "to see if the prices go down!" (Especially since I bought four ticket.)

I'm going nuts reading posts like this. We have friends who have me (sort of) in charge of watching SEA-MIA or FLL airfares for them around a Jan 06 cruise. Prices were as low as low 200's, now in low 300's, and friends "heard it through the grapevine" they should wait til fare sales in June. I personally would book to get my choice of flights, but must respect their choice since it's their money.

I don't think with the fuel situation being what it is that we are going to see much of prices going down.

When is wliwl's trip? Time of year is a big factor. (May-September is high season for travel to Europe.) Days of the week you are flying, too. You can usually fly cheaper Tuesday-Thursday. But if you're flying in season, $842 for an open-jaw itinerary seems like a great deal now!

I'm playing the "Should I book or should I wait" game for a trip to Italy, but I'm still seven months away, so I'll wait a bit longer. From inquiries to these boards, I gather that >120 days out is too far (no airline is going to have a sale that far out). My experience is that you have to monitor the airline's site and check to see how quickly the seats are filling, and listen to see if certain airlines are going to have big sales.

chips = Low $200s for cross country flights (especially from cold weather to FL in winter) always sounds pretty good. You typically only see cheaper flights about a week or so in advance, when airlines have last-minute sales, but those sales usually have restrictions on which days you can fly. So if you're booking specificlly around an event like a cruise, you can't really wait until last minute. That said, I think this week's increases are tied to the oil news. I think you'll see your low $200s again in the next few months, and I'd jump on that fare when you see it...

Thanks grubs. I have noticed the fares (I checked this a.m.) are about the same as last week, but NWA's shot up dramatically. Fortunately, they don't fly often so have no particular choice of carriers to worry about. (Unlike me - every mile counts! :))

It was AAA that told my friends that they'd see lower fares to Florida come on sale around June.

inthechips2, I can't imagine what would possess people to wait for something better on that flight when they could have locked in while it was available in the low-$200 range. I have had similar situations with people who ask me to watch fares and then don't pull the trigger when it's time. "You can buy them books, but you can't teach them."

I can't either, but I can only say that I think they just don't fly enough (in fact, hardly at all) and they have no realistic ideas of airfares. This is probably more aggravating than it needs to be, and I'm about ready to just tell them to work with a TA (and pay the $25 pp service charge), in order to preserve our friendship!

I would really like to know what the fuel prices are going to do to airfares. Any opinions?

Fuel prices will probably translate into surcharges very soon, if they haven't already. But airlines are still in the tough position of having very little pricing power, so what fuel cost increases mean mostly is more red ink for the immediate future. I understand some unprofitable flights have been cut from some schedules. The more the supply of seats is cut to line up more closely with demand, the more likely it is that fares will increase.

Our trip is in late June. While I was watching the fares, I noticed that some of the flights on the itinerary went up in price first. For instance, say there were 6 flights on the days I wanted to fly. First 2 of them went up in price, then a couple more. That's when I quick booked.

I wouldn't get too concerned by the temporary blips, I just ran an ita 30-day range from JFK to CDG in mid-June to July and the range for non-stops is still in the $860-880 range.

AA has notified several tour operators that fuel charges to Europe will increase to 40.00 in each direction starting the 11 of March. Maybe, maybe not. Seems to be an airline thing.

<b>heretoday</b>,

just a guess, but I believe the surcharge will ONLY be applied to tour operators. They get the deeply discounted unpublished fares and it's easiest for any airline to hit them first without any bad publicity.

The only way fuel surcharges stick to regular published fares is when the other majors agree to match. We have seen many attempts by different airlines to add a fuel surcharge only to pull it back a day or 2 later. The last time it finally stuck. I don't think the $40 charge applies to published fares, at least for now.