beachgirl86

Hi everyone,

I am a high school teacher, and am limited to traveling during February and April vacations, and the summer. I am looking to take my mother someplace for her 50th birthday next year, and have been looking into Europe.

I always watch airfares early because the weeks I travel tend to be busy and more expensive. We are flying out of Boston...for example, right now, it is $611 from BOS to Paris, and $583 from BOS to Rome, each with 1 stop, Sat.-Sat.

Are these reasonable flights, or do you think they will drop more? I know the cost of fuel and oil will play into costs, and although winter may be off-season, traveling on a vacation week almost cancels that out!

Should I book soon, or wait, and watch fares through the summer? Thanks

beachgirl86

Whoops -- I should clarify that these prices are for Feb. vacation. My mom's b-day is in Jan.

Intrepid1

It might be helpful to know how you found these fares although nobody can ever say for certain that fares won't rise or fall.

Does the current airfare sale going on at AirFrance cover your dates?

Have you looked at fares using at least one consolidator site such as www.onetravel.com and at least one aggregator site such as www.itasoftware.com if for no other reason than as a cross-check?

If not, I suggest you do so and definitely look at the AirFrance site.

beachgirl86

The fares I found were on Orbitz. The Air France sale doesn't work for my dates because it's a vacation week. I checked a couple of days ago. The other websites haven't brought up anything cheaper than what I found on Orbitz.

janisj

No one knows if fares will be up or down. The Paris fare especially seems pretty high - I flew from the west coast to Paris in March for less than that. But one thing for sure. It is awfully early to be booking flights for next Feb. There are usually great sales availble for the Jan to Mar timeframe but they usually aren't announced til the Fall.

janisj

Meant to ask - which week in Feb? Sure there are the two holidays in Feb - but I haven't seen many blackout dates for transatlantic in Feb.

beachgirl86

The week is Feb. 17-24.

And, yes, I know it's early, and that there will be more sales available. My main point with that, though, is that I fly during school vacation weeks which are often not eligible for such fares.

janisj

That may be a "school vacation week" some places in the States - but certainly not all over. It isn't like in the UK where school hols are pretty standard. I take it, it is a vacation week in MA (just assuming since you want to fly out of Logan).

beachgirl86

You're right, but I can tell you from experience that school vacation weeks absolutely affect the prices going out of Logan big-time for those weeks.

janisj

Then look into flying out of NY or DC or someplace else. The savings might be substantial.

beachgirl86

Thanks, Janis, but that's a bit too far from home for us!

Anyone else have experience with this week to Europe, flying from Boston?