Sky-High Fares to Europe: will it affect your travel?
 

According to today's WSJ airfares to Europe this summer are 11% higher than 2011. Hotel rooms are also rising with for example a 20% increase in Munich and Stockholm. Will this affect your plans for the summer?

It already did. We spent $1500 for tickets to France and have never paid more than $1000. Next year we will be staying in the USA.

The NYT has an article on an empirical study about the trend on how long before the departure to book airline tickets.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/04/15...n-airfare.html

I watched PIT-->FRA since last September on the matrix.itasoftware site for best prices in May. $900 or so until the 20th (weekends more). Naturally, my travelmate couldn't go until the 24th--price increased to about $1100 for that date---and hasn't gone down since we booked around Christmas...
It's a great site to monitor if your dates are not rigid...

Yes and No - we had agreed as a family that we'd go to Switzerland this summer regardless, however, I'll make clear to all that for future travel, this it for Europe for a while until deeply discounted fares return. So, it does affect travel plans, not for 2012, but for future years.

Hi All,

>the cheapest ticket for these trips has increased over the past three years; in some cases it’s up to 24 weeks. <

I have planned a visit to Spain departing 9/20.

I checked prices last year from June through Dec. Lowest price for non-stop was $1190.

In Feb and March this year I checked the prices again.

Non stop $1192.

I found a one-stop for $1077.

My Lady Wife doesn't like to change planes. However, the non-stop left Madrid for ATL at 11:00, meaning that we would have to get to the airport about 08:00. Not good.

Then I found a 1-stop leaving Madrid at 14:30, with a 2-hr MIA layover. In addition, it was only $977.

LW wasn't home, so I delayed purchasing the tickets.

An hour later, after she agreed to the 1-stop, I went to the website.

It was gone.

The next day, I went to the carrier's website. The price had gone from $1056 to $1145.

I went to a discount website and found the flight for $1046.

I punched - "select".

The next screen said "We are sorry. Please call ,,,,,,"

I called. My flight had gone up to $1074. I took it.
By the time the tickets were issued, we were down to 3 available window seats.

The non-stop has gone up to $1296.

Looking at the breakdown of prices, the base air fare has gone up about 5% over last year. The big price increase is for fuel charge.

So, how many of you think I did the right thing by buying the tickets early and how many of you think that fuel prices will drop and I would get a better deal if I had waited a couple of months?

((I))

I am used to paying about $500 in March or Oct. paid $836 to Vienna in March. Paid about $750 to Pisa last March. I will still go but it really bugs me to pay the high prices for what is an uncomfortable experience. It wouldn't be so bad if getting there was pleasant - but it isn't. I used to figure $1000 for a US vacation and $1800 for a Europe vacation. Now it is more like $2000. (this is for about 5 days)

Vicky,

You "hit the nail on the head" on it being such an uncomfortable experience. I wouldn't be as put off by the high prices if it wasn't such a "pain".!

ira----I think you did the right thing. We're leaving about a week before you and are watching the fares every day. Haven't found the right thing yet, but when we do, we will purchase immediately. We also prefer non-stop from Chicago to Paris, but are considering 1 stop if it's under 2 hour layover----wow, that makes for a long day!

We have been watching fares to Switzerland in September - they were consistently around $1200 from RDU. Then last Friday morning I checked and they were down to $900. We usually pay in the $800s, so we snatched them up. We decided with fuel costs rising, they might not go down any further. And this time we are flying into Geneva, it was cheaper than Zurich. Usually it's the other way around. So it does pay to check into alternate airports.

We are planning a trip to Sri Lanka, with non-stop flights from LHR costing about £650 each, round trip.

the taxes and fees amount to about £550 of the total of £1300 for two, ie about 42%.

Although I'm not traveling this summer, I just bought a rt ticket from Spokane to Florence for $1100, which is about what I have usually paid the over last few years. I bought the ticket 6 weeks prior to my departure date in May. I had been watching and the price had been around $1600 for months until it dropped suddenly to $1100. I jumped on it.

My understanding is that a lot depends on how full the flights are vs rate of ticket sales (or something like that). Because airlines have become more efficient in determining route and capacity needs, it's become more of a challenge to find the price you want to pay. I find I need to really stay on top of it and react immediately when the price drops.

I have also heard that the airlines lock into a fuel price for around a 5-7 years block of time, so although I'm sure rising fuel prices create a good "reason" to raise ticket prices, I'm not sure how real that excuse is.

Went to Europe 2 years prior, this year taking a break. I mean, our travel account does.

Next year - we'll see, how much overtime, and maybe sell some vacation time...

Yikes! Sounds like you all have higher budgets for airfare. We're flying (in May) from Sacramento to Zurich for $620 RT and I thought that was a great deal at the time. I'm thinking it's a killer deal now! Hopefully the weather will be somewhat warm by then.

Maybe. I've never paid more than $900 in May, for the last 9 years. This year no sales are popping up, and I am being particular about layovers, etc. because of my limited time. I stick to southern Europe and stay in small hotels or rent apartments, so not too worried about that, but the airfare is a huge challenge.
Unfortunately, fares to South America, my other preferred destination, are not looking too great either!

OK, even if flights are $500 more than you think you should pay, more than you paid last year, etc. Really, what is that over the cost of the whole trip. $500 divided by a two week trip is $35 a day. So drop your hotel price by that much. People are constantly asking for recommendations for "moderate" priced hotels "under €200 a night". There are literally thousands of European hotels that are half that amount that are nice, clean, well located - many are even charming. I wonder how many people worrying about the cost of the flights spend €100 on dinners. It's entirely possible to eat well for a lot less. I guess it comes down to why you travel, and why you travel to Europe. A few hundred more on airfare can easily be compensated for in other ways. Unless prices quadruple or something, those who really love traveling to Europe will not be deterred.

Some perspective, unpleasant as it may be:

Prices of some items in 1972, in 2012, and the percentage change…

Gasoline, gallon: $0.35, $4.15, 1153%
New Ford Mustang convertible (base): $3,101, $27,310, 881%
Box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes: $0.37, $3.79, 1024%
Movie ticket, first run: $1.65, $10.00, 606%
Minimum wage (hr) (WA State): $1.60, $8.80, 550%
Coach plane ticket, July, Seattle-London round trip: $450, $1,235, 274%

Just sayin'

I certainly am not happy to pay the higher fares, but yes, I am still going to Europe three times this year. The first trip departing April 25, my airfare only cost $762.50 because I had a $250 voucher. SHV-ZRH---NCE-SHV. The second trip departing June 6 RT to Oslo, I booked from DFW because I saved $400 per person if I departed from Shreveport. My third trip I just booked last week I paid $1164 departing September 3 from SHV-ZRH and returning MUC-SHV. Actually my airfares don't seem too bad. I am online checking fares every day. We never seem to get really good deals from Texas and Louisiana.

Hi TP,

>We also prefer non-stop from Chicago to Paris, but are considering 1 stop if it's under 2 hour layover----wow, that makes for a long day!<

Get more rest on the plane. Don;t stay up all night watching the computer screen that shows you flying over the Atlantic. :)
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Hi NG,

>they were down to $900. .... so we snatched them up.<

Lucky you.
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Hi GE,

>I'm thinking it's a killer deal now!<

A real Killer Diller. I'm jealous.

((I))

Seems like fares are all over the place. We got a one-stop DFW-LHR-MAD round trip for $756 from mid-May-mid-June. Good news is our planes are scheduled to have at-seat entertainment which we really like. Bad news is that our return from Madrid leaves at 7:00 a.m.! Might have to sleep at the airport. Nothing's perfect. LOL

Okay okay okay do not bad mouth me, I know this is an European Board, and we are going in May to Europe....but when we tried to purchase tickets to Hawaii in August they changed twice before our eyes online!!! Europe=miles for airfare Hawaii=expensive tickets even though they are on sale at the moment for a certain time period.

When we decided to go to Europe it was very very stressful to book our tickets as cost/miles certainly entered into our final decision.

If you have any kind of flexibility, you should be able to find fares under $1000 from N America to major European cities. It takes WORK to research multiple sites over a period of times. The more research you do, the more you learn about pricing, windows in advance in which to buy, etc.. I have never paid more than $950 to travel, even in summer but I don't often travel in the summer, and almost always book an open jaw or 3 leg trip.

Currently I have Toronto - Hamburg, Berlin - Toronto trip in late June, for $868, and an October Toronto -> Vienna -> Krakow -> Toronto, a 3 legger booked for $836. Until this year I hardly ever went over $800 :-(

Managed a Toronto - Toulouse, Madrid - Toronto open jaw a few years ago for $695. That was sweet.

If you need to travel from St. Louis to Paris in the second week of July, you have to take what you can get.

It is worthwhile considering alternative airports. A lot of people do not realize how close many major European airports are to each other. A 2-3 hour train ride after landing, often on a train that leaves from the airport can have you where you want to be, and save hundreds of dollars per person. If you were going to visit that final city anyway, you have created your own open jaw.

Oh, and nothing but financial ruin will affect my travel to Europe. I am anticipating fares of over $2,000 by the time I retire, and that will simply have to be amortized over fewer trips (G*A*S*P) with longer stays. That will allow us to use more long term accommodation and offset the increased airfare.