Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - Prices of flights to drop?

Hello,

As I'm planning a trip to New York and the states CA, NV, UT and AZ next year, I need to book 4 tickets for my family (I'll be travelling in F on an award ticket as a graduation present :D).

Anyway, the cost of a ticket on KL/AF is outrageous. A ticket AMS-JFK on KL641 (direct flight) and back on AF LAX-AMS via CDG is priced at 1100EUR @ AirFrance.nl! The leg AMS-JFK is already booked in a V-bucket (lowest fare afaik).. The legs on AF are booked in K and T buckets..

According to ITA the lowest fare on KL/AF should be about 840EUR but I visited 2 TA's today and they didn't even know what ITA was.. I'm wondering if I should try an other ITA? Do ANY of you even had succes booking the itinerary you found at ITA for the price ITA quoted you?

Do you guys think the prices will drop or what? I sure hope so..

What time of year are you booking for? For summer peak travel, 1100EUR sounds about right. For shoulder seasons (spring and fall) you should be able to do better.

I think we're in an era of reduced capacity in which prices will not lurch downwards on short notice the way they used to. The Open Skies competition involving LHR / UK might help things somewhat though.

Try AZ. Better than KLM Y (only Ryanair is worse!), and in all likelihood you'll get all the miles, too.
And no, they won't be bankrupt in a year from now.