Best Strategies for buying Airplane tickets to Europe

[Daria]

My son told me today that all he wants for Christmas is an airline ticket to a city Europe, to visit a friend who recently moved there.  Expedia tells me that a plane ticket for the week of Spring Break would be about $800. 

Any thoughts on when to buy the tickets?  Will the price continue to go down, or go up, or stay the same?  How late am I safe on waiting?

[MEmama]

Not knowing where you are flying from or to, that sounds pretty reasonable in general. We have found Google flights to be surprisingly good, and there are many more. Some will alert you when better fares come up.

 

As with domestic flights, the prices do fluctuate quite a bit. If the schedule is flexible, play around with dates. Varying your arrival destination can make a huge impact as well. We flew from Boston to Dublin and caught a super cheap flight to Copenhagen, saving us hundreds of dollars over flying straight to Denmark.

 

There is an unofficial 90 day guideline for best fares. We certainly found it to be true after missing it. Of course, there are tons of factors but it certainly isn't too early to start keeping your eye on availability. If he's traveling alone he might be willing to risk waiting or flying stand by, but of course that comes with risks.

 

What a wonderful gift! :)

[wendy not in HI]

Try Wow Air - flying to Europe through Iceland is the cheapest way to go.

[MEmama]

Try Wow Air - flying to Europe through Iceland is the cheapest way to go.

Sometimes. :)

[TranquilMind]

Best prices are about 2 months prior to departure, I have discovered.  Fly out of a large city, even if you have to drive there.  It cost us hundreds less to do this, per ticket. 

[Susan in TN]

Norwegian Air has announced that it will offer transatlantic flights for $69 each way, starting in 2015. Likely from obscure East coast airports to obscure European airports. I think I read that a really decently priced flight will run about $300 after all is said and done, but that is certainly a great deal regardless. Anyway, might be worth a look.

[meena]

Norwegian Air has announced that it will offer transatlantic flights for $69 each way, starting in 2015. Likely from obscure East coast airports to obscure European airports. I think I read that a really decently priced flight will run about $300 after all is said and done, but that is certainly a great deal regardless. Anyway, might be worth a look.

Personally, I would avoid Norwegian Air. They do cut some costs by flying direct to more obscure airports, but a lot of their savings comes from skirting international transport law and paying sub-standard wages.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/norwegian-air-s-race-to-bottom-on-fares-prompts-questions-about-labor--even-safety-163451916.html

 

Their minimum hiring standard for a First Officer (co-pilot) is 500 hours of flight time in the 737 and 1500 hours flight time in any aircraft. That is insanely low for pilots who are flying multi-hour trans-oceanic flights.

[Donna]

Clear your cookies before going in to look again at prices or look through different web browsers. It seems to me, the more I looked, the higher the prices got but when I started clearing everything or using different browsers prices stayed about the same.  Leaving on a Tuesday or Wednesday seems to be cheapest. Time of year also makes a big difference. We usually fly to Ireland in August which had prices this year around $1100 per ticket so instead went in October and spent less than $500 a ticket. Also, try searching different airports if you have a reasonable choice of more than one. I live in the northeast so there were three possible airports for us to depart from and the variability in prices was very significant (+/- $200-300) based on different airlines flying from different places.

[Slache]

Clear your cookies before going in to look again at prices or look through different web browsers. It seems to me, the more I looked, the higher the prices got but when I started clearing everything or using different browsers prices stayed about the same. Leaving on a Tuesday or Wednesday seems to be cheapest. Time of year also makes a big difference. We usually fly to Ireland in August which had prices this year around $1100 per ticket so instead went in October and spent less than $500 a ticket. Also, try searching different airports if you have a reasonable choice of more than one. I live in the northeast so there were three possible airports for us to depart from and the variability in prices was very significant (+/- $200-300) based on different airlines flying from different places.

Oh, that's a nasty trick! Thanks for sharing.

[FaithManor]

Yup, clear your cookies.

 

Also, we have found that if we are willing to travel on Wednesdays, we get some of the best rates. For instance, our trip to Egypt we originally were going to leave on a Friday and come back on a Friday, but when we saw we could save $450.00 each by traveling on Wednesday - low travel days so airlines offer more incentives in order to fill planes - dh approached his boss about changing the dates and received the go ahead to adjust his vacation days. I recently booked a ticket for my sister from Paris to Detroit and by flying her on Wednesday (she had wanted to come in on Sunday or Monday) we saved $400.00.

[Pam in CT]

I wasn't sure from the OP - is he looking to go a particular city, or up for any cool city in Europe that catches his fancy?  

 

General fare-reducing strategies that you hear about over and over include flying Tu or Weds, staying over at least one Saturday, going on line for fares just after midnight on Tu night (when many airlines turn over new fares), and investigating less central airports.

 

Often, fares dip briefly (like 1-2 days) right at the end of the month and particularly at the end of the calendar quarters (when airlines are trying to make their numbers, and care more about an immediate infusion of revenue than per-fare profitability), so that's a good time to check.

 

Spring break is, alas, not the best time for US-originating bargains... in sunny spring-break locations.  Dreary overcast northern European cities are not generally spring break destinations, though, so you may be fine.

 

 

If you monitor a particular city for a 3-4 weeks, you get a good sense of what a "good" fare is, so you can jump on it.  Kayak and similar sites will do push notifications if they dip below a particular target that you set.  If you do see a good one, be prepared to act quickly.  They really do vanish within 24 hours sometimes (ask me how I know, sigh).

 

My favorite armchair wandering-musing-dreaming site is hopper.com; my favorite actual ready-to-book is google flights ITA.

 

 

Have fun!  Rolling for low fares is a little bit like playing the lottery.  Not for the faint hearted, unless you think of it as entertainment in its own right...

 

 

[Daria]

Thanks,

 

He'll be going to Stockholm, because that's where his friend is.  Unfortunately, they don't have the same spring break, so meeting in another city isn't an option.  I'm guessing Stockholm doesn't count as "sunny and warm" although I've heard it's a fantastic city.

 

If he goes spring break, he has little control over the dates.  If he goes in the summer, he might be able to go on a Wednesday.  I'll keep watching fares and clearing cookies until he gets the date set, then I can make a decision.

[J-rap]

I would go on Kayak.com or other travel site and just start playing with dates and routes.  Are your dates pretty much set?  Then you can at least try out different dates within that period.  Sometimes just a day difference can save you $200.  Do this for a few weeks, and you'll get a feel for typical prices.  Sometimes you can save by first flying to NYC, and then transferring to a different airlines.  Or sometimes you can save by flying from your closest international airport to London, and then transferring to a different airlines in London.  Or if your son is flying to Germany, for example, don't just plug in Frankfurt.  Try Munich and Berlin too, for example. 

 

Once you've been following prices and routes for 2-3 weeks, watch to see if it dips one day, or maybe it goes up and down kind of consistently.  Then you'll want to catch it when it's on a down-swing.

 

If you find an airline or route with a decent price or route (compared to the others), go directly to the airline site and see if you can get it even less (less than on a travel site). 

 

Remember to allow plenty of time on layovers, especially if it's the first time your son has flown internationally.  I'd want at least 3 hours for an international flight layover.  (Although some smaller airports require less time.)

 

Once you make the reservation, you usually have 24 hours to cancel it completely with no fee.  (Check first.)  But that's always a reassurance in case you book the flight some evening and then the next morning, you find a better one!

 

 

 

[monstermama]

Another vote for the ITA Matrix site.  I was able to save $400 last week while booking flights for the in-laws by using the tool to view different airports and different days of departure and arrival.

[meena]

Watch out for all the added fees which vary from country to country and airline to airline, especially the international carriers. The departure tax to fly out of England is high compared to other countries, especially when flying back to the US, so try not to get a connecting flight through there. Airlines may vary on fuel surcharges, so make sure to look at the final cost with all fees and taxes, not just the base ticket fee.

 

Try to fly out of hub cities when flying out of the US. I'm not sure where your son will be flying from, but if he can cheaply/easily get to an East coast hub city (JFK, PHL, possibly BOS, LGA, or EWR), flights to Europe are usually cheaper.