Summer Airfare Blues...Any Suggestions?
 

Hi all -- I have an unexpected opportunity to accompany my mom and her friend to Romania this summer (her friend is from there, so we'd be with a "local"!). The problem is, airfares for the summer look absolutely daunting...I've tried creative booking, like going to London or Paris first, but everything looks off the chart. Any suggestions, or is this just the norm for summer travel??

It's the norm. Where from, when?

We'd be traveling from Salt Lake City to Bucharest, ultimately. No specific date, but most likely mid to late July.

What sites have you used to check fares?
One problem with SLC is Delta's dominance of that "hub" and lack of competition from other carriers.

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions, only empathy. I had to use the skychoice option with Delta to get to Paris for the Tour de France in July; which means I used double the amount of miles usually needed to get the ticket I wanted. I too tried creative bookings into different cities and flexible dates, etc. I’m usually pretty successful at finding good fares, but usually during “off peak” dates. As the other posters have said, it’s just the way airfares are in the summer.

Thanks for the empathy! I've tried: orbitz, hotwire, travelocity, expedia, travel zoo, and the airline sites themselves. I have tried a few of the "consolidator" sites, which list great fares on the initial search, but when I "check availability" they are never there.

The cheapest thing I could find on www.mobissimo.com was a $1492.00 RT fare on Air France; next closest was $1547 on KLM (using, I assume a codeshare partner out of SLC).

Don't suspect anything at www.onetravel.com or www.itasoftware.com would be any cheaper

Have you thought about flying SW to another hub and then going? Maybe try Houston or even LAX.

Hi Natalie,

www.mobissimo.com is offering $1201 out of Houston, $1243 out of DFW, $1314 out of Phoenix for July 19-26.

Unfortunately, fuel prices have kept air fares high.

Hope you make your trip.

((I))

I don't think you are going to get real cheap fares to Romania, ever. SLC isn't a major hub, either, but I don't think you'll ever find fares competitive with London or Paris, etc., into Romania.

Thank you all for the suggestions and for checking, Ira...with adding travel to Houston or DFW we're probably better off just accepting reality and leaving from SLC. Has anyone here been to Romania? I posted under the Romania site, but it's "a bit" less popular than Italy!

There is no &quot;Romania&quot; site; all posts go into the general Europe forum. The country listings in the little box are only for <i>searching</i> for existing threads dealing with that country.

Unforunately, Romania is poorly served by the many discount airlines that have profligated throughout Europe. To save some money (and it still won't be especially cheap) look at some of the &quot;airpass&quot; programs offered by the various airline alliances. Star Alliance (United, Lufthansa, SAS, etc.), Oneworld (British, American, Iberia, Finnair), and Skyteam (Delta, Air France, Northwest, etc.) all offer deals where if you fly transatlantic on one of their members you can purchase flat-rate intra-Europe flights (e.g., London to Bucharest) much more cheaply than the major airlines would charge for comparable point-to-point fares. If you can get a good deal to a gateway (for instance, London or Amsterdam) you might be able to add on your connecting flight to Romania for less money overall than through ticketing straight through in the first place. Look at oneworld.com, star-alliance.com, or skyteam.com, and look for &quot;Airpasses&quot; or &quot;Discover Europe&quot; listings or some such.

But again, in peak season, and with fuel costs so high and the dollar so low, don't expect miracles.

&lt;&lt;I posted under the Romania site, but it's &quot;a bit&quot; less popular than Italy!&gt;&gt;

&lt;&lt;There is no &quot;Romania&quot; site; all posts go into the general Europe forum. &gt;&gt;

I think that the first statement is just as accurate as the second. When you click on Romania, you ARE on &quot;the Romania forum&quot;. And since few people look at the forum this way, it is true... it's definitely &quot;less popular&quot; than Italy.

Of course, Gardyloo's statements are true also. But I don't know what is gained from <u>correcting</u> Natalie on this point.

But then... Gardyloo has hardly made a practice over time of correcting less experienced visitors here...

... as occasionally - - confession time - - I have...

Best wishes,

Rex

You callin' me pedantic? Huh? <i>Huh??</i> Well, let me tell you something... ;)

After all these years I just wish Fodors would make the site a bit more intuitive and a little less clunky. NatalieM's conclusion is probably the most common misconception about the board's structure. Besides, the search function is still pretty mediocre, no?

Wow! Great travel information and a little drama on the same site...I don't mind being corrected in this case, as I didn't understand that the &quot;topics&quot; are all in the same forum. It is a bit confusing. I do get upset when posters take newbies' inexperience with the site or travel in general as an excuse to be nasty...which, I believe, Gardyloo and Rex never are (at least not on the message board!). Now I am wondering how to use emoticons on my posts...

Search for &quot;smileys&quot; here on this forum

:)

Hi NatalieM, the address is www.fodors.com/forums/smileys

I hope you can work out your trip. Best wishes.

well,the sunny side of the equation is the fact that once you get to Romania,everything is dirt cheap! I went there ten years ago and loved it.((f))

I've never been to Romania, and I haven't traveled in the summertime since the 1970s. If the usual websites like Orbitz are not showing good enough fares, my only suggestion is to try to find a travel agent who caters to Romanian immigrants in the US. Maybe sometimes travel agents who specialize in an ethnic clientele have especially good rates. If you can't find Romanian ones, maybe you can find Hungarian travel agents, and you can fly to Budapest and then transfer. If you can't find any locally, try Cleveland, Ohio, or New Brunswick, NJ. You can always deal with the travel agent over the phone. (I live in NJ but used to use a travel agent in Seattle to find discount fares. I found it very convenient, because after I got home from work, it was still mid-afternoon in Seattle, so the agency was always open when I had time to call.)

Gardyloo: &quot;Pedantic&quot; would be pointing out that airlines do not &quot;profligate&quot;, though they may proliferate. You could not expect low airfares from a profligate airline, LOL!!!!