Airfare frustration
 

I want to book a flight for the mid of October. I am hoping to see something less than 926.00 leaving Fll to FCO and VCE to Fll. Delta said the fares will most likely not go down and that is not unusual fares for that time of year to Italy.

What would be the difference in the weather between leaving October 18 vs. November 1. We would save 600.00 in airfare alone if I booked today.

Does anyone want to lend me their crystal ball?

You could look at the historical stats on weather.com for an idea.... and also do a search here for "November" and select "Italy".

Normally the fare goes down after October 15..Is too early to worry about buying a ticket for October anyway.

Kismet, when would be a good time to purchase a ticket for October trip? I have not traveled outside of the country since 1990 and I truthfully have not a clue.
I will need to be sure I get an isle seat as i am claustrophobic and need the space so I am a bit nervous about the flight.

I normally go to Europe in the summer months and start looking in the internet by the end of february.
To give you an idea, I bought this past summer an open jaw ticket from SAT(Texas) to FCO(ROME) and from CDG to SAT for 700 dollars.
In October you should not pay more than 600 dollars..Are you flying from Florida?
The best ways is to keep searching as often that you can ,the internet.Sometimes the Airlines have few minutes specials..

i disagree about it being too early. Because I started my search early, I got in on the now-famous Alitalia sale and got my mid-September tix already for significantly less than they had been priced. True ... historically.. it is too early to find good fares fo rthat time of year, but you never know when a fluke sale will come along! I say track the prices now and when you see a good fare, jump on it!

Snce the Alitalia sale has come and gone, I would advise keeping your eyes continuously peeled from now until the end of May. From FLL (the lowercase "l"s were confusing to me!), I bet you can find under $700, maybe even under $600.

Best wishes,

Rex

Where the heck is FLL??? I have a request...can people please type cities instead of airport codes? For example, I fly from New Orleans...how many know that MSY=New Orleans? Some are obvious, many others are not!

Off my soapbox...I am finally starting to see fares drop a bit for September. I have my FF tickets, but others on the trip have to buy. I'm just going to keep watching the sales. Missed the Alitalia fare (actually, couldn't find anything great from New Orleans anyway!)

Anne

Anne-
FLL is Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Here's a website where you can find out about airport codes:
http://www.mapping.com/airportcodes.html

It is too early normally, but I also got in on that infamous Alitalia sale, going from NYC to Rome and back from Venice in mid September. Fares had been around 860, but dropped a couple of weekends ago to under 500. You just have to keep looking every day just in case they drop again--I have found that Orbitz generally has the best fares. Just keep checking, and when you find something you're comfortable with, grab it.

Gee, I thought EVERYBODY knew that "Moy-sey" Field (actually Moisant Field - - and I realize that nobody ever pronounced it that way - - I just remember it that way) was built on the site of the

Moisant
Stock
Yards

thus, giving those three initials to what is now New Orleans International Airport! (actually, its official name is the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, right?)

It is way to early to book right now.
The prices will go down a 2 to 3 months before your travel date. just keep checking. Try Orbitz.com to compare prices.

Generally sales hit 2 or 3 months before departure dates. But you need to keep your eyes peeled for special sales as you never know what might pop up earlier.

I too was fortunate enough to get my tickets during the Alitalia sale. A suggestion on this forum couple of weeks ago helped me with my search. Go to smarterliving.com - scroll down to the "Booking Buddy". You will need to input your dates, departing and arriving airports once. Then save that site to your favorites, and when you open that site you will have all the discount sites plus airlines right there. Just keep on checking and checking every day, sometimes 2 to 3 times a day. You will be able to see all the different deals these companies have to offer. We are going to Rome from Newark in May - and I purchased our tickets thru Orbitz - for $459. You should be able to do better than $900+. Good luck with your search.

I am still sad that I missed the Alitalia sale. :-(

Helen: I don't see "Booking Buddy" on the smarterliving home page. There is "Booking Guide" -- is that what you mean? I'm a little confused by your instructions.

I also missed the sale. I checked that Sunday night and they gave me a price of 455.00 and when i went to book it-gone! Now they want on British Air 712.00 which is probably a good deal. I keep wanting the 455 since the euro is so bad. Im going in June from Boston so I think I will keep checking and see if I get lucky! I believe booking guide is booking buddy.

This is being rather philosophcal, but I think we actually want it that way. Lets say that on a particular route, on a particular date, a walk-up, fully refundable coach fare is $1400.

All of these numbers are arbitrarily made-up, and supposed to be representative, or based on actual facts or research.

5-10% of the seats go unsold at that (or any) price (I suspect) - - taking the year-round average. Lowering the $1400 to $1300 would not help to fill those seats if they have not already been sold by the day (or week) before.

10% of the travelers pay this $1400.

40% get some mildly discounted fare - - say $950 to $1399, because they agree to some condition - - purchase x days in advance, or stay over a Saturday night, or minimal refund privilege.

40% get more sharply discounted fares - - say, $700 to $950. They are "typical savvy Fodorites" and they agree to even more stringent restrictions: non-refundable, 21 days advance purchase, etc.

5% are flying free by virtue of FF or some other reason.

And 5% are flying at those very, very sharply discounted fares, maybe under $600; maybe under $300. Two of the five percent were just flat out lucky, stumbling into a good deal because they simply happened to look at the right time. The other three percent is oddly enough, a group of travelers that the airlines actually fight over - - they are so bargain-focused, impulsive, clever, checking all the time (or some combination), that it is either offer them these rock-bottom fares or lose their business altogether.

I think that "we" aspire to be in that tiny fraction, and that we want the fares "they" get to be really, really low, and (thus, as a corollary) inherently very, very limited.

It's a little bit like the lottery. Nobody much cares about those scratch off $1000 winners - - of which there are legions; it's the millions of dollars that somehow get attention and are even considered "worthwhile", to sell more lottery tickets (and fill those coffers for the schools, or whatever you believe they use the lottery profits for).

So, I don't cry over who missed what sale. It's part of keeping those sale fares - - those really, really low ones - - way down there, and thus, very limited.

Like you, I believe that I am capable of getting myself into that 3%.

Also, I don't think you will necessarily get a better pick of seats by booking early. There was a thread a few weeks ago about how some airlines will not assign seats until you check-in. I booked a March flight to London in November, and even though I was allowed to pick my seats when I booked on line, when I called to confirm I was told I don't have the seats I picked!

Message to Sera: Sorry that I wasn't that clear this morning - not enough coffee. Anyway, go to the smarterliving.com site; click on "Air" . On the left hand side there will be another menu - scroll to "Travel Tools" - then click on "Compare Fares". You will find your "Booking Buddy" there. Hope this works.

Helen

Keep trying Orbitz. I got my ticket last weekend for $549 from Florida.

PS Look at departing Miami rather than Ft Lauderdale

Ft. Lauderdale is the bargain airport for Miami - - rather like MDW, BWI, LUV, EWR, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if FLL to connect to CLT or IAD or PHL or some other gateway city might actually be cheaper than MIA.

I am very happy to come online and see so many responses to my frustration.

I feel I did pretty well with the hotels as I utilized Rick Steve's book and wrote to each place (listed in his book) and asked them for a discount and was given one.

I want to be in that 3% that gets the low fares. I just like to shop for sales!

i am also planning a trip from the FLL (fort lauderdale)area, you should research flights out of MIA (miami). They are more frequent and more direct routes. :)

Get someone to drive you to Miami...it's only 35-45 minutes! And you'll find many more flights. I put your date in ITA and came up with $700.00 fares today and they'll probably go lower later on

Is ITA Alitalia?

No ITA is not Alitalia..it is the site TAs use..enter as a guest...even if you use sidestep you will mostly get better prices on ITA...you do have to call the airline itself and quote the price. It is not a booking site

http://www.itasoftware.com/

I think some of the lucky 3 per cent got ticketed today on Delta. Hold tight and believe, robbiegirl. I hope you have noticed some of the lucky fares people landed today. Not for Otober, I don't believe, but considering how good they were for May, September, even mid-summer - - thre is good reason for you to keep checking.

While on the subject of FLL and MIA, I often fly out of one and back into the other. American treats them as the same departure city, so there's no charge to do that. Sometimes you can fly out of FLL to another gateway city, but fly back directly to Miami.

FWIW today's, rather this morning's fares, did go into October. I checked this morning and by the time I confirmed dates with travel companions, they were gone....will be ready next time!

Another suggestion that I have while waiting for the perfect fare to find you is setting the deal detector on orbitz... you just plug in the dates and places of travel w/ you target price and they'll send you an email letting you know when it drops below that price. might come in handy for you.

Patrick it would be very inconvenient to fly into or out of Miami and then into or out of Ft. Laud. We live about 55 min from the Miami airport and after coming home from a long trip waiting to see what is in store for us , getting our car from somewhere or taking a shuttle from the Miami airport home and then retreiving our car would not really save money in the long run it seems.

Any good deals this week?
I still do not feel I can find a reasonable fare yet. I check daily. should I just stop and wait a month or two?

robbiegirl,

Why would you stop looking? Just continue checking daily. I don't see how that could hurt and I think you'd be way more frustrated if stop looking only to miss another sale!

Personally, I WOULD stop looking, well looking seriously, and wait until about August. I don't even bother looking for flights these days until about 2 months before departure date, and I always find something very reasonable.
Of course, if you DO continue to look every day or so, you might get a fabulous rate - it really is a crapshoot.

You can get around it by booking a package with one of the airlines' vacations divisions - Northwest World Vacations, American Airlines Vacations, Delta Vacations etc. The package airfare is usually much lower ($200-$400 less) and the catch is you have to buy partial ground arrangements. Northwest World Vacations requires at least 2 hotel nights OR a rental car in order to get the package airfare, but that's no great hardship. For example, I got Detroit-Madrid-Paris-Detroit for $650 in late May, purchasing four Best Western Advance units to get the package airfare.