Is summer airfare normally $1000 or more from Boston?
 

Hi everyone,

DH and I have an extra vacation week to use together at the end of June/early July. We are going to Aruba and Hawaii already this year, so I was thinking of doing something in Europe. However all the cities I check have very expensive airfare from Boston ($1000 range). I have checked all the "biggies" -- Paris, Rome, Venice, etc...

Is this normal or still high? I know it's high season, but it still seemed pricey to me. Thanks in advance!

That's about normal to a little high for discounted tickets. Occasionally you'll get a real bargain for a short time, watch for those. For instance, Travelocity just had tickets in June/July, $488 incl taxes RT on Virgin MIA to LON. I snapped them up -- they were gone in 24 hours. Priceline can sometimes get awesome deals -- got August Orlando to London last year on US Air for $598 incl taxes RT. Use the $1000 as a baseline, and look for the lower ones, they'll pop up!

Did you try www.1800flyeurope.com? They have great deals. I monitored the prices for about three weeks, so I was aware when I saw a very good deal last weekend from our hometown in mid-May.

check using www.itasoftware.com and also www.onetravel.com

The prices you are seeing may be what has become "normal" unfortunately.

I just checked for arbitrary dates in late June with a return early July from Boston to Heathrow and found several fares of <$700 (each) at 1800flyeurope

Hi BG,

Also check www.mobissimo.com and www.kayak.com

((I))

We've been holding out for better fares(4 tickets needed) Boston to Rome for our trip, but I think prices won't change much soon and I don't want to wait too much longer to buy them. So, we just may do it this weekend and get it off the list of things to do.

Hope you find what you want, beachgirl. Have a great trip!

Beachgirl,

Getting the perfect/best price airfare very difficult.

Some thoughts:
Day of the week is important (weekends are premium times to fly).
Time of day is important (business travelers depart during business/daylight hours)

I have heard that the carriers release their special fares shortly after midnight (the day varies by carrier but I think that the majority release their specials Tuesday night).

Have you priced the ticketes directly with carrier.

I did quite a bit of watching last year before booking our Boston-London flight (for August 05) in Februrary - and had to pay $700 each for one-way on AA(we were sailing back, but the r/t woudn't have been much different). I kept an eye out from then on and never saw the price drop.

Every site I checked was VERY expensive, but thank you so much for all the tips. Seems like summer is just the high season. So, we booked a trip to Anguilla in the Caribbean instead :) I will have to look at Europe for the winter/spring next year when flights are more affordable. Thanks again!

Maybe too late now, if the Anguilla plan isn't refundable. But if you're not already signed up for e-mail alerts from various airlines, you might want to do that...Perhaps a short-notice deal would come through that you could grab. Virgin, for one, looks to have some pretty affordable packages from time to time.