crckwc1

Air fares to Europe seem to be going up almost daily. Right now I'm looking at a multi-city fare DFW-FCO and CDG-DFW for late May-June and the best I've found so far is just over $1500 for a one-stop, decent itinerary. Would anyone like to predict if this fare might come down closer to departure? Or should I grab it now?

GoSox

I doubt fare will come down but a good travel agent can get you a fare closer to 41400.

GoSox

Make that $1400

walkabout

bing.com has a fare predictor for many itineraries, which I have used in the past and found to be pretty accurate. You might want to plug in your dates and see what they predict, i.e, wait or buy now. Not an exact science, but it may give you a bit of an idea of whether prices are rising or not.

Good luck!

crckwc1

Thanks to both of you.

Dukey1

"one stop" and "decent" may very well be the drivers in your particular case

itasoftware.com has a full month view you can use to find the cheapest dates. The fact that airfares continue to get higher probably surprises few people these days...what prices are getting substantially lower? Hotels? rental cars?

crckwc1

I found a super fare --$1138, everything I wanted. While I fiddled around finalizing other details, it disappeared, never to be seen again. Same fare is now $1498, and the best (for my purposes) on bing.com today is $1438. Yes, "one stop" and "decent" are the drivers. I'm much too old and impatient for a 22-hr., multi-stop itinerary to get to western Europe. Now I'm off to itasoftware.com -- thanks Dukey1. Maybe I'll find another keeper and this time I'll be ready to click "purchase."

Leburta

With oil prices such a large component of airlines expenses, and rising prices predicted on the horizon, airfares are likely to keep rising throughout the year.

trafaelwyr

I had the same dilemma as well - buy now or wait? I knew that this year I wanted to go to Zurich in September and I kept checking Kayak.com for rates. I'd been doing this since December. All the rates I'd seen were around the $850-$900 range - and this was flying out of DFW with one stop (there are no nonstops from DFW to Zurich anymore). About a month ago while searching on Kayak, they had Expedia listed but didn't show the price. I went there and score! I was able to get a r/t one stop ticket from DFW to Zurich for $748! What I don't understand, and maybe someone on here has a more in depth knowledge of this, is why it's cheaper for me to fly to Zurich than Paris (or even London)?

But to answer the OP's question, definitely don't wait around as the prices are not going to get any lower.

Dukey1

The reason it is cheaper, or more expensive, to fly to one place or another has very little, if ANYTHING to do with the distance or geography but rather the amount of competition in a particular "market" (what you and I would otherwise refer to as a "route." This is the reason why when a budget carrier such as Southwest manages to get their foot in the door the fares on the routes they also fly suddenly drop like a stone.

BananaSlug

Don't forget to use Fare Compare once you buy. I bought three Delta PDX-CDG tix in November for about $1200. Then in early January Fare Compare e-mailed me that prices had dropped to about $750. I was able to re-book on Delta although they charged a huge change fee. Still, I ended up with credit for future tickets worth about $250 each. Each airline has different rules on how much the price must drop and what they charge for re-booking. Worth it to watch, though.

crckwc1

After missing out on a good fare earlier, I booked one almost as good today -- $1279 IAH-FCO/CDG-IAH for late May-June on Delta. Most fares for this itinerary are running $1500-1600 so I thought I'd better grab it. For some reason, fares out of IAH are a little lower than out of DFW for the same or similar itinerary, and since I'm about half way between the two I can pick and choose. I might have got a better fare if I had waited, but I was afraid the prices would go up rather than down. Now I'll get on Fare Compare and see if that will help me get an even lower fare. Thanks to all who replied to my post.

crckwc1

I made the right decision! Same itinerary went up to $1548 today. Saved $538 for the two of us. Yea!