I have also been watching ticket prices from Virginia to Europe for the summer. We are planning to see family in Austria and hoping to get some tickets to a soccer game. Well, I was looking at 1200-1500 for coach on every airline. It was crazy.
I found 4 FF seats to Paris and grabbed them. So, now we just HAVE to go to Paris as part of our trip! YEAH! The prices to buy the tickets were 6000 for the 4 coach seats. So, now more money to spend when we get there.
Good luck on the pricing. I still have to get my mother in law a ticket from NJ.....

Have you looked at www.itasoftware.com and used their "month-long" feature to find the lowest air fares?

Have you considered using a consolidator such as www.onetravel.com?