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2015 Travel to Europe
Old 12-26-2014, 05:24 PM   #1
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2015 Travel to Europe

I have been checking airfares for possible trip to Europe (Paris or Rome or Sofia) the Spring of 2015.

Have others noticed that the airfare are significantly higher than last year? I am talking $300 to $400 higher for the same round trip.

I an not naive enough to think that lower oil prices will give us lower airfares, but I did not expect them to be so much higher.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:28 PM   #2
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Your title is a bit off....

Do you plan on being around in 2105
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:29 PM   #3
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Not sure why they are higher as IATA was predicting prices to fall earlier this month.

BBC News - Airline fares set to fall in 2015, Iata predicts

Quote:
Average return fares for air passengers will be 5.1% lower next year compared with 2014, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has said.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:31 PM   #4
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I think it is more of a supply/demand issue instead of oil prices...

The news keep saying that the airlines have cut out a lot of flights to pack the remaining flights with people... they are flying at a high % of capacity...

Unless someone breaks the pattern and starts to lower air fare, we will be living with higher fares for awhile...
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:34 PM   #5
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Yeah - I'm seeing it too. And it's magnified in a bad way for me since we're going as a family - so airfare x 4.

Right now my open jaw trip is quoting out at $1800/person. My budget - which I thought was generous - is $1500/person. I briefly saw it at $1400/person in Sept or so... but didn't strike - and it immediately went up.

I'm hoping prices drop in Jan or Feb.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:35 PM   #6
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Originally Posted by Texas Proud View Post
Your title is a bit off....

Do you plan on being around in 2105
Of course I do! I need to squeeze every dollar I can out of my pension and SS. Let those young folks work hard to support me.

OK, perhaps a kind moderator will change the date to 2015.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:39 PM   #7
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OK, perhaps a kind moderator will change the date to 2015.
Done.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:39 PM   #8
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Quote:
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Right now my open jaw trip is quoting out at $1800/person. My budget - which I thought was generous - is $1500/person.
Open jaw trips seem to add about $200 to the price, even if the cities have similar round trip prices.

The only airline with 'reasonable' prices at this time is Aeroflot. They are literally hundreds of dollars cheaper than even the discounters like Condor.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:46 PM   #9
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It doesn't really when I consider the travel I need.

I'm flying into Catania, Sicily (because that's the airport where DH's cugini all live.) And out of Barcelona (because that was the cheapest of the 27-gazillian endpoints for our trip for airfare.)

If I do a r/t to Barcelona - then add on a 1 way flight to Catania - it comes out about $100 more per person than the open jaw. Same if I do it r/t to rome and look at airfare or train to Catania, and air or train back to Rome.

My total transportation cost is cheaper with an open jaw.

On top of the airfare I also have about $3000 in train travel (for all 4 of us) for our inter-city travel. Which is still cheaper than a car rental (and more pleasant).
But this is a bucket list trip - 8-9 weeks in Europe, 10 cities in 7 countries. And I'm hoping to pull it off for $25k for all 4 of us, including airfare and spending money. Airfare is blowing that budget though.
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Old 12-26-2014, 05:58 PM   #10
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It doesn't really when I consider the travel I need.

I'm flying into Catania, Sicily (because that's the airport where DH's cugini all live.) And out of Barcelona (because that was the cheapest of the 27-gazillian endpoints for our trip for airfare.)

If I do a r/t to Barcelona - then add on a 1 way flight to Catania - it comes out about $100 more per person than the open jaw.
Very true. Add in the extra transportation cost to get back to the city you arrived in, and the savings can vanish rather quickly.
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Old 12-26-2014, 06:17 PM   #11
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I used to find $800 round trip, even a bit less, from San Francisco to Europe in the first 3 months of the year.

Airlines are booking record profits now. They have pricing power.

Even in the last 2 or 3 years, when the economy was suppose to be tepid, airfares were steadily going up.

Now, US economy is picking up while Europe and Asia are relatively stagnant. I was in Prague just after Thanksgiving and it was packed, could barely move in the popular venues because there were so many people out, even though it was cold (though not very cold).

Vienna was a bit better but restaurants were full.

However I did fly on business class, the fare was reachable enough to splurge, even though it wasn't the best time of the year. Was overcast most of the time but it didn't rain.
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Old 12-26-2014, 08:39 PM   #12
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Also planing trip Spring 2015 flights were about 1600 in Sept but I waited until Nov & flights were $1750-$1850. Luckily I had miles and used those for 2Rt tickets for $100 each. I was shocked at costs of flights also.
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Old 12-26-2014, 08:48 PM   #13
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I'm not sure where you are going and for how long, but we took a trip to UK and Wales this year and decided to cruise both ways. Depending on how much time you have , it is a great way to travel and the pricing is sometimes less expensive than the flight.

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Old 12-26-2014, 09:49 PM   #14
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Originally Posted by Debinnov a View Post
I'm not sure where you are going and for how long, but we took a trip to UK and Wales this year and decided to cruise both ways. Depending on how much time you have , it is a great way to travel and the pricing is sometimes less expensive than the flight.

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We did this last year but it helps if you are retired. New York to Southampton was $500 on the Queen Elizabeth, return trip on the Queen Mary was $1,100. However, it is 8 days each way and they don't sail that often.
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Old 12-27-2014, 07:46 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rodi View Post
Yeah - I'm seeing it too. And it's magnified in a bad way for me since we're going as a family - so airfare x 4.

Right now my open jaw trip is quoting out at $1800/person. My budget - which I thought was generous - is $1500/person. I briefly saw it at $1400/person in Sept or so... but didn't strike - and it immediately went up.

I'm hoping prices drop in Jan or Feb.
When searching airfares, you should use private browsing. If you don't, "they" know what you're looking for and next time you log in to Travelocity or whatever travel website you're using, the prices tend to be higher.
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Old 12-27-2014, 07:48 AM   #16
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You'll get a nice break on the exchange rate!
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Old 12-27-2014, 08:04 AM   #17
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When searching airfares, you should use private browsing. If you don't, "they" know what you're looking for and next time you log in to Travelocity or whatever travel website you're using, the prices tend to be higher.
So you're saying it works like high frequency trading on the market.

I'm using Kayak for the most part - which then goes to all the different airline sites. It doesn't seem to change the price.

I check flight prices on Tuesday afternoons - since that's supposed to be the time that new fare sales are loaded into the system.

Also - aren't travelocity and expedia loaded on top of the sabre flight system - which I don't think works as you're described... it's the same system the counter clerks at the airport use.
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Old 12-27-2014, 08:35 AM   #18
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I'm saying that the prices sometimes rise when you use the same computer to search the same flights at the same website. I read this in an online article and checked it for myself. Ive searched a flight...then searched again a day or two later only to see a higher price. Then, within minutes, I checked the same flight from a different computer and was shown a lower price. It doesn't happen all the time, but Ive just started using private browsing so I don't have to worry about it.
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Old 12-27-2014, 08:51 AM   #19
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I clipped out a chart from a 2013 Kayak study of pricing which shows some optimal points to book flights:



We're going in late August 2015 so I'm thinking of booking around June.

Also Google flights can show lots of data in an easy to view way. As an example, click on this link and then clink in the August 27 box which will show you flights costs by days for August and Sept. This is useful if you are flexible. Link to click: https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...bruary+10+2015
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Old 12-27-2014, 02:36 PM   #20
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I stumbled upon a radio interview with an experienced travel agent and travel writer in my area. His advice on inexpensive foreign travel was to look to other non-airfare expenses to cut costs.

His rational is that with the limited number of airline cartels flying between the US and Europe, and their expertise at filling planes to capacity thus eliminating 'fire sale' prices on tickets, airfare is not the best area to find economies. And often the economies are false, requiring tortuously long flights and lay overs, wasted vacation days, and extra expenses for hotel rooms, cabs, and other forms of transportation.

He pointed out that even shoulder and off season airfares are higher as the airlines have learned to park planes and not fly with empty seat.

He recommends looking for deals on rooms as there are hundreds if not thousands of hotels competing in major cities, and services like Airbnb adding to that competition. He also recommends looking for making your own meals with picnics, meals in the hotel room, and walking a few blocks out of the main tourist areas to restaurants that don't routinely saver mostly tourists.

I have found that to be true so far. I could knock $300 off of the airfare if I wish to give up a day or more of my trip to travel time and exhaustion, and pay for an additional night's room and transportation to another city with lower fares. Sorry, that's too big a price to pay so I can brag about getting a lower fare.

I have one more tip of my own for the rest of you: Wait until I buy my tickets. No doubt prices for the same exact flight will drop by at least 15% the next day.
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