US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - PHL-FCO fare

First, I don't have any Europe trip experience, so my question might be naive here. I was looking at PHL(6/24)<->FCO(7/9) trip in the past few days, it was quoted $762.50 (base fare $703). This morning, it jumped to $962.50 (base fare $903). Based on your experience, is this a temporary price hike over the weekend, or a normal spike for summer travel?

Thanks.

All the above. Summer is notoriously expensive to Europe, although I would imagine you'll see it go lower than $900 or even $700 in the near future. Watch for summer sales to start in another month or two.

I have two rules when booking flights in advance:

1. If it is a domestic trip I will wait (within reason) until I can get close to the lowest fares offered on that route. From RDU (for example) I know the lowest fare to TPA is about $165 r/t. If I can get near that for the dates I want - I book.

2. For international, I choose a $ figure in advance that I am comfortable with and IF I get that fare - I book. I have been burned too many times waiting for that "$50 lower fare" that I have seen before but never shows up for my specific dates. That is to say, if I am comfortable with a $550 r/t to FRA (non-V fare, of course) then I don't sweat it too much if a $490 fare in a similar booking class shows up a few days later.



[This message has been edited by geo1005 (edited 03-01-2003).]

OK, so I'm not sure what a reasonable summer fare to Europe is... I'll ask the frequent Europe travellers, based on their experience, what is the lowest fare and what's the lowest upgradeable fare I should look for PHL-CDG in June/July? I'm looking to get four tickets and would only upgrade two of them with my certs...

PHL -- Have you typically seen a sale for Europe in the summer in April or so?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1005:
I have two rules when booking flights in advance:

1. If it is a domestic trip I will wait (within reason) until I can get close to the lowest fares offered on that route. From RDU (for example) I know the lowest fare to TPA is about $165 r/t. If I can get near that for the dates I want - I book.

2. For international, I choose a $ figure in advance that I am comfortable with and IF I get that fare - I book. I have been burned too many times waiting for that "$50 lower fare" that I have seen before but never shows up for my specific dates. That is to say, if I am comfortable with a $550 r/t to FRA (non-V fare, of course) then I don't sweat it too much if a $490 fare in a similar booking class shows up a few days later.

[This message has been edited by geo1005 (edited 03-01-2003).]</font>

and you can always get the $50 voucher for the price difference anyway.

Note I dont mind getting $50s, but I hate getting $200s (like my wife got on our Mar PIT-FRA run) - that means we paid way too much, and need to book another trip (likely several months away) with money already spent and charged to the CC.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:
...what is the lowest fare and what's the lowest upgradeable fare I should look for PHL-CDG in June/July? </font>

This is just a guess...

lowest fare = $600-650 base fare, if lucky
lowest (non-V) fare = $750+


Right now for June there are no V fares showing. The lowest fares showing are K, H, and Q booking classes which are all upgradable (assuming envoy availability). These are in the $800 range.

Personally, I'd keep and eye on FRA and AMS fares...

Thanks geo. hscottm is right, you can always get a voucher for the fare difference. But be warned, I had a PHL-FRA-TXL ticket in early Feb where the fare dropped from $577 to $468, and it was a nightmare getting the credit voucher issued. I had three Envoy class check-in agents in PHL look at me like I had two heads and finally had to get a supervisor AND the help desk involved to see where the int'l agent had stored the new, lower, fare value in the record. So if you can get the lower fare to begin with, it's a lot easier to deal with.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:

PHL -- Have you typically seen a sale for Europe in the summer in April or so?</font>

If memory serves me correct - yes. Especially trips that end before June 30. In guiming_miao's case, part of the desired trip is before June 30, the other part after. Pricing that trip after the sale is announced might save some $$$. I would wait until mid-April at the latest to make the go/no-go decision.

Reach the decision altitude and decide whether to land or execute a missed approach..... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Have traveled to Europe several times over the last few summers on US Air, and have watched the fares pretty closely. If you can get anything in the $600-700 range, you should book it as soon as you can. The last two summers there were only very limited seats available at cheap rates on US air to CDG, Rome or Madrid. And most of the planes were booked pretty solid. I don't think they have too much trouble filling their planes with $900 tickets for most of the summer.

Djlawman

Another thing to consider is that demand for US flights to Rome is probably going to go up. UA does not have service to FCO currently. With the codeshare flights on US metal about to start, the normally quite full flights are likely to become even more crowded.

..do we know when transatlantic/transpacific code-shares will start?