Tips on Getting Lower Summer Airfare?
 

Hi, everyone! I'm studying in Europe this summer, and my brother and sister-in-law are interested in meeting me in Rome for a week in mid-August. I know airfares to Europe are supposed to be higher in the summer, but everything I've seen so far for August is almost twice the amount I expected to pay. <BR><BR>Does anyone know if it's possible to wait until the last minute to get a good deal on summer airfares from, say, Houston to Rome? Or should they just resign themselves to paying around $1200 per person? I don't know if it makes a difference, but my brother is also in grad school part-time (maybe eligible for a student fare somewhere?) Any other tips you might have would be great. <BR><BR>Thanks!

Sometimes you can do better by flying roundtrip in and out of London, then on to Rome from there. We've done it this way many times and saved quite a bit of $$$. You could also try one of the consolidators mentioned on this forum. One I've had good luck with in the last few years is TRAVAC, based in New York. Too, with the world situation what it is, airfares may change dramatically at any time. You may want to wait a few weeks and see what happens. Good luck, and have a wonderful time!

Thanks, Weadles! Actually, I just checked out TRAVAC, and unfortunately they seem to be declaring bankruptcy. Doh! Any other consolidators come to mind?<BR><BR>I know I'll be flying to Rome from London on Easyjet (gotta love Easyjet). I'll keep an eye on London fares. If they drop way below those to Rome, a hop to the continent on Easyjet or Ryannair should be fairly cheap. Thanks, again!

August is the hardest month to find bargains. If they cannot maybe travel in July, Weadles suggestion to fly into London is a good one. There is so much competition into London that you can often get much better fares and then they can take the train or a low fare airline to Italy.

Thanks, Janis - I'll check into dates in July, as well.

We flew into London from the east coast and then switched to Ryanair to go on to Italy. It worked for us in late July/early August. CAVEAT: if your relatives choose to do this, warn them about the strict baggage weight and size restrictions. Paying the penalties, which has become a &quot;profit center&quot; for the Ryanair type airlines, isn't fun. We avoided it, but saw some very miserable fellow travellers get caught BIG TIME!

Visit www.counciltravel.com for information on student cards and discounts. For consolidators, I would recommend www.autoeurope.com. My son went from Denver (via Houston) to London and back a few weeks ago and received excellent service. He flew on Continental Airlines. I plugged in smome arbitrary August dates on AutoEurope's site a few minutes ago and came up with $753 RT Houston-London and (believe it or not) $461 RT Houston-Rome. If your brother and sister-in-law can't get that fantastic price to Rome on the dates they need, they can do as someone suggested and fly to London and then use Ryanair to get to Rome.

If you have the time, checking every morning can really pay off. I am going to Italy in June, preferred MIlan but open to whatever flights were cheapest. Searched Orbitz or Expedia every morning and flights were over $1000. A few wks ago found a roundtrip flight Chicago to Milan in late June for $600. Booked it! Just 2 hours later fares were back up. On Continental, a regular US carrier. Good luck!

Flights out of jfk are really cheap now to milan.I found a fare of 436 including taxes <BR>for fall travel date on www.sky-tours.com<BR>RR

Just checked and 436 fare is good during the summer jfk-milan.So would have to take a domestic flight to jfk and a train from milan but may be worth the hastle.Actually<BR>any flight would have a stop either on the east coast or europe so flying to jfk dosn't add a stop.

Yes, but the problem is that the fare fron Houston to N.Y can be pretty expensive,, the best thing is to keep checking Continental fares Going to eduring the day.. Days ago I found a Open Jaw fare for July..,from San antonio to Rome,and CDG to S.A for 799 dollars...Pretty good price for the people living in texas,,,

In my case I am using frequent flyer to nyc<BR>to LA. Actually makes for a shorter trip as don't have to make a detour north up to Amsterdam,London etc.

I visited www.autoeurope.com and discovered that the price I quoted earlier for RT Houston-Rome in August is good *all summer*. AutoEurope is having a summer sale to Rome--and a few other places. Tickets must be purchased by March 31. I'm sure with a $400+ RT ticket in the summer the seats will sell fast. Better act now!

Have your brother try Studentuniverse.com... if you can verify your student status (have an email with .edu) you can get very low fares, summer or anytime.

Thanks so much for all the suggestions, guys! I'll pass them along to the relatives!