mandavilla

Have been checking airfares to Germany/Austria from Raleigh/Durham NC, and they are no tickets under $1000. each. We'd be happy to drive to DC and fly out of there, or fly to NY if we could get a better price.

Our ultimate goal is the Salzburg area for Week 1 and Switz. for Week 2. Figure rates would be cheaper into Frankfurt, and we're happy to rent a car in Frankfurt and drive to Salzburg. Would be fine flying into anywhere in Europe, actually, if we could get a decent price. I was hoping for $700. range, but that might not be reasonable in the summer.

Any help you could give us would be incredibly fabulous.

BAsically, we're willing to fly anywhere out of the East Coast and fly into anywhere in Europe.

We'd need to go the week of June 15, 16, 17 (somewhere in that range), and return late June or early July. Somewhat flexible but have a time share in the Zell am See area of Austria June 18-25.

THANK YOU for any assistance you can give us.
I'm hoping, hoping, hoping that we can find fares that would be manageable.

Mandy

rex

Re-citing, a "re-citation"

====================================

Author: rex ([email protected])
Date: 03/10/2004, 09:46 pm

Message: Excerpted from a previous post...

Joy of Travel, whose owner is Gur (yes, that's really her name). 1-888-air-tixx - - I think. Search "Gur" here; surely more information in previous posts of mine.

I also think well of www.affordablepoland.com (not just for Poland)

and lately, there seems to some good chatter about http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm

Best wishes,

Rex

===============================

Try also asking this question on the "Cheap Flights" forum of www.eurotrip.com

Listen to whatever Don (the guru there) has to say.

janis

That seems really, REALLY high to me. I always (yes, always) have been able to find flights to Europe from California for $700 (or often a lot less) in June. So from the east coast I would expect less than $600 or less.

What sites have you tried? Even just signing up for the e-mail updates from the international carriers should get you better fares than that.

But if you truly can't find a better fare - I'd seriously consider flying R-T to London and then take any of the low cost airlines from London for the rest of you journey. There is sooooo much competition on the east coast/London routes that low fares are usually easy to come by.

ira

Hi manda,

It's still early.

Have you looked into flying into Munich, it seems to be a little cheaper than to Frankfurt, and it is a lot closer to Salzburg.

Try www.mobissimo.com and http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm

AP6380

I know this isn't helpful, but I noticed in my own trip planning that when I was planning on flying into Istanbul mid-June and returning out of Italy in early July that the prices were $1000 and up from Newark. I then plugged in dates about 2 weeks earlier bringing me back to the States before July and the prices are coming up at least $250 cheaper per person.

It seems like the minute a July/August date is thrown in the mix the prices jump...

RufusTFirefly

It's still a bit early for June sales to show up. In the past (no guarantees about this year), we've usually done best buying June tickets in Feb or March. Mrs. Fly is a school teacher, so we are usually buying June tickets.

tracy

So, would you take the chance and wait until February? I have been pricing tickets to Rome, and they are all still high. The airline agents say that they are selling a lot of seats, and some dates are already booked. I hate to buy now and then see them go down later.

ucsun

you could also hate to not buy now and see them go up. who knows. except buy at the price you feel comfortable. if you're going to europe then you've already decided to drop the money for the trip...you may get lucky and save another $100-150 but in the scope of your whole trip that may not even add up to 10%.

RufusTFirefly

Yes, I'd wait, but I'm not you. It all depends on your tolerance for suspense, and whether or not you are tied into specific dates on which you must travel. It's unlikely that prices will be much higher than now--unless there is some really unusual shortage of seats. A possibility, I guess.

ira

tracy
>So, would you take the chance and wait until February?<

I'd watch the rates every day through Feb. It's less likely that you would save more than another $100/ticket than that you would pay more than $100/ticket after that.

Jocelyn_P

Unless this policy has changed recently, on some airlines they will refund your money, or at least give you a voucher for future travel, if the price of your specific flight goes down after you've purchased the tickets. Other than American, I can't tell you which airlines.

mandavilla

Hey Everybody,

Your help has been invaluable--THANKS!

The ticket prices are slightly better on the websites you all have suggested--www.mobissimo.com,www.affordablepoland.com;joy of travel,www.eurotrip.com, and http://airtravelcenter.com/onetrav.htm.

We're a family of 4 and need the prices a bit lower, so we'll take the gamble that the prices might go down $100. per ticket.

Munich turned out to be cheaper than Frankfurt--thanks for that suggestion.

Also, thanks for the June suggestion. Keeping our return at the end of June is cheaper than July.

Anybody know if there tends to be days that are cheaper to fly--I noticed that Tuesday & Wednesday were cheaper on one website, and wondered if that's the norm, or if there are other discounted days of the week that you all might be aware of.

Flying to London, and then getting a cheap fare within Europe is a good idea--Thanks.

Do you all think NY, Atlanta, or Washington would be much cheaper? I've done some preliminary checking w/ flying out of Washington, and it doesn't seem to be cheaper, but i thought I'd check the other major US cities on the east coast. Wondered if any of you had any experience w/ trying out various east coast departure cities...

Any European cities that seem to be more discounted than other cities? Like Paris?

Any other clever ideas? I'll continue checking everything and keep you all posted....

THANKS!

Mandy