Get Out Your Crystal Balls! Airfare and the London Olympics
 

This August we need to fly from London to Seattle. My husband is panicking and thinks the Olympics will drive up the cost of the flight. He would like to buy tickets as soon as possible. A quick check online shows we are looking at about $1400 a ticket. I think Olympics or not, it is too early to be buying airfare. We made the same trip in August of 2010. Tickets were purchased in May and we spent about $1000. I don't know if we can get the same fares two years later, but I'm hoping to avoid a 40% increase.

I know it's impossible to judge these things this far in advance but I'd love to hear any thoughts or opinions!

I'm no authority and certainly have no crystal ball, but in the past I've found some reduced air fares in mid to late January. I think I would hold off a little while before buying. Good luck!

You could try a site like Skyscanner, which has an email alert service on special deals. There may be others that do the same thing.

" My husband is panicking and thinks the Olympics will drive up the cost of the flight"

There's no reduction in US-London capacity this coming summer. EVERY Summer Olympics, except Beijing, for the past 30 years has reduced visitor traffic to the misguided city hosting this pointless self-indulgence for corrupt IOC honchoes.

Two nanoseconds' thought, therefore, make it certain that airfares to London will be lower this August than previous Augusts - even though the initial surge of bookings might create temporary early inflation

Is your husband privy to a secret cartel among airlines to reduce capacity? Or does he seriously believe London (served, BTW, by the best international rail links in Olympic history) is going to attract airborne sports junkies where Sydney, Barcelona and Athens failed to?

does he really think that there is going to be a run on london to Seattle flights? Seattle?

I'd hang onto my cash for now, if i were you.

Thanks for the replies -- all were helpful in their own way. I did not know about Skyscanner. I knew that bing travel offered something similar but not for international flights. I'll check it out.

I didn't realize that the Olympics have reduced traffic to their host city. However, maybe China isn't the exception to the rule but an example of a rule change.

He doesn't think there will be a run on flights to Seattle so much as anything related to London will increase in price. We're looking at taking the Eurostar to Paris in the same time frame and he's worried about those prices as well. Then again, the problem may not be the Olympics but just that my husband worries too much!

I am grateful for these responses. At least when he starts worrying I can show him this thread and tell him fodors agrees with me!

with eurostar the main key is booking tickets as soon as they become available because they release cheapest tickets first! they only release them around 4 months out however, plus August is school holiday time as well

We're looking at taking the Eurostar to Paris in the same time frame and he's worried about those prices as well>>

it is conceivable that londoners will flee to france during the Olympics!

buying early for eurostar is normally a good idea anyway.