Is this a good fare for summer 2005 to London or should we wait?
 

Hi everyone,
I just recieved an email from one of the airfare websites that I subscribed to promoting an early summer 2005 sale to London. Flying out of Washington, DC it has $529 RT for adults and $509 RT for children. I have been watching Travelocity, Expedia, and several airlines' own websites and haven't seen anything under $700 for June. Should I take advantage of this fare sale or wait it out? I think I remember reading that in January some Fodorites found RT to London for under $400. In the past, have fares been offered after the first of the year that are a lot lower than the $529 I was notified of today? I don't want to miss out, but I don't want to jump the gun either. Thanks everyone!

I think it's a good fare. I don't think anyone can assure you of anything, like the stock market.
Everytime I've seen a low fare to somewhere and waited, the fare only went up. Perhaps I just have bad luck.

That's a good fare, but I would want to know who the carrier was before I could give an answer.

Like Elaine said, it's a good fare, but you just never know what will happen. All depends on your risk tolerance. You have to decide whether it's more important for you to try to save a little on each ticket versus having to pay a little more for each ticket if they go up. You have to look at it this way also--if they go down, it won't be by much, maybe you save $50 a ticket. But if they go up, they could go WAY up. No guarantees, you just have to decide whether to lock in and know that maybe if you wait you could save a few bucks, to safeguard against having to pay a lot more.

That's a very good fare if it is in June. You can't expect fares in June to be similar to those people had in January.

I'd also want to know the carrier. I bet it's one on the verge of bankruptcy and they want immediate cash infusions.

As mentioned June is not January.

Besides knowing the carrier, I'd want to know the route. I assume you can easily get a non-stop DC to London, but I'd hate to find out I was stopping on the way in New Jersey or New York or something crazy like that just to save a few bucks.

For a nonstop, major carrier fare, that's not bad. I was watching the prices for a potential trip this summer, and those prices you mentioned were more than it only cost about $350 on Virgin Atlantic, and that was from LAX.

For the past two years, Virgin has had a special in January for economy class that let's you purchase a cheap ticket in advance (usually up to four or five months.) It was $350 round trip from LAX this year.

Sometimes, rather than expedia and travelocity, I find that the airlines themselves have been having better rates, lately. For example, United is particularly desperate since they didn't receive their bankruptcy bailout. They have a new loyalty scheme where you can pay $300 (which I just got an email for slashing the price to $150) for an exclusive travel club that let's you get free companion tickets, as long as you purchase a full fare ticket.

If your plans are flexible, try and go in May. Airfare to Europe gets higher after the last week in May.

I have found a good fare yesterday with AA for the end of may coming back the end of June..

This was an open jaw, from SAT to FCO and from CDG to SAT for only 755 dollars..
Unfortunately I cant buy the tickets yet, simply because my daughter cannot apply for her vacation until the first week of january and want to make certains that is officially approved before we invest all that moneys in airplanes tickets..
Oh well, C'Est La Vie..I hope that by then I can find another bargain..