pjcpa

We are a family of 7 (two parents and five kids ages 11 - 17) and will be traveling to Europe this June for our once in a lifetime family trip. The wife and I have been overseas several time and this is the first time with the kids. My question, as the title suggests, is does anyone know why airfares appear to be so high this year? The economy is still soft, so I would think that the fares would be competitive, but they are anything but. And it appears that flying out of our home city of Atlanta is probably the worst of any other location. Is it the Oil situation? or are the airlines just feeling things out now that they all have reduced their capacity. I budgeted based on last years fares plus a little and boy is that out the window. Any comments or advice (ie experience with priceline NYOP) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Russ

Be patient. Keep your eyes open every day. The best fares often appear in February and March once airlines see too many empty seats and too little time to fill them. I got SFO-DUB last year $390 RT in the first week of March.

elaine

I've experienced the same sticker shock. I was looking at RT non-stop fares between New York and just about anywhere in Europe.
The range for April and May is $750 to $1000.
Since I was considering a short trip, just a 5 day or so jaunt, the air fares are giving me pause.

scatcat

I was glad I was able to book my June airfare with FF miles. I didn't get the exact cities I wanted but I decided it would do. I was finding airfares for $1200-$1300. But I did book April airfare through Delta for $820. And if you think Atlanta is expensive, try departing from Shreveport, LA.

Michel_Paris

Have you looked at flying via another US city? I've done that a few times. Another alternative is to analyze how flying to another European hub city, then flying from there (or train/car/etc..)

avalon

I hope all 7 of you have an FF membership. I just booked for Oct MCO/LGW/ train to Paris and return LGW for $11.00 and 50,000 BA miles.It was the best I could get. Gong to London next month with AA , part miles part cash...the cash was only $300.00

Christina

Airfares are high because the economy is bad and fuel prices are high. I found airfares of $1200 last summer to Europe, also (from east coast US), at least for the flights I wanted nonstop.

The fares are competitive if they are all about the same, I would say.

Russ

Check Swiss Air. SFO-ZRH for 2 weeks in June: some nonstops on certain dates at $765, $815, not horrible, maybe from your city and dates too?

pjcpa

Actually, I just went to the Delta Website to see how many seats were still available on my dates of travel and almost every seat is still available. I do not know how reliable that can be, but taken at face value, it does not seem like the high fares are selling.

KTtravel

pjcpa, I don't know what your dates are and where you want to fly into but the earlier you are able to travel in June, the better the prices might be. Also, it might be worth it to check flying into different cities and taking a cheaper flight from that city to your ultimate destination (perhaps after resting up a day or so.)

christycruz

Other posters on other threads suggested making alerts in Kayak, Obitz, and signing up for emails for the likely suspects (Delta, Luftansa, SwissAir, etc) so that you'll catch those deals asap.

However, I am VERY tired of getting Kayak alerts for the SwissAir deal that hasn't existed for weeks.

Judyrem

Yes, airfare is CRAP right now. I spent 1000 a piece for airfare to paris. I was sick of waiting for fare watchers that never materialized...so I bought tkts...oh well.

FrankS

We wanted to do Northern Spain with a cruise out of Barcelona, but the fares are stubbornly high. We are actually considering an Eastern Europe trip this summer if air doesnt cooperate.

Underhill

We need to get one free and one upgrade to business class for the fall/early December, and the prices are indeed very high--especially when adding AA's $700 for the upgrade supplement. I'm worried that if we wait much longer we won't be able to get the free ticket.

janisj

Every airline has eliminated flights and capacity is way down. Therefore fares are high. Fewer seats = higher fares. They <i>might</i> go down, but they might go up too.

opaldog

I gave up on the high early summer/summer fares. I booked a flight today for Nov. 9-15 to Barcelona from BOS for $536 total. That is a decent price. It's on Swiss. I have flown them twice in the past year because they were the best price to where I wanted to go; Istanbul & Paris. They also have a painless connection in Zurich.

pavot

pjcpa, I know how you feel. This year's airfare is setting me back more than I would have imagined: a ticket for the dead of winter was more than $700 from Charlotte to Paris, and in May I fly to Amsterdam for a cool $1000.

But here's a funny thing: I am used to driving down to Atlanta or up to Charlotte to catch the cheapest fares rather than using Asheville or Greenville-Spartanburg, where the fares tend to be much higher. This year, airfares to Europe have been cheaper from the smaller airports across the board. Since you're buying five tickets, saving $200 apiece could really add up. I know it won't be as convenient as leaving from ATL, but maybe you could fly from Birmingham or GSP less expensively than a straight shot from ATL?

Good luck; I hope your family has a wonderful trip.

elaine

pavot, you make a good suggestion. My departing airports are NYC, but I'm going to check out Boston fares just to see if there's any difference.

pja1

Hi elaine and pjcpa,

Are you looking at flying on weekdays? That could help. Maybe a coincidence, but I've had pretty good luck getting good airfares (from NJ) to Germany (Munich or Frankfurt) by checking prices late Tuesday nights. Last year (Sept. '09) we flew non-stop NJ to Munich for $462 pp r/t... bought around midnight on a Tues. night through Lufthansa's website. We found the "best" prices for our 6 trips the last 9 years doing this. We've flew to Germany each time on either a Mon. or Tues. and came home on either Thurs. or Fri.

Paul

pja1

I meant to add, we've flown on Air Canada (1) , Air France (1), Swiss Air (1) and Lufthansa (3).