Help! We are going to Rome in June and all flights from Minneapolis are running $1200 per person. Yikes! Anyone know if this is a trend or will it come down? We have NEVER paid anything like this to go to Europe.

Hi rb,

I woould check the discounter sites daily from now through March.

I expect the price will drop to about $800.

One thing you might learn from this situation is to plan ahead as much as possible. I don't know if you have already reserved a hotel/etc, but it could also become a problem, even in January, if you choose one of the popular places. For a trip in summer, I usually make my airline reservations first, more than 6 months ahead, then my hotels.

Now having said that, I know this doesn't do you any good. But the only other choice, aside from going ahead and buying the tickets, is to wait and hope. Ira could be right, or he might not be. If you can keep your cool and wait long enough, and if you have enough flexibility in your schedule, you will usually find reduced fares -- but be warned, they go fast when offered. One more option, if you haven't reserved your accommodations, is to look for a combination flight and hotel deal that is offered by many airlines. Sometimes you can really find a bargain, and generally those deals don't sell out quite as fast. Good luck.

rbnwdln,
the only thing that I can suggest and always works for me, is to keep checking the internet at various time of the day.
I bought my tickets with AA last October for my June flight to Rome.
It is an open jaw ticket SAT to Rome and CDG to SAT. I paid $755.00 per ticket, if I was leaving Paris Monday instead of Saturday, the price was even cheaper.
However, I kept looking for a special price quite often in the morning, afternoon and night.

You can also try in and out of either Dublin or London, then a regular (Aer Lingus) or discount carrier to Rome. I've shaved a few hundred dollars out of my tickets from New York-Rome doing it this way. It's worth checking. Also try some of the consolidator sites. If you do a check here, you should be able to pull up some reliable names.

Good luck!

rbnwdln,
Relax, I hope, all fares are high right now to Europe....I'm going through the same thing. Some things I do know, one from past experience sales for Europe summer travel come out from anytime now thru March/April depending on airline, load and fare wars. February is typically the hot month. Also from my own checking of flights they are all wide open still, no reason to jump on any fare and all the more reason to wait. That is generally the key is to keep an eye on the "load" (seats sold, percentage booked however you want to describe it). If you have a wide open plane you wait, if pretty much full then likelihood of a sale is near nil and you lose more and more by waiting, higher fare and perhaps seats scattered about the plane. Good luck, we're in this together!