International airfares outrageous now

[HawkeyeNFO]

Dulles direct to Aruba is $135. You're right, it's outrageous!

 

[athena53]

Anyway, just be aware that early prices tend to be high.

I found something new (and very annoying) when searching for potential flights to Africa in January so that's about as far ahead as you can book. I was on AA.com since I have lifetime Gold status and might be able to use points. There were NO award flights in Business Class. Sure, I could use miles in Coach but I'm not gonna fly that long in Coach. Or I could pay about $7K for Business Class. If I do decide to make that trip and they won't make award flights in Business available, well, that just means I have a wide choice of airlines if I have to pay Real Money.

 

[audreyh1]

My only experience regarding timing of airfare costs is flights RT Europe.

I guess I got really lucky and picked up the bargain. The second seat was a little more but still considerable savings over the original but it was a clue that few cheaper seats left. And the price jumped right back up to where it had been afterwards. So a few hours blip down. I was tracking one specific set of flights.

I will keep tracking as I usually do. Interested to see if it drops again. But the seating was already getting tight on the outbound international flight so I’m glad to already have seats reserved. Slim pickings for two together.

 

[tulak]

The flights I was tracking to Amsterdam are now $1640. Last night they were a bit higher, so seeing some dynamic pricing happening. But it’s not uncommon having prices go up before the weekend.

Unfortunately we don’t have much flexibility on dates. I always look at how booked the flights are and Delta makes it easy to look at seating. There’s still a good amount of seats available, so I’m hoping we’ll see prices drop again.

In retrospect, probably should have booked them earlier this week, but I’m still hoping something magical happens with prices to Tokyo.

 

[Route246]

Yeah my last trip to Japan was a solo in 2019. Thought I'd plan a solo trip next month and the airfares for premium economy are up by at least a thousand. I decided to look 6 months out using Google Travel and they still show at least a thousand increase over my 2019 trip. Ugh..... Probably just go ahead and go next month if I can find a cheap hotel in Tokyo.

I was in Tokyo the last two weeks of December and was able to find decent $100/night for one person at the APA hotels (tiny business rooms). The one opposite the National Diet was quite satisfactory and well located. Hotel Risviglio nearby was also quite satisfactory at about the same price point.

I travel frequently to Tokyo due to a side business investment, usually solo so without my wife I stay in business hotels because I'm cheap. That said, 2019 was pre-pandemic (I was there in December and also in February (just before they closed the border). Prices in 2019/early 2020 were about 50% of what they are today. APA and Toyoko Inn are two competing chains focusing on business so they have a large inventory of single bed rooms (double bed in Japan hardly can sleep 2 people unless you're really intimate LOL). APA have literally doubled, Toyoko Inn has increased about 50% but they were always higher than APA.

Right after they reopened the border (late 2022) prices were near pre-pandemic rates if you reserved months in advance as vacancies were very high prior during the pandemic. I reserved in anticipation of the border opening so I got really good rates (less than US$45/night, now the same room is US$95/night). That lasted for a few months and when everyone started flooding the borders the rates have been on this sky-high escalation and it is what it is. The cost of playing poker just went up, as they say.

Airlines cut flights and did not restore them so there is a shortage of seats. Business hotels I stay at are now majority foreigner occupied, a huge change from pre-pandemic times. The yen is very cheap now so tourists are thinking Japan is cheap (which it is). The huge difference is China's bubble has crashed and Chinese tourists (from mainland) are virtually non-existent. Pre-pandemic they were everywhere buying everything they could get their hands on. Bubble bursts have a way of making these corrections.

 

[tulak]

The flights I was tracking to Amsterdam are now $1640. Last night they were a bit higher, so seeing some dynamic pricing happening. But it’s not uncommon having prices go up before the weekend.

And now they are $2,129, just in time for the weekend. That's for a ticket that was $1199 yesterday morning.

I'll check again next week and see where they're at.

 

[audreyh1]

I generally check airfare prices on Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s not unusual for prices to jump around a weekend although Thursday is a bit early. This is where tracking using something like Google Flights helps as you start to see some patterns.

It also depends on whether a given plane is getting full.

 

[Route246]

Don't expect Japan to go down until winter season in late November or so, especially with the exchange rate the way it is now.

I just checked out business class seats and they are $5800 in July SFO-NRT on JAL. That is actually down a bit from a few months ago.

I'm looking for tickets around end of June for Asia or Europe, preferably Asia.

Non-stop flights to Tokyo are around $2k for basic economy, add $200 for main cabin economy (Delta). What's interesting is that tickets are around that price going out for months, except for some cheaper flights at the end of April. Usually I see lower prices in the Fall, but not to Tokyo. It makes me think that there might not be a drop in prices?

As for Europe, there's a lot more fluctuation, but unfortunately for the time we're looking prices are still higher. Right now, flights to Amsterdam are a better deal, around 1.1/1.2k for basic economy, with London and Paris more expensive. We'd only use one of those cities as a transit point to somewhere else in Europe, probably Croatia.

 

[Surewhitey]

Well, we just booked DFW to Frankfurt and return from Vienna and used ~110k AA miles for the 2. May 3-23...

Doing southern Germany, France border, Switzerland and Salzburg / Vienna...

 

[SecondAttempt]

High fuel prices + high load factors = high ticket prices. It sucks!

 

[brett]

We only fly to Europe in the spring or the fall. SE Asia in the winter. Mexico in the winter. From Canada.

Our experience is that Europe prices are very, very good depending on destination and date. Calgary-Paris, Rome as low as $600 CAD during a sale. We are paying $928 to fly Calgary-Morocco return next month.

I have been shopping for Jan flights to Bangkok in order to understand pricing. They have been consistently high post covid. $1600 CAD. A few weeks ago they were down to $1200 CAD.

If we see the same $600/700 CAD sale offers for flights to Europe in this fall we intend to grab them. Less expensive that flying domestically to many places in Canada.

All base economy pricing that we use to compare. No bag fees, seat selection costs included.