Flight to Europe

[RGilmer53]

So, I've been looking at flights from Tennessee to Barcelona for the last 3 months. I've noticed the price recently went up by about $800. This first happened with American Airlines and over the last few days I've noticed other airlines have followed suit. Does anyone think this will go down a little or should I just book now? I've also noticed when I check a site like Expedia, there are no One World partner flights available.....what is with that?

 

Thanks for any advice!!!!:confused:

[6rugrats]

Is this for July 2016? I am not sure when your trip is, as you've posted you are on a cruise in June, and then you've posted to a roll call in July.

 

Prices are "going up" because the lower fare buckets are selling out. There is no reason for prices to go down for summer travel to Europe. You are booking late.

 

Search here:

 

https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

 

I don't know your exact dates, but I did a search BNA-BCN depart 30 July and return 8 days later and I didn't see anything under around $1700. Prices for the June dates are even worse; about $1800 RT.

 

Try changing dates and cities on the webpage linked and see if you can find anything cheaper. Suggest you book directly with the airline, not through a third party site.

Edited March 5, 2016 by 6rugrats

[firecrewcapt]

Just my .02 worth, we have flown to Europe a few times then cruised and found that using both EZ Air-Princess and Fly2Fun-Carnival both companies were able to get us a very reasonably rate, lot of times cheaper than finding a flight/price on our own.

By booking through them if anything happens to the fights they will make sure you get there on their dime.

Like I said my .02 worth. Enjoy your cruise.

In fact the next cruise in Oct. when Carnival scheduled our flight the rates had dropped just over $900 for both of us from the original quote.

Edited March 5, 2016 by firecrewcapt
More info

[Azulann]

So, I've been looking at flights from Tennessee to Barcelona for the last 3 months. I've noticed the price recently went up by about $800. This first happened with American Airlines and over the last few days I've noticed other airlines have followed suit. Does anyone think this will go down a little or should I just book now? I've also noticed when I check a site like Expedia, there are no One World partner flights available.....what is with that?

 

Thanks for any advice!!!!:confused:

 

My sister in Nashville and myself in MN booked our flight to Bacrelona for June and return in mid July , last fall. She paid about $1450. We are on Delta, from Nashville/Atlanta/Bracelona. I paid $1600. meeting her in Atlanta and flying to Barcelona. I have checked the seating on my transatlantic flights and most of the aisle /window seats are already gone.

 

As 6rugrats said , it is late booking for Spain for June/july 2016.

Good luck, and book now. IMO.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Azulann

[TruckerDave]

did you even look at the British Airways or Iberia sites?? There are multiple flights per day going to BCN. You will have to connect in either MAD, LHR or LGW. Plus there is the direct American flights from either Miami, JFK or Philly. It really isn't that hard if you actually take the time to look. :rolleyes:

[waterbug123]

EZ Air-Princess and Fly2Fun-Carnival both companies ....By booking through them if anything happens to the fights they will make sure you get there on their dime.

 

If they are like Choice Air, and I'm pretty sure they are, they don't actually make any solid guarantees, so be careful about reading their verbiage and interpreting feel-good words as guarantees. Likely what they actually say is something along the lines of will do whatever is feasible, will work with the airlines to try, etc. In the end, they cannot manufacture new flights or magically make seats available on a sold out flight so they really can't ensure that you "get there."

 

Does anyone think this will go down a little or should I just book now?

 

No one can say for sure what will happen to prices. It would help however, if we knew your travel dates. If you're talking about a flight next fall, prices may well go up and down a few times. If you're talking about a spring break trip in a few weeks, forget about it.

[MNgardens]

Can you be at all flexible with your dates? For example mid week flights are usually cheaper than weekend flights. For example for my cruise we are flying back on a Monday instead of a Sat or Sunday and there is a considerable savings. For me, even with the cost of hotel, it works out cheaper.

[Mr. Click]

My own experience in finding fares is the best fares are from 180 to 90 days out depending on the season. If you are looking at high season travel, like summer time to Europe then you need to be more on the long end. You can use individual airline sites in many cases to actually see how many seats are left on flight. Rugrats6 is correct, as the planes fill up, the cheaper seats vanish as the cheaper fare buckets are not replenished. Also consider that the price of oil has gone up about 30% in the past 4 weeks. It is still cheap compared to a year ago but it is going back up and fuel is a major cost for airlines.

[6rugrats]

Doesn't matter what day of the week OP travels. Looking at the entire months of June & July, BNA-BCN, I see no roundtrip prices for any day of the week less than $1690.

 

If she can change her departure city to another one, it may be less expensive. I see IAD-BCN RT for as low as $931 for some dates in July. You'd have to add cost to get to/from IAD and the hassle to see if it would be worth it. She can use link given to play around with cities/dates.

 

She's late for booking summer travel to Europe. It's going to be expensive.

Edited March 6, 2016 by 6rugrats

[zoncom]

When are you looking to fly? One way or RT? Have you checked with ships air? Just booked one way Rome-Aspen late Spring. UA wanted $2400. CHOICE Air(RCL/Celebrity), program booked for $600. one way. When booking yourself, look at SW to big city,then over pond on say Lufthansa, Air France or other International line which has many backup planes in case of any problems. I clipped a Cheapoair survey which says 7 weeks out best pricing for TA flights.

[zoncom]

Above Cheapo Air.com survey of 5 million flights says 276 days out for Europe flights. Also, average flight changes price 70 times.

[FlyerTalker]

I would trust anything from Cheapo Air to the same extent that I could throw any cruise ship.

[RGilmer53]

So, I have searched ExpertFlyer as well as many other sites such as AA, Delta, competitor sites, etc. I just found it odd that AA was left out of all the competitor sites. Actually, I could not find any OneWorld flights available for my trip in late July (27) coming back August 7th. I've just never seen anything like that happen before and wondered if anyone else had experienced it. I know they weren't sold out as there were still unsold seats per ExpertFlyer (which I admit I am new to using).

 

I ended up just going ahead and buying just to be on the safe side. I actually booked through Choice Air because I saved so much even though I wanted to book through AA. I got refundable business/first class seats for $2563 pp which is MUCH lower than I have seen since I originally started looking last year just trying to check prices for average cost.

 

It is just weird that even though AA seats were available, they were not accessible from competitor sites. I was checking to see what the competitors were doing as sometimes they price match to keep up with the competition. Which I noticed they had just went up on their prices a few days after AA did...I am wondering if it has anything to do with the devaluation happening later this month. I expect prices to get cheaper right after since there will be less value for points than right now.

[waterbug123]

My own experience in finding fares is the best fares are from 180 to 90 days out depending on the season.... as the planes fill up, the cheaper seats vanish as the cheaper fare buckets are not replenished..

 

180-90 days? That's an awfully big range, LOL. As for replenishing cheaper seat inventory, it's not a hard and fast rule. Airlines can and do replenish them IF they get to a point where they feel there are too many remaining seats for the amount of time left before the flight and they aren't selling at the rate they'd hoped.

 

which has many backup planes in case of any problems...... I clipped a Cheapoair survey which says 7 weeks out best pricing for TA flights.

 

2 things:

1. Back up planes: I don't know of any airline that keeps "many backup plans" in case of problems. Do you have any idea how much it costs to have an expensive asset sitting idle "just in case?" So to have MANY of them just sitting idle? Never mind the fact that a problem could arise anywhere and if all the back up planes were halfway across the country it wouldn't help much.

2. Cheapoair isn't exactly a reliable source. Also, the surveys that say X number of days is best are usually looking at an average that means nothing. (Ex. they find that the cheapest ticket for a particular flight was sold 50 days out and the cheapest for another similar city pair was sold 90 days out, therefore they conclude that 70 days out is the best time to buy, even though no cheap ticket was actually sold at the 70 day mark. But hey, that' s the average of 50 and 90, LOL)

[iancal]

We have had some of our best transatlantic and transpacific fares 21-60 days out.

 

We have also found that Cruise line air pricing can change from one week to the next. More than once we have found two one ways to be less expensive than a return flight-usually on two different carriers. Just a matter of knowing what price is good for you, being patient, and cherry picking whenever possible.

[fbgd]

When are you looking to fly? One way or RT? Have you checked with ships air? Just booked one way Rome-Aspen late Spring. UA wanted $2400. CHOICE Air(RCL/Celebrity), program booked for $600. one way. When booking yourself, look at SW to big city,then over pond on say Lufthansa, Air France or other International line which has many backup planes in case of any problems. I clipped a Cheapoair survey which says 7 weeks out best pricing for TA flights.

 

Wow, this must have the record for the highest inaccuracies on a per sentence basis for any Cruise Air forum post I've read in a while :D

[Globaliser]

I've just never seen anything like that happen before and wondered if anyone else had experienced it.

Yes, frequently. Usually when a fare sale ends, as everyone's sales tend to end at the same time (because price-matching is a standard tactic). Or when an advance purchase deadline passes and the cheapest fares can no longer be purchased because the advance purchase requirement is no longer satisfied.

 

One does have to ask, though: If you'd been watching prices for three months, why hadn't you already bought tickets? What was wrong with the price then? Did you know how long it would last? I'll bet that you'd be more than happy to buy at that price now if it were to come back.

I know they weren't sold out as there were still unsold seats per ExpertFlyer (which I admit I am new to using).

Were you looking at the availability display (which looks something like F5 A4 J7 C4 D2 R0 I0 etc) or the seat map?

 

If it was the seat map, ignore that. That tells you next to nothing about how well the flight is selling and how close it is to being sold out, let alone what price the airline expects to sell the next few seats for. If it was the availability display, even experts have a hard time reading those tea leaves to try to predict where fares for that specific flight might go next.

[JVilleGal]

Don't go anywhere near "CheapO Air".... run!

[iancal]

We have done three one ways to Europe on Cheapoair. All three were through LHR to Istanbul on BA. Perhaps we were just lucky. They were fine.

 

No issues whatsoever. You need to watch routings and ensure you have at least a day or two precruise. Did the same on the trip we are on now. Booked on Orbitz. Same fare codes as booking directly, same flights, with AC and ANA but $1025 instead of $1500. We were able to select our seats at time of booking...and change them later.

 

We almost always do one way flights or open jaw when we go to Europe. Once or twice the open jaw has been less expensive than a straight return flight. Not certain why. We use it matrix in favour of kayak. It provides more options and usually provides the associated fare codes with each routing.

Edited March 8, 2016 by iancal

[JVilleGal]

For Affordable one-way pricing from or to Europe - the US try Condor Air. Flew them last Summer and flew Business, great service. They have horrible reviews for Economy but for Prem Econ and Business they are affordable and the device was great!

[iancal]

We may do Icelandair and take advantage of their free stop over option to tour Iceland for a few days.

 

If you are near the Canadian border consider an Air Transat. They often have great one way prices plus you get an embedded discount if you book an open jaw return.

[Globaliser]

Once or twice the open jaw has been less expensive than a straight return flight. Not certain why.

... plus you get an embedded discount if you book an open jaw return.

What do you mean by this?

 

Is it cheaper to book A-B//C-A than to book either A-B-A or A-C-A? That would be very unusual, and would seem illogical.

 

However, A-B//C-A is often cheaper than A-B-A. This occurs when A-C-A is cheaper than A-B-A. The price of A-B//C-A is essentially half the cost of A-B-A added to half the cost of A-C-A.

[iancal]

Last fall we did a yyz-Athens (August) and a cdg-yyc home (October)on Transat. The fare was about $840 CAD. Buying the fare at the same time this way was about $150 less than buying them separately as one ways on Transat. We have experienced the same flying into Gatwick and home through Edinburgh. Less expensive than a Gatwick return ticket.

 

We did the same in prior years flying from YYZ-OPT.

Edited March 9, 2016 by iancal

[Globaliser]

Last fall we did a yyz-Athens (August) and a cdg-yyc home (October)on Transat. The fare was about $840 CAD. Buying the fare at the same time this way was about $150 less than buying them separately as one ways on Transat.

This is just because one-way tickets are more expensive than round-trip tickets. Looking at random for YYZ-ATH and ATH-YYZ on 15 / 23 May, the round-trip can be had for about CAD 723. Buying two one-ways would be about CAD 1135.

 

So the phenomenon doesn't seem to have anything to do with open jaws, nor is it any form of discount. It's just normal air fare pricing.

[iancal]

It varies significantly with Transat. It is not unusual for them to have a sale and offer a discount vs buying ten seep rate flights.

 

We did a one way yyz-opt for $350, spent five days in the Douro Valley, and then grabbed an inexpensive TAP flight to FCO ($100) to board our cruise.