A friend said she felt that airlines post sales for the fall in July. I am trying to go to Florence in October. Should I wait to purchase a flight?

From where? Your friend might be right. Or not.

Best wishes,

Rex

Rex, I would be flying from Charlotte NC and fare on Lufthansa is now about $930 and my friend is flying from Minneapolis, probably on Northwest. would appreciate your comments. Thanks!

In the interim I would look at all these sites for finding fares:

www.mobissimo.com
www.onetravel.com
www.itasoftware.com
www.farechase.com

I am sure there are others as well.

I like to look at these in terms of what I call "upside/downside risk" - - chances of finding a lower fare, versus chances of having no option other than buying a higher fare if you wait.

October is a tricky month, becuase fares AFTER October 15 can be sharply lower.

For the routes you cite, at $930 - - if AFTER October 15, I'd put the upside/downside risk at 70% chance of saving $100-250 by waiting 30 days... versus 50% chance of having to pay $50-$150 by waiting.

Keep in mind that this is NOT scientific, but rather my very subjective sense of having looked at a lot of fares for a lot of years from airports "similar" in fare "competitiveness" to CLT or MSP - - including the fact that fares are generally higher in 2005 than in 2004.

The odds are <u>a bit</u> in your favor to wait.

You could potentially save a $100 or so by aiming to fly into Florence, and then using one of the low-cost carrier on www.whichbudget.com to get to Italy. but this often ONLY makes sense if you would actually enjoy a day or so in England, coming or going (or both). Rarely affordable to get right off one plane and on to another.

&quot;You could potentially save a $100 or so by aiming to fly into Florence&quot;....

Rex, did you mean for the original poster to fly into London?

By the way have you posted your trip report? (I've not searched for it.) Just curious -- thanks.

I'm beginning to think perhaps we should apply Rex's own &quot;upside/downside risk&quot; &quot;theory&quot; to the possibilities of that trip report ever seeing the light of day....sorry, Rex, but we'd MUCH rather hear about your own &quot;just as vulnerable as the rest of us&quot; travel exploits than some impossible to comprehend scheme about whether or not you'll save money by waiting to buyt a ticket.

There, I've said the dreaded words that many others here are WANTING to say to you.

Not that this is really relevant, but I was surprised that one can fly to London from NYC for $507 on AA (I checked Orbitz).

It sounds lower than what I was expecting. I'm tempted to buy the ticket.

Wonder whether rex knows anything.

(I need to stop checking airfares.)

I made that even less relevant by neglecting to mention that this was for the Labor Day long weekend.

Sorry.

Hi Ab,

I think that you could save about $75 pp by flying into Pisa (PSA) and taking the train to Florence.

To 111op - - yes, for sure, I meant check into flying into London - - but what was with the dig? How is NYC-London relevant to CLT-FLR? regardless of what month?

And to intrepid1 - - you know maybe I really do deserve a dig on my failure to get my trip report posted - - it HAS been three weeks; I can't explain my foot dragging.

But in any event, your nag knocked me out of my complaceny - - and even though I still don't really consider it done - - here goes - - I start posting now.

I'll list the URL here in a few minutes.

My trip report is at http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34640631

Thanks for the link to the report -- I just popped it open.

No, my comment about NYC to LHR is totally irrelevant -- but maybe you'd know if the fare will go up or down anyway.

Oh, I see commenting on my &quot;supposed&quot; (&quot;upside/downside&quot &quot;crystal ball&quot;.

$503, NYC-LON in early September, available in late June? I'd say take it - - &lt;30% upside chance of $50-100 (savings); downside risk of &gt;70% $100-300 (higher)

But as I have always said - - this is an educated guess at the very best.

Thanks. You see my other thread? Maybe you've some suggestions for what can be done with a long weekend with flights in and out of London.

I'm running out of things to do. Well, of course, there're always lists of things, but I'm not dying to fly to Europe just so that I can cross off some random thing off some random list.

Have you thought about flying into London and taking a flight with Ryanair to Rome for 2 pounds? If you join Ryanair to your schedual you can make amazing deals. right now Stransted to Rome is dirt cheap.

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/

If you do decide to do that there are cheap ways to travel from Heathrow to Stransted and I'll list them later...so will many others I'm sure.

Oh and if you do decide to go Ryanair be sure to read the luggage restrictions. They hold absolutely to the weight/number of suitcases for each passenger.

Where do you see 2 pounds, Timlin? It must be date dependent, I think.

Yes definitely date dependent and you have to just keep a watch regularily for the best buys.

This one right now is for Sept1 to 15th December travel dates. And your return trip is generally a good deal more than the going over....but again you shop around till you find the return at the best deal.

Copy/pasted from http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/fares...A&amp;base=STN

Rome (Ciampino)
from &pound;1.99

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Fares are exclusive of taxes fees &amp; charges which do not exceed

Booking Period: Fri 24th Jun - Mon 27th Jun
Travel Period: Thu 01st Sep - Thu 15th Dec
Applicable Days: 1200 Mon - 1200 Thurs Subject To Availability
Flight must be purchased: 14 days in advance
Blackout Period: Fri 21st Oct - Tue 01st Nov
Notes on this fare: All Holidays, School Breaks and major sporting events are excluded from this offer
Subject to Availability

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