Europe Airfare from US

[aussievc]

From past experience does anyone know the best month to purchase airfare to Europe, likely Barcelona or Venice, from the US for a Med cruise in June? Planning a group trip June 2017 for Med cruise on RCCL and I'm wondering how far out or close to sail date to get best price possible. I'm researching this year's rates/dates to use as example for when we travel next year. I saw that some of the airlines had ticket sales to Europe in January for this summer but I'm wondering if that is the best time or should we wait until closer to cruise? I have no idea what a decent price range is and what is too much to international destinations. I'm good at what is decent good or decent prices for domestic travel. Some of us are traveling from Las Vegas and others in our group from Los Angeles. TIA! :)

[CruiserBruce]

There is no "best" or magic time to buy. You just have to do your research, find the range of airfares, and buy when comfortable. The don't look back!! That might be January. Using this years prices is a good start, but bear in mind many things drive air fares, and those can vary year to year.

 

First thing you will find in your research is that Venice is a pretty expensive airport to fly in/out of. If you want to sail in/out of Venice, consider Milan as the airport, and train in between.

Edited February 8, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[aussievc]

There is no "best" or magic time to buy. You just have to do your research, find the range of airfares, and buy when comfortable. The don't look back!! That might be January. Using this years prices is a good start, but bear in mind many things drive air fares, and those can vary year to year.

 

First thing you will find in your research is that Venice is a pretty expensive airport to fly in/out of. If you want to sail in/out of Venice, consider Milan as the airport, and train in between.

Thank you CruiserBruce for the suggestion!

[sparks1093]

4 to 6 months seems to be about the time to buy but it can vary. I looked up fares on a popular travel site inputting dates 4 to 6 months from the current date just to get an idea of how the fares were doing.

[ducklite]

Agree with Bruce but will add that FCO is usually one of the least expensive Euro gateway airports. You'll have to do the math, but the savings in airfare will likely be considerably less than the cost of Trenitalia to get to Venice.

[CruiserBruce]

4 to 6 months seems to be about the time to buy but it can vary. I looked up fares on a popular travel site inputting dates 4 to 6 months from the current date just to get an idea of how the fares were doing.

 

The problem with 4 to 6 months from the current date might put you in a different "season" than the one you are flying in, so airfares could be dramatically different. Example, 4-6 months from now works, as that is close to your planned flight (June). But 4-6 months from August puts you in the dead of European winter, when the fares are the lowest, and not relevant to June fares at all.

[sparks1093]

The problem with 4 to 6 months from the current date might put you in a different "season" than the one you are flying in, so airfares could be dramatically different. Example, 4-6 months from now works, as that is close to your planned flight (June). But 4-6 months from August puts you in the dead of European winter, when the fares are the lowest, and not relevant to June fares at all.

 

True, it's not a perfect system but with air fare what is?:) I usually start looking over a year out so by the time we get around to booking I at least know what the ranges are so when I do see a good price I can jump on it.

[iancal]

I do not know if there is a good time any more. We have had what we consider to be good pricing 120 days out and just under 30 days out. It is a supply and demand business. Once the plane takes off the inventory has zero value.

 

We buy air in the same way we make buy decisions on cruises. We start by understanding what an average fare is for the time of year. Then we get to know the routes. Sometimes less expensive to fly into Milan than it is to FCO.

 

When what we consider to be a good price shows up we book it. Without a doubt there will be people on the same plane who have paid more and some who have paid less.

 

We also use Matrix ITA to determine best days/airlines. You can key in a departure date, trip duration, and the program will give you pricing for departures over a one month period. Recently used this for a flight to Asia.

We did not save a great deal but we were able to get a routing that cut out one connection each way and reduced our flight times by 4 hours.

Edited February 9, 2016 by iancal