dhlemaistre

We're headed to London from ATL in August, which, I know is a high volum tourist time. I've been watching the airline prices for over a month now and they are staying right at $1680.00 for economy seating. The couple of times we have been to Europe, we've paid closer to 1200.00 a ticket but both times were in Oct. Does $ 1680.00 sound about right for that time of year or should I wait longer?

Thanks

janisj

This year things just seem really high. I'm on the west coast and can usually get coach tix for $900-$1100 and this August they are running mostly $1500 (for bad schedules) to $1800-ish.

greg

The airfare is market based. Different itinerary exist in different market segment. A price behavior you have seen for different European route does not necessary apply to a different route, a different market. With this in mind, if you are planning to travel elsewhere in the future, you can collect price trend this year as you get closer to summer to see how the prices change. While the trend does not necessarily repeat, you have at least an empirical data you can look back in the future.

Now for the current pricing. No one knows. If there is a reason the airlines believe they can get higher network wide revenue, then they might offer a lower fare for your route. This might sound counter intuitive, but if one goes through probability calculation of demands at various price points throughout the network, it sometimes makes sense to lower certain fare to get higher corporate wide revenue. However, for flights in August, the demand is high and airlines usually don't have to lower prices to get higher network revenue.

If you have a choice not to go to London this year, you can easily wait.

The issue with ATL to London, I presume LHR, is that Delta dominates this market and can dictate the price. If Star Alliance and Oneworld had as many direct flights as Delta, Delta would have to be competitive. That is not the case here.

I presume you are looking at a direct flight. If you are willing to go multi-stop, Aer Lingus has lower fare multi-stop flights. You can even go lower by multi-stop flights into LGW instead of LHR.

Havana128

Thanks Alexiajack - whatever you are trying to say......

OP - consider the fact that the USD is at an almost 10 year high against GBP so you are winning on that score.

nytraveler

Yes, Aug is likely to be higher than Oct, and prices all over for this summer are higher. Sign up to receive info on deals - and then just decide if it's worth it to you.

And agree there will be savings on costs IN the UK due to the fall of the pound against the $.

BigRuss

At a 1.40 per, you're doing real well against the quid. But that airfare price is awful.

It's all nice to say "you'll be saving on costs in the UK" but that doesn't account for how much you have to spend BEFORE you save.

To equal out the airfare hit, you need to spend alot. Say a good "normal" exchange rate historically is 1.60/1 USD/GBP, and your airfare is $500 over what you'd expect to pay normally (e.g., $1700 v. $1200). You need to spend 2500 GBP to make up that difference <b>before</b> you actually start saving money on the exchange.

Flight = 1700
+ spending = 2500 GBP @$1.40/1 = $3500
total cost of trip BEFORE you save on exchange rate = $5200

Why? Because:

Flight = 1200
spending 2500 GBP @$1.60/1 = $4000
total cost = $5200

So if you're a budget traveler at your destination or wouldn't normally drop $3500/2500 quid on a ____-long trip, you won't be "saving" with the exchange rate.

This is just the mathematical consideration. There's nothing here that says "don't go". I'm just saying, do the math right on the front end.

Gardyloo

I'm seeing $760 per person on United to <i>Paris</i> via Dulles for most of the month. Use the savings for a Eurostar round trip to London.

Dukey1

Go to www.skyscanner.com and use the "whole month" option for August. Don't rely on just one engine (Kayak, for example) before making any decisions.

dhlemaistre

Thanks for the replies. I ended up booking airfare with Princess Cruise ( London first then a cruise) for $1188.00. Can upgrade to Economy Comfort for $119.00 pp each way so a much better deal.