Airfare to Europe - did I miss the "less expensive" booking window?

luvavacation

DIS Veteran
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
My Mother passed away last year, and her wish was to have her ashes buried back in our home country. The plan is to do that early June.

I have been waiting on the family that is here in the States to have their vacation time approved from their respective jobs (planning trips was so much easier when my children were young and just had school!). Just received the final approval yesterday, so I started looking for tickets. OMG!!!

Ok, it's been about 5 years since I last went back home, but coach used to be around $1,000 pp. Now, I am looking in the $2,000 range. I can't believe it. The price of jet fuel has not doubled in price, and I have friends that fly for the airlines and I know their salaries haven't doubled! I expected some rise in price, but not doubled. Yikes.

Time is limited for one of my DD's and her husband, so switching airports and 20 hour connections won't cut it. But even looking at weekend flights for them is not that much of an increase over the weekday flights I am considering for other family members.

My one hope is that I have not missed the so-called "lower fare window" for overseas flights. I am hoping it is still 4 months out, but I can't find anything confirming this on Google searching. Has anyone here had any luck with the old 4 months out parameter for tickets?
 
I don't think you missed the window. I have been watching flights since they opened for booking to Italy in June and they have only continued to go up. I finally purchased them in last month because I was worried they were only going to keep increasing and I still paid $1,800 each which was sticker shock to me.
 
I booked last month flights for July to Dublin from New York and return. Virgin Atlantic to london and British Air to Dublin. The reverse home. I paid 506.00 which I thought to be good.
 


DH and I are going to England in late June -- was hoping for lower airfares, but got cold feet in December and went ahead and booked.

Paid about $700/each for a direct flight on American (had a $600 voucher that I needed to use by March). Had really hoped to get it down to $550/$600, but I was afraid the prices would rise. Now the same flights are up to $850, so I guess I got it at the bottom.
 
Have you thought about a travel agent? I booked Europe for May and I kept seeing $1000 a person she got them for $550, she kept searching and when she got them called me and we booked.
 


It definitely depends on where you are flying and from what US market. I said in another thread that I generally fly to Europe 2-3 times per year (personal, not business) and tickets this year are the most expensive I have EVER seen them. Tickets for the same week this year that I went in April last year are more than $800 more each in coach. Tickets in the fall are crazy expensive too.

Maybe a travel agent or a flight consolidator would be a good idea, but I have not used one in a long time.

I live in ATL, and Delta has pretty much a monopoly on International flights in and out of here. Many of the lower cost international carriers that you can get out of Chicago, New York, Boston do not fly out of here, so I would have to get to one of those cities to take advantage of the lower international fee. Researching that is going to be one of my next steps.
 
@luvavacation
where exactly in Europe are you trying to fly to? Europe is not just one place, and each countyr may have different flight options.

You should check www.skyscanner.com Its a flight comparison website and gives you multiple options such as direct, 1 stop or 2 stops.

Sometimes its the arriving airport which can make a transatlantic flight expensive. For example London Heathrow has very expensive landing taxes, but there are other airports such as Gatwick which are near London and may have lower landing taxes.
 
We booked our summer flights to Europe in September. I have only seen the prices go up since then. I agree with above posters that prices this year seem to be high and not coming down.
 
I booked tickets to Italy in November for six months out and for non-stop from LAX, it was close to $1600/pp.
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences!

I went ahead and tried the Hopper app as recommended by mjkacmom. It tells me to wait until end of April. I am not sure I am that willing to gamble, but maybe it knows something I don't? I am going to look into it a bit more.

I did find round trip flights that work for one of DD's and her husband on LOT out of JFK, using JetBlue to get to JFK! And for about $1,000 per person! Yippee!

Our destination is Budapest. My family is there, and I have flown there many times in years past, but never encountered prices like this and so few nonstops to BUD, for that time period (fewer connections, more time to explore!). Gone are the days when there were many nonstop choices, to Budapest, and with reasonable prices . Oh Malev, how I miss you!

Regarding flight consolidator - I was once a TA, and did use a couple consolidators that I trusted. They are no longer in business, and I am hesitant to just go with someone I find on the internet. If anyone has a recommendation though, I am eager to hear it! I will try the Skyscanner recommendation, too.

At least I know I am not the only one surprised by the prices this year!
 
I'm glad you found one that will work with a positioning flight to JFK which was what I was going to suggest.

I'm sorry for your loss but did want to mention, if you haven't already, you'll want to look into if you need to do anything special to travel with cremains, in case an airline has something about it, and also about getting them through customs and TSA for that matter. I'd hate for there to be a problem.
 
Thanks, afan, for the reminder to check. From what I have found the last time I took a family member back home, all I have to do is take the sealed remains in my carry-on. It's what I had to do when I took my Father's and Brother's remains back years ago. TSA at ORD did make me open the sealed box of remains to show the bag inside actually contained ashes, but otherwise, there was no issue.

It all seems rather morbid, but it's what you do for family. Hopefully they are all looking down and appreciating what we are doing and will return the favour by making sure I find inexpensive flights that are smooth and uneventful! :)
 
Thanks, afan, for the reminder to check. From what I have found the last time I took a family member back home, all I have to do is take the sealed remains in my carry-on. It's what I had to do when I took my Father's and Brother's remains back years ago. TSA at ORD did make me open the sealed box of remains to show the bag inside actually contained ashes, but otherwise, there was no issue.

It all seems rather morbid, but it's what you do for family. Hopefully they are all looking down and appreciating what we are doing and will return the favour by making sure I find inexpensive flights that are smooth and uneventful! :)

I understand. My dad wanted part of his ashes spread on a local body of water, but that meant a water soluable urn and arranging it with the ferry etc because of EPA rules. It was nice but there's so much more to it than most people realize.
 
I bought tickets for DS and I to fly to Berlin/home from London (from Toronto) for May, when there was a price drop 2 weeks ago. A few suggestions - try another airport, change your days a bit, try other airlines. The major Canadian airlines were all over $1500pp for my trip, AerLingus was $650pp. You could also look at flying into a major centre like London or Paris (often a lot less expensive), then taking a connecting flight on a budget European airline like Easy Jet. I’d just give yourself a day between flights to buffer any late flights, etc.
 
Yesterday I found RT, NY to Shannon in May for under $300 on Norwegian Airlines. Once you're in Europe, flights are much cheaper. The biggest expense is getting across the pond.
 
Really need to search surrounding airports.
We booked for May last month. Cincinnati/Lexington/Louisville to London were all $1,000+. From Cleveland it was $385. I'll drive an extra 3 hours to an airport to save $2500(4 of us). Using chase points it was under $300 RT.
We went in August last year and booked in early February. Those were $600 RT from Cincinnati.

On a whim I checked Paris flights to do RunDisney in September. Cincy/Louisville/Lexington and even Cleveland/Columbus are all well over $1,000, but Indy has them for $585.

Definitely check surrounding airports, and be flexible with dates. I'm finding that what I'm pricing this year isn't much different than last.
 
Unfortunately, no matter all the searching and hunting for alternative dates and airports (with many great suggestions from here, thank you!), the dates for 4 family members can not be changed, and those dates are weekend dates, and time constraints negate driving 4 or more hours to a hub airport. Plus, due to work schedules, the days are not the same days for everyone. But, I made it work, though I still have sticker shock comparing apples to apples with the legacy airlines we used to fly to Europe, and the prices on those airlines are not what I was expecting.

I did find a work around for my husband's flight combining airline points for the outbound flight, which saved quite a bit, though then one has to use the same code share group for the return, but it was worth it for one leg on points.

My youngest and I, we decided to drive 4.5 hours to a different airport, as our schedules are more flexible, and we saved money cutting out a connecting flight from our local airport. I used a credit card with no interest until 2020, so at least there is that!
 

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