2015 Travel to Europe

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[Texas Proud]

Your title is a bit off....

Do you plan on being around in 2105

 

[Alan]

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

Average return fares for air passengers will be 5.1% lower next year compared with 2014, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) has said.

 

[Texas Proud]

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...

 

[rodi]

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.

 

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[rodi]

OK, perhaps a kind moderator will change the date to 2015.

Done.

 

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[rodi]

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.

 

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[explanade]

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.

 

[whatnot]

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.

 

[Debinnov a]

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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[Alan]

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.

Sent from my KFTHWA using Tapatalk HD

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.

 

[utrecht]

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.

 

[audreyh1]

You'll get a nice break on the exchange rate!

 

[rodi]

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.

 

[utrecht]

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.

 

[Lsbcal]

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/#sea...9-21;s=0;q=flight+sfo+to+ams+february+10+2015

 

[Chuckanut]

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.

 

[braumeister]

I have utterly abandoned attempts to save big on airfares, except that I find I can get the best deals by buying tickets far in advance of travel (even as far as the max of 320 days). According to one website, the best deals are usually between 30 and 90 days in advance of your trip, with 54 days being the most advantageous on average.

OK, so let's say you've bought your tickets.
Like Chuckanut, I won't submit to excessive travel time, so the most direct flights are preferred.

But if you're going to Europe, and you want to travel around the continent, train travel has air travel beat by a mile for cost. And it can really be rather pleasant at times.

The other thing I generally do is to get a hotel that is within walking distance of the city center, but not right in the center. That saves a heap of Euros right there. And once I've checked in, I immediately go looking for the closest grocery store so I can have some fresh chow in the room if I want.

 

[Chuckanut]

According to one website, the best deals are usually between 30 and 90 days in advance of your trip, with 54 days being the most advantageous on average.

The guy I heard on the radio did not think that was true these days. Unless an airline has that rare flight that has a high percentage of empty seats, they won't reduce fares much if at all. And you take the chance of having to sit in a middle seat, separated from your companions, between two POS fliers.

Note: I can only remember one fairly empty flight I have taken in the past three years, and I fly about 6-8 times a year. It was only a two hour flight. The last few trips I have taken, they were asking for bump volunteers on every leg. Not so good.

 

[EastWest Gal]

If you are searching on a weekend or around the holidays, the price might be higher. I got an insanely low price for airfare and hotel package from Baltimore to San Diego for mid-January. Airfare alone was $555 but when I did it with a three night stay at a 3 star hotel ON THE WATER the total was $750, about $370 each for airfare and hotel. I searched midweek and during the day. Try the same search on Tuesday or even the first full week in January and see what shows up. The day and time of your flight matters a lot too, but I found out years ago that sometimes the fare seems to go up and down depending on when you search. I know someone that booked a round trip from Baltimore to Maui for less than three hundred dollars about ten years ago because of a one day mistake on published airfares. Sweet!


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[tulak]

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.

If you haven't tried it, then I'd also recommend flights.google.com. This is the site I hit whenever I'm trying to figure out the cheapest options between two cities.

Out of curiosity, I went ahead and put in 6/29 to 8/24 (8 weeks) from LAX. RT to Barcelona is $1431 (expensive), but you can get to London for $948 RT. Or Rome for $986 RT. I see a lot of major European cities for around $1000 RT.

I don't know your exact dates, but using budget carriers in Europe with a cheap RT ticket to a major European city might be a good option. I know you mentioned you looked at this before, so this might not be helpful.

As a side note, I noticed that Palma de Mallorca is $1185 RT from LAX. You could always take the ferry from Barcelona and for the $250/person you save in plane fare, maybe get an extra city out of your trip.

 

[explanade]

Ferry is overnight.

Mallorca is one of the places I want to go. Not easy to find flights from US to it. Better to go to Madrid or Barcelona and take a short flight from there.