airfares for Aug. 2018

Do airfares typically get higher after the new year for summer travel to Europe. I know that summer is the peak travel season and wonder whether to book now for a one way flight from Toronto to London in Aug. as well as a return from Rome to Toronto on Sept. 1st., or to wait until we get into 2018 and see what the fares are then? I am looking at regular coach fares and as direct a flight as possible. Also, does anyone have any experience flying from LHR to Athens, direct flight and something other than Ryanair or Easyjet. Any suggestions would be helpful and thanks in advance.

Barb

I have already booked our flights from Toronto to Athens on Air Transat and back from Venice on Lufthansa/Air Canada. I was OK with the price I paid for next September. Couple of years ago we flew BA from LHR to Athens and back from Rome. This was part of an Air/Cruise package.

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You’re asking too late! All the major airlines had huge sales going to Europe during Thanksgiving. We’re flying over in late August and back in mid September. The best sale and prices, I’ve seen in a couple of years. Our BC tickets are now selling for 25% more than then.

Airlines are purposely unpredictable as to when they will drop prices via a sale. It would be stupid of them not to be. Catch a price you’re happy with and pull the trigger and don’t look back! Anyone telling you Airlines have good sales at XYZ is blowing steam.

Please don't book two one-ways. You will pay way more than booking a multi-city trip, YYZ-LHR, FCO-YYZ.

No one knows when prices will be lowest. Book when you like the price.

Sometimes the flights aren’t available the day you want or the time you need. And how many nights hotel plus expenses you are willing to pay for.

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You’re asking too late! All the major airlines had huge sales going to Europe during Thanksgiving. We’re flying over in late August and back in mid September. The best sale and prices, I’ve seen in a couple of years. Our BC tickets are now selling for 25% more than then.

 

Airlines are purposely unpredictable as to when they will drop prices via a sale. It would be stupid of them not to be. Catch a price you’re happy with and pull the trigger and don’t look back! Anyone telling you Airlines have good sales at XYZ is blowing steam.

Unfortunately, the available flights from Canada are much more limited than what you can find in the States and we are at the mercy of only one major carrier (AC) and a couple of other airlines which don't have many direct flights. We have to work with what's available and I keep checking the prices constantly.

Matamona;

Actually Air Canada was running a sale then also. They offered an excellent price on BNA-YYZ-.OTP. Problem was they only offer Rouge service on the later flight. I would have flown them PE, if it was regular service not Rouge. They had good flights and connections coming home from PRG.

United, via AustrianAir, offered a hell of a deal for BC service during that sale.

Unfortunately, the available flights from Canada are much more limited than what you can find in the States and we are at the mercy of only one major carrier (AC) and a couple of other airlines which don't have many direct flights. We have to work with what's available and I keep checking the prices constantly.

Well, you have to work with what's available, and you also have to set your priorities. Does direct flight trump price? Would you be willing to connect if it significantly reduced the cost? How many connections - or how long a connection - are too much?

For instance, I ran a search in ITA Matrix for YYZ-LON (searching all London airports) - FCO-YYZ, departing around Aug. 9 and returning Sept. 1. The absolute cheapest is on Air Transat - $1024 (arriving at LGW), but has a stop at YUL on the return. The next cheapest, $1031, is on Air Canada/Swiss (arr. at LHR), but has an overnight stop in Zurich. The non-stop options on AC are at $1131, meaning you're paying $100 per person to avoid that stop. Is it worth it to you? Only you can answer, and that will help define the parameters of your search.

In terms of sales, it is of course possible that there will be one, but will it apply to your exact dates? The more specific your requirements, the less likely you will be able to take advantage of a sale. FWIW, I think those prices are pretty good for summer travel (note to US posters: these are in Canadian dollars, so we're talking prices in the $8-900 range in US dollars)

It's not really that airlines are intentionally trying to be unpredictable; they don't sit around and draw random dates out of a hat and decide "ok, these are the dates when we'll offer a low price this year. " Airlines use complicated algorithms to when to release seats in various fare buckets. It is primarily based on supply and demand. If sales for a particular flight are below what the airline wants at any particular advance moment in time, they may release seats in a lower fare bucket to spur sales. If sales are beyond what the airline wants at a particular time, they may pull lower fare buckets and only offer higher ones. This can cause prices to fluctuate up and down many times. Occasionally an airline may offer what they call a "sale" but when you get past the marketing headlines, it is often a very limited sale.... certain routes, certain days etc. Rarely, if ever, will you find an airline sale in which all tickets to all destinations, in a particular region, on all travel dates in a set period of time, will be on sale.

It's not really that airlines are intentionally trying to be unpredictable; they don't sit around and draw random dates out of a hat and decide "ok, these are the dates when we'll offer a low price this year. " .

But I like the imagery.

Sitting around with pointed hats like Merlin, with wands and clipboards in hand.

Our experience in buying transatlantic tickets from Canada over the past few years is that prices one month out or less can often be as good as the prices we have seen six months or more out. Most particularly from Toronto. There no longer seems to be any set rule. We have had some excellent late booking one way Toronto-Porto fares on Transat as well as one way Toronto-Istanbul fares on BA (purchased from web booking sites) booked a few weeks prior to departure.

The trick is to have a general familiarity with the pricing, set a buy price that you are comfortable with and then hit the buy button when your target fare hits the screen.

prices one month out or less can often be as good as the prices we have seen six months or more out.....There no longer seems to be any set rule.

And on the flip side, prices can often be a lot more expensive a month out, compared to six months out. I had a a ticket to Italy in October. I kept checking, hoping to snag a cheap business fare, and the price of the PE ticket was more than double a month out, compared to what I had paid.

Was there ever really a "set rule" that prices would be X six months out, Y three months out, and Z one month out? No.

Agree completely about timing. There are no rules.

Last week we booked a May trip to China. We knew what the prices were. When what we consider to be an unbelievable price hit our screen we booked. Fifteen minutes later it was gone. We are now looking at Europe fares in late Sept/Oct-one ways and open jaws. To and from various gateways in our country and in Europe.. When we get a handle on pricing we will have a target price that would cause us to book. It may come next week or it may come a month prior. Our very best fares to SE Asia over the past four trips have come ten days out and the latest six months out. Who's to know?

Since retiring we do exactly the same with cruises and with AI's. Book inside the final payment window/close to the departure date. Prior to retirement we envied those we met who were able to do this. Now it is our turn. The trick is to be ready to hit the buy button. Our recent AI, and our recent booking were done this way. Pricing/opportunity hit the screen and we booked. We were prepared. Had we waited a few hours or thought about it overnight we would have missed the opportunity.

I would not book two one-ways, much of the time it cost a lot more to do that.

As for the rules, there are none. Its random and its based off of each airline's own computers. I am taking a cruise in August from Copenhagen. I was expecting to pay somewhere around $950/rt for economy. I saw a ticket for under $700 in late October. Did not book it, went up to the $800s. Then saw it again at $654/rt. Took the tickets. Never thought it would be so cheap.

If you find a good fare now, just take it.

Agree. Most of the time we book open jaws with one airline. But once in a while we have done one ways because we did not know when, or from where we would be coming home. The last time we needed a one way home we combined it with a last minute Med cruise that also had a very good rate on cruise air home.

It is not unusual for us to see lower fares than our price point. Does not bother us in the least. We book at price that we think is good. We are only too aware that there are many price points on a plane. Chances are we won't be the least expensive but we do want to be in the lower percentiles. If we tried to get the very lowest price chances are we would be either vacationing in our back yard or paying among the highest fares.

As for the rules, there are none. Its random and its based off of each airline's own computers.

Far from "random". Based upon very, very, very sophisticated revenue management algorithms.

And anyone who says they can consistently beat those systems is stretching the truth to say the least.