July 09 cruise- When to buy airfare?

[Zimomiller]

We are sailing in mid July from Southampton.

 

I have been watching airfare from Detroit to Heathrow daily to monitor changes. They have been rock solid.(In fact the fare quoted by NCL was cheaper)

 

In the last week fares for direct flights have dropped from $1324 rt to $992.

 

Not sure when to pull the trigger on air.

 

Anyone have past experience with flights in July?

[tally10]

You might try the consolidators such as btstore (Best Travel Store), travelpapa, atiflights, etc. Their specialty is cheap flights to Europe. We booked them for a cruise in November. The airline had our booking almost immediately and we were able to book our seats through the airline itself. They were about half the price we had paid last october going directly through U.S.Airways. You may want to act soon before the flights fill. Aparently the recession has not made much of an impact on that.

[xpcdoojk]

I agree with Joyce. I was amazed at how much I was able to save. I would try them all and see what is going on. Don't be afraid to book one way fares, It was cheaper for me than a multi-city fare.

 

Good luck.

 

jc

[Zimomiller]

Thanks for the links.

 

I tried all those sites and they came up with the same results I was finding from other searches. At least I know I am not missing any great deals currently.

[rebeccalouise]

I have flown to Europe seven times in the past six years and I have had really good luck with British Airways and US Air. I used Air France once and once onboard it was great but that was a real knuckle biter because there was an air traffic controller strike in Paris the day we were flying home. Ughh... we made it but that was nerve wracking.

 

So now I never do connecting flights. Most of the times when you do the cheap flights you have connections and this is how luggage gets lost. For me- traveling to Europe is expensive period. So I just have to pay more for the convenience of a non-stop.

[Globaliser]

In the last week fares for direct flights have dropped from $1324 rt to $992.

 

Not sure when to pull the trigger on air.

The time to pull the trigger is when you see a price that you are comfortable with paying. You will never know until the day you board the aircraft whether you might have paid less if you'd waited.

[xpcdoojk]

The time to pull the trigger is when you see a price that you are comfortable with paying. You will never know until the day you board the aircraft whether you might have paid less if you'd waited.

 

Agree completely, by trying to get the absolute bottom dollar deal you risk missing a good deal. :cool:

 

jc

[paul929207]

It is always a guess when prices have bottomed. I tend to book early. I figure sometimes the rate goes down and I could have saved some money by waiting. Other times rates rise and I save by buying early. Either way, I figure I have the seats and don't worry about flights selling out.

[bqkali]

We are sailing in mid July from Southampton.

 

I have been watching airfare from Detroit to Heathrow daily to monitor changes. They have been rock solid.(In fact the fare quoted by NCL was cheaper)

 

In the last week fares for direct flights have dropped from $1324 rt to $992.

 

July is "high season" but $992 still sounds high to me if it's a coach seat. Maybe I've just lucked out and gotten good deals every time, but I'd wait.

 

If you are really concerned about price, look into flying to a different European city (for example, Dublin often has cheap fares) and then getting a flight on a budget airline. If you have the time but not the money it can be a good solution. Be careful with luggage fees if you do this, though - unless you pack lightly it may negate any savings.

[junglejane]

We need to fly to London for our July 19 British Isles cruise. We have been watching the fares almost daily for months. When we started looking the fares were around $1600 pp:eek:, more than it cost us to fly to Venice last summer. A few days ago we decided to buy when the fare dropped to around $972 pp. We are traveling with two kids and since we are leaving from Phoenix, the allure of the British Airways PHX-LHR nonstop was irresistible. Being from Phoenix we're not used to being able to fly nonstop to Europe!

 

We absolutely wanted to get that flight, so we took Globaliser's advice and when we saw a fare we were comfortable with, we grabbed it. If we didn't get it for the bottom dollar, so be it. We're on the flight we want at a price we can live with.

 

--Junglejane

[Atomica]

I'm also watching air to London Heathrow from Vancouver like a hawk. One thing that surprised me was that flying into Paris was $500 cheaper than flying to LHR! Strongly considering going into CDG and taking Air France straight into Southampton & bypassing Heathrow altogether...we'll see.

 

Globaliser's advice is excellent.

[StarTrkGeek]

We are sailing in mid July from Southampton.

 

I have been watching airfare from Detroit to Heathrow daily to monitor changes. They have been rock solid.(In fact the fare quoted by NCL was cheaper)

 

In the last week fares for direct flights have dropped from $1324 rt to $992.

 

Not sure when to pull the trigger on air.

 

Anyone have past experience with flights in July?

If you are willing to make two stops (NYC, JFK and Dublin, Ireland) you can fly from Detroit to Heathrow (on July 15 -- I did not know the exact day, so I picked July 15) for as cheap as $542.10 (on Expedia dot com) or $547.87 (on cheaptickets dot com). Here is the flight information:

 

Detroit (DTW)

Depart 4:30 pm

Terminal E.M. MCNAMARA TERMINAL to New York (JFK)

Arrive 6:30 pm

Terminal 3 491 mi

(790 km)

Duration: 2hr 0mn

DL

Flight: 6530

Operated by: COMAIR INC

3Economy/Coach Class, CR9 Please check in with Comair. If checking in at a kiosk, use your name rather than confirmation number.

 

 

New York (JFK)

Depart 7:25 pm

Terminal 3 to Dublin (DUB)

Arrive 7:50 am +1 day 3,176 mi

(5,111 km)

Duration: 7hr 25mn

DL

Flight: 164

3Economy/Coach Class, Lunch, Boeing 767

 

Thu 16-Jul-09 Dublin (DUB)

Depart 9:05 am to London (LHR)

Arrive 10:30 am

Terminal 1 288 mi

(463 km)

Duration: 1hr 25mn

BD

Flight: 122

3Economy/Coach Class, Snack, Airbus A319

 

 

Total distance: 3,955 mi (6,365 km)

Total duration: 10hr 50mn (13hr 0mn with connections)

[mickeysgal]

July is "high season" but $992 still sounds high to me if it's a coach seat. Maybe I've just lucked out and gotten good deals every time, but I'd wait.

 

If you are really concerned about price, look into flying to a different European city (for example, Dublin often has cheap fares) and then getting a flight on a budget airline. If you have the time but not the money it can be a good solution. Be careful with luggage fees if you do this, though - unless you pack lightly it may negate any savings.

 

If you think that's high, I'm still playing with my Atl to Barcelona fare for mid June. Non stop is just about $1400pp. :eek: One stop is $1200. Not sure why they haven't come down a bit. I wish I could snag a $992 price.

[lennel]

You have to be lucky and watch the air prices like you would stocks. I was lucky enough to get in Jan a flight from lax to fco Rome for 680 each now they are 1200 each. but if u r comfortable with 992 buy it. it could go up again

[CruiseVia]

You can use Yapta (http://www.yapta.com). It's a great site where you can enter flight information that you'd like to follow and you can track it everyday to see if the prices drop.

 

Sidestep is always one of my favorites as well.

[FlyerTalker]

If there are no published fares below what you are finding, you won't get anywhere waiting for availability. A tool such as Expert Flyer will give you both published fare basis, as well as availability for various buckets.

 

Yapta may be appropriate if you are looking for a specific set of flights. For a more general approach, I would look to EF and ITA.

[teaach]

Try Yapta. They watch airfare before you book or after you book. They will wemail you when the airfare goes down. I have received $350 credit with Jet Blue for 12 months transferable because Yapta has emailed when my flights went down, so my next flight is free.