travel advice & savings
 
RAIL PASSES — GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICES at RAILPASS.COM — Click Here
3 replies
High Summer Fares - are they going to go down?
Fri, 01/13/2012 - 12:47
mrmatt
mrmatt's profile picture
New Member
New Member
Eurotrip Points: 29
Member: 25777
Joined: 05/20/2010
User offline. Last seen 11 years 28 weeks ago.

I’ve been keeping an eye on flights from LIT/MEM to London in June-July for a few months, and they seem pretty high at about $1300.

I’ve been reading that there are fewer seats and higher demand this year for flights to Europe.

Can I expect this price to go down at all between now and June? I was estimating my ticket would cost more like $1000. Oops?

Europe Summer '12
I am leaving from Little Rock, AR with $2200 for 28 days
London, Arles, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Interlaken, Florence, Riomaggiore, Rome, Athens, Ýdra
Requesting help with Transport, Hostels, Budget, Itinerary, Sights
Fri, 01/13/2012 - 13:01
#1
Don
Don's profile picture
Moderator
ModeratorModeratorModeratorModeratorModerator
Eurotrip Points: 30
Member: 59
Joined: 01/03/2007
User offline. Last seen 7 years 13 weeks ago.

They might, but not by much. And, they could just as well rise a bit more. Transatlantic airfares are always high in summer. Pretty much anything under $1000 is very good. I’m not surprised at $1300 for your trip.

Have you checked consolidators? Are you full-time student, under 26, and/or have .edu email address by chance?

How flexible are you with cities and travel dates? Did you mean your trip will be a few weeks (not months)?

Fri, 01/13/2012 - 13:10
#2
mrmatt
mrmatt's profile picture
New Member
New Member
Eurotrip Points: 29
Member: 25777
Joined: 05/20/2010
User offline. Last seen 11 years 28 weeks ago.

Hi Don. I haven’t tried a consolidator. How would I go about doing that, and is it worth it? I know this is the priciest time of year for tickets, but I was hoping it would be less than $1300.

I am not a full-time student, however there is a good chance I’ll be enrolled in a school full-time by the time I purchase tickets (in April or so?) for a mid-June departure. I would have a .edu address by then.

Travel dates are pretty flexible. We can depart any time in mid/late-June and would like to return mid/late-July (at this point I’m estimating a wide range of 4-6 weeks of travel, depending on finances). Price is paramount to any specific dates.

I’ve been looking at roundtrip LIT/MEM <-> LON as well as an open-jaw, LIT/MEM ->LON, ATH -> LIT/MEM itinerary.

Thoughts?

So far I’ve just been looking at Kayak.com

Europe Summer '12
I am leaving from Little Rock, AR with $2200 for 28 days
London, Arles, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Interlaken, Florence, Riomaggiore, Rome, Athens, Ýdra
Requesting help with Transport, Hostels, Budget, Itinerary, Sights
Fri, 01/13/2012 - 13:24
#3
Don
Don's profile picture
Moderator
ModeratorModeratorModeratorModeratorModerator
Eurotrip Points: 30
Member: 59
Joined: 01/03/2007
User offline. Last seen 7 years 13 weeks ago.

Also try BookingBuddy.com, Flights.com, 1800FlyEurope.com and these “student” ticket sites:

STAtravel
TravelCuts
GenerationFly
StudentUniverse

Consolidators and student sites sometimes are 10-15% less than you could find otherwise. A quick look at published fares (not consolidators) doesn’t turn up much better than you found, but consolidators & student tickets could be better. Use their flexible date searches if you can. Also, consider multi-city — arrive to Glasgow, return from Rome or Athens — for example. This will save you backtrack time and expenses.