LizTD

I am planning a trip to Italy during high season (late June or July) and I am reeling from the airfares I am seeing, having always before traveled in the off season. My goal is to fly non-stop from Philadelphia to Rome and return out of Milan. I read recently that when booking flights within the U.S., Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best times to check prices as that is when the specials are posted. Saturdays/Sundays are the worst days. So far, I have not seen any intelligence on timing a European ticket purchase (other than a friend suggesting that they tend to go down in March - on what this is based I have no idea). So, Fodorites, can you provide guidance? The travel will involve 2 adults and a child in her own seat (which I mention because I have heard that booking more than 2 people can put you in a more pricey bracket, leading to advice to book 2 tickets first and then a 1). Thanks in advance.

jnjfraz

We are in Italy each spring and summer so I'm not sure how much I can help as we are always in a portion of the off season.

Just a few Ideas and thoughts:
Tuesday and Wednesday purchase can be cheaper

Look at airfares from NYC to Rome or Milan. They may be cheaper and you can take the train or get someone to get you to NYC. (We drive 3 hours to take a direct flight to Paris)

This site has good fares http://www.whichbudget.com/

Don't know about booking 4 seats at once, but I would try it with 4 and then 2.

If you are a frequent flier then see about buying more miles or any options they have.

Keep your dates flexible if you can.

Book on line as it is always cheaper these days.

Good luck and even if it cost you a little more than usualy....you will be in Italy.

jnjfraz

oops we are there spring and fall

Postal

All I can suggest is to check constantly, at least once an hour! I did that last week and finally the fare dropped $400 per person for just a couple of hours.

Do your searches for one person only so you can see what the fare truly is.

greg

I am not sure if you deal in a market driven business. The price goes down when there is insufficient demand, and the providers want to at least try to recoup the fixed cost. For June/July travel, there is unlikely to be such drop in demand.

If there is such thing as a "rule" for a high demand period, everyone would use the "rule" and the airlines manage the prices to take advantage of the "rule" to their advantage.

One easy way to test a "rule" for youself is to monitor and log the best acceptable fare, at least once a day, so you have an objective measure of the price trend. As Postal mentioned, there are sudden inexplicable change in prices, both to high and low direction that lasts a very short time. I suspect that the each airline reacts to events differently, and it takes a few minutes or a few hours to come to a new "market" price. For this type of strategy to work, you need a baseline trend I mentioned here to be able to detect if what you are seeing is similar to what you have been seeing or something new - new market price or a temporary perturbation.

I also monitor the seat availability trend on the segments the airlines bother to make them public. If the seats are selling briskly, I don't expect airlines to have motivations to lower the prices.

As jnjfraz mentioned, flexibility can benefit you. I usually have multiple acceptable itineraries departing on different dates and arriving in different cities, and whichever flight fare come out favorable, I can buy it knowing that the ground portion has already been thought out.

SusanG

Also, you probably know about this site, since I believe I learned about it on Fodors, but I signed up with airfarewatchdog.com. They send me emails weekly about lower fares. I am just starting to see sales for the spring pop up. I read two articles this month where predictions were that international travel may not come down that much. Of course no one really knows. My sister and I just bought tix for end of Aug and Sept Paris and Rome and we paid a lot!

LizTD

Gosh, thanks. I feel as if I need to be a systems analyst or one who models economic behaviors to get the best price. And, SusanG, many thanks as I did not know about that site. Will report on my "research."

maiod

You should plan a trip during late June. The reason is that Italians are going on holidays in August (ferragosto). which will increase your return ticket. You should buy your airline ticket on Tuesday and 3 or 4 months before departure. You can find some more tips here: http://best-time-to-buy-airline-tickets.com