Online seating charts only show you those who have selected their seats.

It is always amazing to me how many people do not select their seats until they get to the airport.

Joan

I am sure many of you are aware of the airfare alerts you may sign up for on Kayak. My wife and I will be flying round trip to Brussels in May (back in June) for a trip from South Florida to Brugge and Paris (3 days Brugge, 9 days Paris, 1 day Brussels). When I first checked, the lowest fare was $1100. Recently, I received an alert from Kayak that Delta had a fare of $880 (including all taxes and fees). Since this was much lower than the previously posted fees and we are Delta Sky Miles members, I booked it. I checked three days later and the lowest fare on Delta was almost $1200 per person. The lowest fares I have seen since are $1100 and these flights are not as convenient. My point is if you find a good fare, it might be best to book itrather than hoping lower fares are coming. I also think Kayak has made the fare checking much easier. I'll let you know in May if I made the right decision.

Am flying Boston to CDG first week of january. I wasw aiting for costs to go down but last week got a ticket 880. direct flight. There is only one per day and it is Air France/Delta.
Now ten days later the flight is 1080.00. It is just crazy.

David Jac

The price on the flight I was tracking (Continental, Newark > Madrid) just dropped (this afternoon) nearly $50 for travel in early January: $559, including taxes.

Not that great of a deal compared to other fall prices I've seen, but I bit the bullet and grabbed it before I slowly went insane from checking prices daily. ;) Now, if I can only stop myself from peeking at the prices again before I leave!

Good for you, NanBug. That sounds like a fine price to me. If I saw something similar from the Southeast, I'd grab it, too.

Thanks, pavot, for the reassurance. Keep checking every day, I'm sure you'll snag something soon for February. Good luck!

Dreaming of Paris...

I too am not seeing any deal for fall travel. Prices in spring were much much less, I'm glad I went accross the pond in spring and I'm still hoping a seat sale will come about in fall, although, it's not looking good.

As has been pointed out... Seating charts are NOT reliable indicators of unsold seats.

I have been on planes with "full seating" charts where I had a whole row to myself and on planes where it looked like I would have a whole row and they wind up 'begging' for volunteers.

Considering current taxes... Under $600 is a DEAL!

Also, there is actually less capacity on international now then last Spring. I booked for October. I used to have NUMEROUS options ATL to LGW for example. Now...tomorrow shows ONE flight on Delta. I think that's at least two flights gone... LOTS of capacity. The airlines are getting closer to meeting the supply demand model in thier favor.

I booked my flight two nights ago, and today I got an email from American Airlines announcing a sale to Europe. I almost had heart failure. ;-) When I checked it out, it was the same prices as before (at least between JFK and CDG) except they extended the travel dates through April....

thanks for the update!

yeadonite - did you buy your tickets yet? Apartment?

No I have been working 12 hour days so I am making my decision this weekend.

Yes, fares are high considering that it's winter. I go every year for Thanksgiving (though Europeans don't celebrate it and most American's stay home)and rarely pay more than $500 from Houston or New Orleans. There's usually a sale because the flights are empty so anything over $600 is high. I only paid $450 in May to go to Rome. I can't find anything as to why the fares are higher this year. Best of luck though I think you're outta luck in finding a deal.