I have been chasing airfares to Italy since last November - Atlanta to Florence, May 1-31. Finally Sally tipped me to a drop on Air France to $920 return. Checked the Web two days ago and found the trip for $859. I booked it on-line. Today, I checked again, something I almost never do and the same trip shows up at $675. Called Air France, they cancelled the earlier booking for me, no charge (I think I fell in the 48 hour rule????) Booked it back on the Web for $675.
Check it out!
The saved dollars will be better spent on Brunello!
Dan, Athens, Georgia
Posts: 202 | Location: Athens, GA | Registered: 14 April 2002
Wow..920 to 675! It sort of makes sense that people would be delaying bookings just now, to see what plays out on Iraq. I was wondering if your fare goes beyond 30 days from departure to return? Last May I kept getting a big jump when I entered dates over 30 days.
Posts: 2054 | Location: Suburban Philadelphia | Registered: 08 July 2002
Last month, we started checking Orbitz for our upcoming trip. I had cruised by one evening, and they had an Air Canada Boston- Rome roundtrip flight for $639. We got out the credit card and grabbed our tickets. The price was back up to $1217 in the morning.
AirFrance fares continue to drift down, and are currently quoted at 619.63 for Philadelphia-Rome round trip May 16-June 2 (can you guess my trip dates?). I bought last night from Orbitz and paid a bit more. So remember to check the carrier's own Web site before buying from Orbitz.
Interestingly, Travelocity is still showing this flight at $1139. Quite a difference from one Web site to the next!
My guess is that the immanent war will continue to depress fares. Maybe in April I'll really regret having bought so early. But I'm so excited about going it was hard to wait
Posts: 225 | Location: Ithaca NY, USA | Registered: 07 November 2002
I too have been doing web searches for fares (orbitz, expedia, cheapfares, cheaptickets, the airlines' own sites etc.) for months. All along I could see that the best flights for us were the Lufthansa ones since they're the only nonstops from Portland to Europe (connecting to/from Italy -- in our case to Rome and from Milan -- in Frankfurt). Anyway, the lowest price I'd seen was over $1500 each and more recently they'd been $1780 each (for both kids and adults). This was about double what I'd budgeted (for our family of six a whopping $10,560) and I was starting to despair. Then yesterday after checking Lufthansa's own site, Orbitz and Expedia (all still showing the $1780 fare) I found these same flights on economytravel.com for a total of $5200 (or an average of $866 per ticket!!!). (They bill themselves as having the cheapest international airfares on the web and in my case it was certainly true).
One cautionary note (from Sally W.) is that the return is ticketed on United ticket rather than Lufthansa (although it's the same flight as a listed Lufthansa flight; they code share). SO -- we are crossing our fingers that a) United keeps flying; and b) if they don't, we can have our United tickets honored on the Lufthansa flight. (My attitude is that's the RETURN ticket so at least we'll GET to Italy which is the most important thing !)
Anyway, it amazed me to find the same tickets within 5 minutes at such vastly different prices.
You really have to be careful and you also have to be quick, not the normal or preferred combination. The airfare we tagged from Atlanta to Florence for $675 went back to $859 the very next day.
Dan, Athens, Georgia
Posts: 202 | Location: Athens, GA | Registered: 14 April 2002
Here's another site to scout: Trip.com. After daily checking on Orbitz, Expedia, and individual airlines, i scored tickets for my daughter and friend for Houston to Rome in March for $460. Interestingly, it was a KLM itinerary that didn't show up anywhere else. I guess it's always a little leap of faith when you type in your credi card number and press that final button...
Posts: 31 | Location: hadley,ma,usa | Registered: 27 September 2002
Boy, the differences really are amazing! I bought tickets through consolidatorwebfares.com. Flying Boston/Verona/Bologna/Boston for $747 r/t in mid-June. Travelocity and Expedia had the same flights for $1200 - $1400@. Just checked - the consolidatorwebfare site now has my tickets at $778@ (go figure!)
Tracy, I also bit for United/Lufthansa combo - - United to Italy and Lufthansa back to the states. Fingers crossed. But seriously, what does happen to tickets when a carrier goes belly up?
Posts: 73 | Location: Bangor, ME USA | Registered: 27 October 2002
Welcome to what those of us in the travel business deal with daily!
Isn't it interesting to watch the up and down, helter-skelter pricing and then read of the airlines wondering why people don't trust 'em and they're in financial difficulty?
THe airlines put literally hundreds and hundreds of new fares into the computer systems DAILY. Their yield-managment computers are dictating what prices are to be offered...and that changes minute by minute.
SALLY WATKINS, Certified Travel Counselor sally@century-tvl.com www.sallywatkins.com My business depends on referrals - please tell someone today!
Wow! I've been playing the same airfare game. Thanks to all of you for listing the websites. As of this second I would be saving $250 per ticket from Detroit/Florence/Bologna/Detroit if I book at this very second. Although we would have some lengthy layovers at times, I think we could tolerate that!
Tell me about it--I have been playing the game for a month now--and may have 20 hours invested. The itinerary is JAX TO MAD in mid-April. One flight was my choice--AA from Miami to Madrid. I watched it go from $1204 to 1002 to 868--and I finally bought it thru Bestfares at $629 last week. I am happy--good times, good airline--good price. But, it sure takes work.
BOB THE NAVIGATOR blittle@net-magic.net
Posts: 1852 | Location: Chapel Hill NC | Registered: 25 October 2001
Hello Bob the Navigator..You have helped be at the Fodor's site with my last trip to Italy! What do you think..should we join Bestfares for their deals? Thanks, Maggie
Well, keep,this a secret between you and me, but I have never joined Best Fares. I do get their weekly broadcast email and peruse it in depth. Then, I just call and try to book. So far I have gotten great deals twice. However, some of the deals are specified as " members only". Patience and homework--it takes both.
BOB THE NAVIGATOR blittle@net-magic.net
Posts: 1852 | Location: Chapel Hill NC | Registered: 25 October 2001
I'm so glad to see this thread!! I want to share my excitement! I've been searching for a couple months for my up-coming FIRST trip to Europe. I really wanted an open-jaw ticket but was willing to settle for a round-trip w/ the additional train travel back to the arrival city. Fares have been running $850-$1450 for Cedar Rapids to various points in Europe for June. Well my son is sick w/ strep throat and I was up in the wee hours of Weds waiting to check his fever and the fares must have changed after midnight.....I got an open-jaw ticket Cedar Rapids-Basel on Fri 6/6 (2 connections ORD/LHR) 13hrs49min w/ connections then CDG-Cedar Rapids return on Sat.6/28 (2 connections LGW/STL) 13hrs51min w/ connections on American and British Airways for $437.90 per ticket incl.taxes thru Expedia!!!! Don't give up. By the way the fares were gone when I checked again in the morning. Glad I didn't wait!
Posts: 19 | Location: Cedar Rapids,IA USA | Registered: 06 January 2003
British Airways is running some very low fares-- I saw them on Expedia and on the BA website. Don't know how long this will last, so check it out! Also note that some of these flights involve changing from Heathrow to Gatwick for the connection to Italy, so be sure to look carefully.
Just today I found that American Airlines is also offering some great fares. I just booked two tickets from Miami into Rome and out of Venice for $564/pp. The return is a little tedious - three legs, 2 on partner Swiss Air - but as tinlizzy said - the savings is worth it.
Mrs. P
Posts: 65 | Location: Boca Raton Florida USA | Registered: 19 February 2002
mrs p does the fare of 564.00 include tax? I'm looking at non-stop out of miami to milan with connection to rome and return milan to miami for 763.00 w/tax. I will check w/american as i plan to travel at the end of may.
Posts: 10 | Location: punta gorda fl usa | Registered: 20 February 2003
JW, American no longer flies into Milan, only seasonally to Rome from Chicago and New York. And it's best to jump immediately when someone posts a good fare -- wait a week and it's almost guaranteed to be gone.
Posts: 1503 | Location: Sunset Beach (Haleiwa), Hawaii, USA | Registered: 16 September 2001
On this point, the NY Times Travel Section printed this note today.....
=========================================== Low Fares to Europe Come and Go
{Excerpt} Anyone planning a trip to Europe has had a variety of low fares to choose from during a flurry of recent sales, as airlines try to encourage overseas travel in a jittery public.
SUSAN STELLIN ==========================================
Jim, I edited your message to delete the bulk of the article. If you want to post the link to the NY Times website, that's okay, but we don't want to violate any copyrights by copying entire articles here on SlowTrav! Thanks - Colleen
Posts: 14201 | Location: The Beautiful San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 06 August 2001
Topic Closed
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