I know that some fares carry a 30 day maximum stay rule, but is it difficult to find a decent fare that doesn't have this rule? As an experiment I just went to Sidestep and put in 2 sets of dates: Sept.27 - Oct. 25 and Sept. 27 - Nov. 1 and I actually found a lower fare for the second set. What's the deal?

I would think that "the deal" is... that a lower fare is available in November than in October.

While some fares may have a maximum stay of 30 days, I feel like I have seen "fine print" fare rules mentioning 45 day or 90 day maximum stay allowances before also.

Best wishes,

Rex

We nearly always go for at least 30 days and often for six weeks or more. We've never had to pay extra. Shop carefully to get the best deal, but don't feel you pay extra for the longer stay.

The only time I've run into extra for a longer stay was about twenty years ago in Haiti. I quickly learned to keep it to 29 days. Europe has never been a problem.

BTW, check the Air France web site. They usually have great fares!

I think you answered your own question when you went into Sidestep..."some fares carry a 30-day maximum stay rule" and obviously a lot others don't.

So, I wouldn't get hung up on it. What I WOULD do is go to at least one other "aggregator site" such as itasoftware.com and possibly to mobissimo.com as well as at least one consolidator site such as onetravel.com BEFORE making any final purchase decisions.

While there may be some fares that have number of day limits, most do not. For the last two years my daughter has gone to Europe for 4 or 5 months and her round trip ticket was usually about the same, or even less than my ticket to go visit her for 10 days. As someone pointed out, it will depend on the months you are flying in, not on how long you are over there. I usually start my searches with Orbitz.

You might also check directly with the airline carriers either by telephone or on their websites, in case you are running into particular restrictions that are part of the rules on the discount booking travel sites.