Europe Spring Airfare sale!!!
 

robbiegirl - I know you missed the last sale, did you get a ticketwith this one?

I looked at the web site and believe it is good for travel till mid-April.










robbiegirl-I went to the site and believe the sale is good for travel now till April. Thanks for the tip.

Sorry, but, as usual, "fare sale" for "AS LOW AS $207 round trip to Europe" could NOT be more ridiculous!

For one thing, you must add ~$100 for fees/taxes.

I plugged in our dates, which we booked a few weeks ago, for London, $632 for the two of us, direct flights at convenient times.. Came up $1400 with ridiculously inconvenient connections. Just for chuckles, I plugged in dates beyond the "sale" dates, which came up for $1200.

I'm with all those who contend that the very best bet is to shop like the dickens and grab an appealing fare when it comes up.

I'm guessing, MUCH more often than not, those "as low as" will never, ever, be available for your dates.

Sorry, It was not good for us because we are going in October.
I received this email and thought it would be helpful. I did not do any date plugging or investigation.

The key is to keep looking at these specials and find one that works for you or to adjust your travel dates to fit.

Rich

As the dollar continues to decline, airfares will rise. There may be some "come on" deals, but the bottom line is that the dollar is worth a lot less today than a year ago.

I suspect some hotels in Europe will cut prices to cultivate the American tourist traffic (such as it is going to be) but those cuts will not make up for the drastic decline in the value of the dollar.

As I have said before, it is a good time for Europeans to visit the US, but it is not a particularly good time to plan trips abroad unless you are prepared for increased prices--and sticker shock--when you arrive. One thing I would not plan for is to spend a lot of time shopping in Europe. There will be no bargains.

As I've learned from reading this Forum over the years, it really pays to shop airfares like the dickens and book immediately when you see favorable fares.

For several months, I've been shopping Boston-London in May. Our dates are not flexible due to our jobs. I missed the November sales as we had not decided where we were going by then.

Fares were around $1000, consistently, for the two of us. American has more leg room, but Virgin had more convenient times, for direct flights.

In mid-January, Virgin and American fares had dropped about $100/each. Suddenly, at the end of January, I scored two tickets with Virgin for $632. Since then, fare rose to $875, then today $1018 (again, for the two of us).

I've had similar experiences booking fares to Europe year after year. Usually we go in May, June or September. Sometime in January or February, the fares drop for our dates, then they rise and rise. Not once have I found a better fare by waiting until 2-3 months before our dates for "sales". Not once have I found sale fare seats for our dates/preferred times, direct flights.

I would think that if the declining dollar means fewer passengers, fares with international carriers would decline. They are collecting fares in American dollars, but paying their expenses in their own currencies.

If fewer Americans travel due to the declining dollar, the domestic airlines will trim their flight schedules.

We'll never know the pricing strategies of the airlines.

"Shopping" in Europe has never been a particularly economical endeavor. There's almost nothing you can't buy online these days at better prices with reasonable shipping charges. Why lug the stuff home or worry about Customs, except for the special unique item found along your travels, hopefully produced locally?

And, there's no way to forecast the exchange rates in May, September.....

I am glad we booked our flights months ago ($585 each, Boston to London to Paris) . . . I went to the US Airways website and of course the sale ends before April vacation! I was not surprised. There are almost NO deals during the third week of April b/c it is school vacation week for many states, and being teachers, that is when we are going to Paris. We can never get deals as we always travel during these school vacation times, so I when I saw that fare, I jumped on it. I am so jealous that some of you can travel in May, Sept, and October. I have always wanted to go to Europe in the early fall. Oh, well. At least we get to go to Paris . . . it is the trip of a lifetime, probably our last vacation before we start to think about babies, unless I can convince hubby to go to Italy next summer:)

dont be jealous about being able to travel in October. I am a nurse and I work hard. I dont have the summer's off..smile.

This fare talk is very depressing. I'm still looking for decent prices for early June to Italy or France. I'm able to be reasonably flexible, but haven't seen anything under $1200.

And to ilovelabs: Keep in mind that Italy is a very good place to start to think about babies. Trust me.

Phyllis, where are you leaving from? Have you thought of trying Priceline?

Phyllis:

Consider Munich as your gateway city. Icelandair is starting service there on June 21, but numerous other airlines are running low promotional fares to compete with them starting in late May or June 1. For example, Swiss from $590, Iberia from $690, Austrian from $701, Singapore (class act, as I understand it) from $705. All these are representative fares, from NYC, before taxes. On Travelocity. Better than $1200!

And Munich is a short trip over the Brenner Pass into Italy (and if you want a car, cheaper to rent it from Germany!) - - you could even return it in Strasbourg, if France is to be part of your plans.

Best wishes,

Rex

Try www.airfare.com. I just booked 2 flights going from LAX to Paris then from Rome back to LAX for $665.17 (tax incl) on American Airlines. That is by far the cheapest rate I found.

Actually, a browse through Travelocity for "all dates, June-July" showed Swiss offering even lower fares for LON, PAR, NCE or ROM than for MUC. Scandinavian had what looked to be the lowest fares for NYC-LON at $35x but there were no actual seats available for departure Jun 1-15.

While consolidator fares might be lower, these can be found with a minimum of trouble; they are regularly scheduled airlines on "ordinary" tickets that you can book online. Who knows if your city will be different?

I like the website Airfare.com.
Checking though from Miami to Rome and then Venice to Miami the flights are still 814-834. I am hoping for fares from 600-750 per person.

Sure hope that Phyllis ses the promo mentioned on www.bestfares.com on another thread here this morning.

Yesterday, orbiz had a flight from boston to london-and-rome to boston for 712.00-which isn't bad. I also will be traveling in June. Im thinking of grabbing that flight since I haven't seen any "deals", those 400,500,600 seem to long gone.

I went ahead and got a flight to London from Atlanta on Orbitz for $598 after looking for 6 months for flight deals in June. It gets tiring after awhile so I was like what the heck, they don't seem to be coming down.

Right there with you! I feel the same way. Im afraid if I wait much longer I will be paying alot more with lousy times. When are you going in June?