I am flying from Los Angeles to Madrid June 2010 with family of five. I have been monitoring flight prices (Fare Compare) and would appreciate any strategic advice for purchasing round trip tickets at the lowest price. THX

Try www.sidestep.com, that's where I got mine 1200 for 2 to Paris last October.

Try www.flycheapabroad.com too.

Try 1800flyeurope.com

I checked several sites but they had the cheapest flights and I just booked my open jaw France tickets thru them for next April.

I like to set up a an airfare watch on kayak.com. Good luck!

Also, if your dates are flexible, try doing month-long searches on-

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch

bookmarking

me too....

Me, three.

I used 1800flyeurope for this past September to Paris. Was $100/ticket lower than other sites, and there were no problems with the booking or flights (Delta and Air France). Read good comments about them on other Fodorite posts so took a chance. I typically don't like dealing with an intermediary.

Me, four.

I think it's too early to look for a good price.I usually go for the month of June to Spain and buy my ticket in Jan/Feb. Schedules change and you will need to make sure you can get a good connection.Try to leave at the end of May because summer rates kick in in June. Last couple of years i have found the best prices with USAirways.Sometimes Iberia will have a good sale. I also like to check with kayak.
I used to like sidestep but as of late it doesn't come up with the best prices.

Judy, Miki, RedStater, Annie,

Thanks to another Fodorite, I learned one of the new site features that allows you to bookmark without cluttering up the list of responses.

Look at the top right of this or any post, just under "Share with a friend" bar. Click on the star and you can save a bookmark to this posting.

Thanks so much for the wealth of information. Websites are very helpful. I also appreciate the advice from Chapla as I have been struggling with when to purchase the tickets. While prices may be lower in May I will need to leave in June. Nevertheless, I will continue to monitor the websites and be patient for a while.

thanks

Strategic advice? Wait.

The lowest price I see using the month-long search on ITA is around $1000. I can't guarantee that you will beat that price, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't get that price as late as late-April. I wouldn't jump on anything over the $700-range until March, and then I would be looking at something in the $800s until April, before settling on something in the $1000-range

FWIW, the month-long search feature at ITA is located here:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/di...prego/calendar

I booked in Feb. this year for an open jaw ticket SLC(Salt Lake City)-Amsterdam Returning from Barcelona (May-July) and only paid $835.00 including the insurance.
Check out ATIFlights.com you can play around with it. Sometimes they have great specials out of santa barbara too (even though its a tiny airport) so check from LAX, Burbank(BUR), Oxnard, Santa Barbara (SBA), SNA(Orange county)ONT(Ontario) or even Vegas(LAS). The flights that were round trip tend to be higher here. Sooooooooooooo maybe fly into Madrid and out of Barcelona? Just a thought from a Southern California girl. Good luck and have fun.

I like www.kayak.com also.

Sometimes we fly to London and then take a train or budget flight on from there. London seems to have the best fares, as compared to other destinations. I always at least check this option to see if the price is markedly different.

I took a trip earlier this month by myself. I couldn't decide whether to go to Barcelona or combine Barcelona with a few days in London. The open-jaw airfare flying into London and home from Barcelona, even including a $80 flight London-Barcelona on Easyjet, was much less than a round-trip to Barcelona.