Anyone traveled to Europe lately?

rungirl12

I am looking at flight prices for our honeymoon in Aug/Sept for Spain & Portugal and looking to fly out of Chicago.  We will be traveling around, so the city we fly into doesn't much matter.  I am just finding the flights to be what I consider expensive, but I have never flown to Europe either.

If you have flown to Europe lately, what type of round trip price did you get?  Am I crazy to think I can spend less than $1k/ticket by holding off a couple months?  The lowest price I have found is holding steady around $1050, yet this same flight is only around $800 in May.  I'm not sure if it is seasonal, or the fact that May is just a month away.

amymaysa

I believe hz80408 just came back from a European Adventure

kaos16

I also found September to be one of the priciest times to fly to Europe.

bells24412

August is the priciest time to fly to Portugal just because everyone in the country in on vacation.I usually use SATA when i fly to Portugal, they are pretty much the cheapiest compared to other airlines IMO.

hz80408

We just got back this week and we flew out of Chicago!

Our flight was a little more complicated because we did multicity - we flew ORD to Amsterdam and coming back we flew London/LHR to ORD.  We had our travel dates set and I starting tracking the flight we wanted (ideal times with United and no layovers) about 5 months in advance.  Flights were around $1K; in January; about 2.5 months before travel, one day I saw they dropped to $880 each so I booked that day.  Using yapta, even thought we'd bought, I continued to track them and they went back up in the $900s and for one week they were at $1500!!

Recent articles say that average trend is to buy 6wks in advance, but our flights would have been about $1200 at that point.

My biggest advice is to just start tracking and see the trends; if there's a significant drop in price, I'd go for it and not look back (in case they drop even more); I don't know if that's really all that helpful...but it does seem like in general $1K/flight is the minimum I'd budget getting to Europe.

Side note- where are you going?  I would love to go back and do Portgual, Madrid and South Spain.  We did got to Barcelona though!  I'll be posting review and pics in my blog, once I edit through all of my other trip pics!

TravelingJen

$1k for that time of year is pretty standard. Unfortunately the cost of airfare has risen dramatically over the last few years. I live in Seattle and five years ago I could fly round-trip in high season to London for $600. Now it costs between $1000-$1500. May is usually a slightly cheaper month to travel to Europe than compared to August, which is high season. Personally I would just go ahead and book if you like the flight patterns. I don't think they will come down much from that price, but you truly never know!

rungirl12

Thanks for all the info!  I am tracking on Yapta currently, as well as checking flights within the next month or two to see rates for those.  I just didn't want to miss my opportunity.

We plan to rent a car and drive all over.  We may end up flying into Madrid and we would look to spend time checking out the southern beaches of Portugal, Sevilla, Gibraltar, and we are planning a day or overnight trip to Morocco.  If time permits, we would consider northern Portugal or eastern Spain (Andorra & such).  We haven't sat down to figure it out yet since we don't know where we're flying in & out of.  We have two weeks to plan!

hz80408

Awesome! My advice would be that in most places 3 nights minimum is ideal; although I suppose it depends on how big the city is.

You may want to look into trains as well.  You're more restricted on timing; but then you at least have the downtime to relax and no one has to drive.

Good luck with flights!

MrsGandthebeag

We flew into Rome from Boston last July for our hm.  Our tickets were $1500 each.  Crazy town.

MrsMeganL2012

Love southern Spain!  I stayed in Costa del Sol and took day trips to Seville, Gibraltar and Morocco. 

bells24412

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_anyone-traveled-to-europe-lately?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:fb21737a-68e0-441e-89e3-13e5679e586cPost:87d1a8bc-91c7-44eb-b30c-897f750fa1fb">Re: Anyone traveled to Europe lately?</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks for all the info!  I am tracking on Yapta currently, as well as checking flights within the next month or two to see rates for those.  I just didn't want to miss my opportunity. We plan to rent a car and drive all over. <strong> We may end up flying into Madrid and we would look to spend time checking out the southern beaches of Portugal,</strong> Sevilla, Gibraltar, and we are planning a day or overnight trip to Morocco.  If time permits, we would consider northern Portugal or eastern Spain (Andorra & such).  We haven't sat down to figure it out yet since we don't know where we're flying in & out of.  We have two weeks to plan!
Posted by rungirl12[/QUOTE]

I LOVE Algarve!!!! My grandma lives there and right on the beach. It is the best ever!!! :)

orangemell2012

We pretty much did this trip in November/early December. Flew into Madrid and out of Lisbon and drove around Spain and Portugal. Flights were around $1100, and that seems to be the norm now. Long gone are the days that you could fly to Europe for $400.

We did Madrid, Cordoba, Gibraltar, Sevilla, The Algarve Coast in Portugal, Lisbon and a little bit of the Douro region. Best trip! Have a wonderful time.




In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_anyone-traveled-to-europe-lately?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:11Discussion:fb21737a-68e0-441e-89e3-13e5679e586cPost:87d1a8bc-91c7-44eb-b30c-897f750fa1fb">Re: Anyone traveled to Europe lately?</a>:
[QUOTE]Thanks for all the info!  I am tracking on Yapta currently, as well as checking flights within the next month or two to see rates for those.  I just didn't want to miss my opportunity. We plan to rent a car and drive all over.  We may end up flying into Madrid and we would look to spend time checking out the southern beaches of Portugal, Sevilla, Gibraltar, and we are planning a day or overnight trip to Morocco.  If time permits, we would consider northern Portugal or eastern Spain (Andorra & such).  We haven't sat down to figure it out yet since we don't know where we're flying in & out of.  We have two weeks to plan!
Posted by rungirl12[/QUOTE]

coolwhipz1

I flew from Denver to Rome for Xmas and paid 1400 for the roundtrip. Going to Spain at end of June and tickets were 1200 from Denver to Barcelona. I fly to Europe 4 or 5 times a year. Sorry to say but I would consider 1050 on the LOW end for a ticket, especially in Aug. If you wait the prices are just going to go UP. July August and Sep are THE busiest times to fly to Europe. I would say thats the best prices your going to get

alithebride

i flew jfk to rome (non-stop) and florence to paris to jfk home.  the last week of january. i think it was 800 a person give or take-but january is the low season. aug and sept are high.

if it were me i'd book at the prices you see now. airfares aren't dropping.

precamies

Here's my advice as someone who is originally European and has done quite a bit of both European and trans-atlantic travelling.

it is most definitely a seasonal thing. the best prices you will find will be in May and October. That's the only time you will be able to find flights under 1K (roundtrips with the connection to ORD and local Eurpean connections). Aside of one occasion all of my trans-atlantic flights have been from or to Chicago. Your best bet is to look at Orbitz. They will either hook you up with Scandinavian Airlines or Polish Airlines (LOT), or possibly British Airways. depends where you want to land. Also, sometimes it is a good idea to book your flight over the ocean with once company and then your other flights through a local small European company such as Rynair. Rynair has flights as cheap as 60$ within Europe at times. so just keep your eyes open.

jenangeles

I have to go the other way frequently - live in denmark and have family in the US.  usually I'm able to find tickets for around $600 (CPH - NYC) but lately the prices have jumped a lot - especially over the summer.  my parents are heading over here tomorrow for my wedding and their flights are costing them around $2000 each and that's even in the "off" season.  although to be fair, they did wait to buy their tickets and they're flying into paris and back from copenhagen.