Airfare to Europe

Mrs.BFinally · February 2012

Is anyone else having a hard time stomaching the cost of airfare to Europe, namely Italy? DH and I were suppose to go on a Med. cruise out of Rome in September but I am having a very hard time stomaching paying $1400+ per ticket for us. Thinking we may cancel this trip and book something else for our 5th anniversary.

marytini · February 2012

Surprisingly, I have sort of accepted the "high" price to get to Europe. We are going in September too, and granted our flights are looking to be around $1000 (800-1200 depending on several factors), not $1400. Because of this, we are planning on staying for 2 weeks, rather than the original one. Figure we might as well get our money's worth out of the flight. Since you have a while, set up fare alerts with the airlines or airfare watchdog. About once a week I search for flights on kayak to get an idea of what the prices are doing, but don't have to plans to buy for a few months (unless I find an amazing deal).

bringjoy2theworld · February 2012

That is what we spent the past few years, so, I don't find that outrageous by any means. I think our cheapest roundtrip was $1350 or so.

mxolisi · February 2012

Airfare is horrible right now. I'm trying to go to Dallas for a weekend in March and can't get a fare from DC for less than $500.

Given that, $1400 sounds like a deal to Rome. At least then you're in Rome and not Dallas

sunshine_day_dreams · February 2012

We went to Italy two years ago and flight prices were $1700R/T, so $1400 doesn't seem that bad to me. I feel like I've seen prices go up more domestically than internationally lately. Can you try changing to another airport and then getting a cheap-o flight within Europe to Italy?

2bJenniferT · February 2012

My husband and I got RT tickets from Dulles to Copenhagen this May for about $850 ($1700 total). I stalked prices for several months though...and bought our tickets last year. It does seem that prices are out of control

iLikeSloths · February 2012

We booked airfare for $835 flying into Munich and out of Budapest for March/April. It kept going up and down a few hundred dollars, but I stalked it for about 2 months on Kayak and we were flexible with our dates and airports. The flexibility of dates helped tremendously especially by flying on Tuesdays, but if you're going on a cruise then I realize it's more difficult with specific dates.

traveling turtle · February 2012

If it were me traveling, I would hold off on buying tickets until the prices were closer to what I was comfortable paying. Of course, cruise availability could fluctuate a bit before then. I'm not sure where you are flying out of, but I think it's still early enough and that price is still high enough that you can wait and see if the prices go down. My general rule of thumb from my travel agent days is that 3 months out is a good time to look for tickets (unless you see a great price before then - and prices can go down even closer to the travel date, but you just have a bigger risk that they don't). With that in mind, I've found prices drop after a holiday (so check again after Easter) and if the prices continue to go up between now and then the likelihood of the prices dropping are slim. There's always a risk, as I said, that the cruise price goes up or your alternative anniversary plans could get more expensive if you wait, though.

stever · February 2012

Meh. It's been 800 - 1000 to get to Europe for us for years. Now there are 3, soon to be 4, of us. It sucks, but it is what it is. DH is European so we want/have to go back every few years. The cost of airfare is just something we have to acknowledge and move on from.

sillygoosegirl · February 2012

You might flying to a different airport (where ever is cheap right now), and taking a local discount carrier to Rome. You'd want to pad your trip with some time in whatever city you flew through, but a few days in London or Dublin or Zurich wouldn't be such a bad thing...

MrsA1210 · February 2012

I think that's a normal rate. I've found Italy to be particularly expensive, particular during high season. We spent approx 1600pp for Italy (from NY into Milan and out of Venice) for this coming May/June. We spent 800pp roundtrip to Lisbon over the holidays. I'm in the early stages of planning our next trip (for next winter) and average airfare to Europe ranges everywhere from 600pp-1500pp depending on the city and the dates.

Mrs.BFinally · February 2012

We are flying in and out of Las Vegas (or LAX if needed). Reading everyone's responses, maybe $1400 is not to bad. I did find $1174 on cheapoair.com but I have never used them so not sure if they ar legit.

Thanks for the insight everyone ... I do not think I will give up just yet

emilyinchile · February 2012

Mrs.BFinally:
We are flying in and out of Las Vegas (or LAX if needed). Reading everyone's responses, maybe $1400 is not to bad. I did find $1174 on cheapoair.com but I have never used them so not sure if they ar legit.

Thanks for the insight everyone ... I do not think I will give up just yet

Cheapoair is legit. On a recent trip, I booked my ticket on aa.com and my husband's on cheapoair.com. The only slight issue was that AA changed my return trip due to a flight schedule change, and Cheapoair didn't have any change in their system until a couple weeks later. I had to call I think 3 times total, which was a bit of a hassle, but they changed H's flight so we were still flying together, and the extra hassle was worth saving several hundred dollars.

AKuzReve · February 2012

Maybe look around a bit?

We were lucky enough to find RT tickets to Paris (direct) for $700 after some thorough searching of various websites.

roar · February 2012

I was talking about this with some friends the other day - and all of us were surprised as to how high it is. DH and I had been planning on going to Amsterdam and Brussels this summer and were surprised to find nothing less than $1200+ and we've tried different dates, airlines, etc. A friend of ours is planning on going to Paris and the cheapest he found (for May) is $1200 on Iceland Air.

We're revising our trip ideas, but no, you are not the only one who is surprised with airfare this summer.

ETA: I also have to add anytime we've traveled to Europe, it's been off-peak so that is part of my surprise. A PP had said she felt like airfare domestically has risen quite a bit and that's what DH and I have noticed too. I thought maybe we could do Amsterdam/Brussels in the fall and the cheapest we found was $1100. But for $680/person, we could go to Hawaii. So Hawaii in the fall it is!

KappaUCF20 · February 2012

I wouldn't give up yet. We did a trip to Germany and Italy in October and knew we wanted to fly into Munich and out of Rome. Prices seemed high at first, but we kept waiting and about 3-4 months before the trip, we were able to get tickets for $850 each. A friend of mine just booked tickets to Scotland at $1500 each, and I almost choked when she told me that. Her trip isn't until December though so I think that was her mistake. Had she waited longer, I think she would have been able to find a better price.

ooolalalolo · February 2012

I also think you should wait until a bit closer to the dates to make a decision on whether to book it or not.

However, if you are thinking of flying somewhere else in Europe and then changing to a cheap-o flight, keep in mind that baggage policies might differ (i.e. RyanAir, easyjet etc do not include a free checked bag). You will want to take that into account. I would also be more apt to buy travel insurance in case one leg's delay affects the rest of your journey, since the further leg wouldn't automatically be rescheduled.

PittPurple · February 2012

ooolalalolo:
I also think you should wait until a bit closer to the dates to make a decision on whether to book it or not.
However, if you are thinking of flying somewhere else in Europe and then changing to a cheap-o flight, keep in mind that baggage policies might differ (i.e. RyanAir, easyjet etc do not include a free checked bag). You will want to take that into account. I would also be more apt to buy travel insurance in case one leg's delay affects the rest of your journey, since the further leg wouldn't automatically be rescheduled.

Agree with all of this.

I fly from Europe back to the states 1-2 times a year and the last year or so prices have gone up significantly - it was over $1500 a ticket to get to my brother's wedding last summer. I've found decent deals getting to the East Coast but once I fly anywhere else in the states it gets so much more expensive. Internal flights in the states are pretty shocking now too.

Good luck!

Kasa · February 2012

I've also been stalking airfare to Europe in September. Most places in Europe are currently around $1300 from Michigan.

I'm waiting to buy until it drops below $1000. (Hopefully it will!)

hz80408 · February 2012

Like pp pointed out, keep in mind of baggage fees, etc for the cheap inter-Europe flights. Plus, from what I've looked at, it looks like the "regular" baggage weight limit is 42 pounds instead of the US's 50#. Perhaps this is just the airlines I searched for us, but keep it in mind.

SIL and her H flew American from O'Hare to Rome R/T last summer for a 16-day trip for $1200/person.

We're flying into Amsterdam and out of London for our 18-day trip at the end of March (out of ORD). I used Yapta to track flights for about 6 weeks. Prices started at about $950 and the moment they dropped to $899, I booked. I'm glad I did because since the day we booked, they've only continued to raise and are now $962 (FYI, we're flying direct flights via United/Continental).

Since I haven't tracked your flight, I don't really know if that's a good deal or not, but it seems like you still have time to decide. There was a recent article saying on average, the best time to book is 6wks in advance. I'm too much of a worry-wart for that though :O)

laptopprancer · February 2012

September is one of the most popular months to visit Rome. The heat of the summer is over, but it's still nice and warm, and the Romans are finished with their holidays so the city is bustling again. My assumption would that be Easter and Christmas are also busy/expensive times.

If you went in August I bet it would be cheaper, and if you're cruising, it won't matter that Rome is basically a ghost town at that time.

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