airfare to Europe very expensive: thoughts?
 

All:<BR><BR>I've recently been looing for airfare from Boston to Spain (either Madrid or Bilbao) in either the summer or the fall. Now, I knew summer was going to be pricey, but I was expecting fall to be significantly cheaper. Nevertheless, I've seen fares on Orbitz, travelocity, etc skyrocket for both summer and fall in the last two weeks. For example, even October is at over $700 for the cheapest economy fare. I saw September shoot up from $600 to $900 in a week. Online consolidators are only nominally better right now. This is about double what I paid in the fall last year for the same itinerary. In fact, in several years of watching fares to Spain, I've never seen them this high for this time period. The rest of Europe seems bad as well.<BR><BR>Yeah, I should have planned earlier, but does anyone have any idea what is going on and if this is a permanent hike or a fluctuation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

cooter:<BR>Try the United Website. I got $331. RT inclusive to London in early October.<BR>A few others here seem to to snag a few other bargains to other cities. Good Luck!

For years, business class fares, particularly walkup business class, have helped subsidize economy coach fares for both domestic and international travel. With the bursting of the economic bubble and cost cutting by major corporations' travel and financial departments, airlines, in order to recapture lost business travelers and retain existing business clients have been forced to reduce business class fares. To continue to maintain revenues,airlines are hoping that increased, or at least sustained economy class fares will offset the reductions in business class. I wouldn't expect to see significant economy class fare reductions until the economy becomes more healthy and airline profits rise significantly.

After watching the fares from Newark to Madrid since January, I bought a non-stop Continental flight for late June/ early July for $734. This was by far the lowest fare I had seen for this itinerary. Everyday I would check Travelocity, the Continetal website, Expedia , etc. and notice that fares would change daily, sometimes more than once during the day. This fare was offered only at the Continental web site and was not available through Travelocity or expedia.

Have you considered a freighter? Also, you might be able to get a very cheap seat on Fed Ex or DHL.

Don't discount Icelandair. They have all types of connections in Europe to your destination. The seats in business class are awesome and if you use a particular credit card, you get your companion either free or heavily discounted. Don't forget to ask, because they will not offer sometimes. You have to stop in Rekyavik and when I went last year, the airport was under construction. For the money it was incredible and hard to beat.

I think it's too early to see deals for fall. Late this winter we were all wailing about the sky high fares in May, and sure enough, they came down a month or so ago, briefly.

thanks for the advice. Still searching.

You might be able to get a good fare to Paris and then fly Ryan or Virgin to Spain pretty reasonably.

If you want to go to Bilbao, look for a good airfare to London, and then look for a good fare from London-Stansted to Bilbao with GO.<BR>Rgds, Cova