Budget Travel - need 2 cheap flights, US to Europe, preferably Rome - ideas?

Newbie here, so apologies if I've posted in the wrong section. :)

My girlfriend and I would like to go to Europe in October, preferably Rome. I've priced a couple flights before in the $600 range, but everything I've seen lately is running $1200 RT per person, and up, which will blow our budget. Anyone have any ideas for scoring two cheap(er) tickets from the continental US to Europe? I've thought of companion tickets, sales, etc, but I'm making no progress and am out of ideas. Am I out of luck, or is there another way?

We prefer to fly into Rome, but would gladly accept a good deal to London, or elsewhere in the right general direction. We are in the Atlanta - Birmingham - Nashville general vicinity.

Any ideas, strategies, etc would be appreciated.

Greg

Welcome to Flyertalk, tight_spot. There is a dedicated Budget Travel Forum in Flyertalk. So, I am going to redirect this thread to the Budget Travel Forum.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

First, welcome to FT.

Second, you may wish to provide details on what dates you are looking to travel.... and are there any preferred airlines you want to use?

Tough to look up prices without knowing specific dates is difficult... as I can already see differences between $890 and $1350 putting in random dates in October.

My date preference is October 4 to 17. Or October 16 to 29.

Our preferred airports would be (in order):

HSV, BHM, BNA or ATL.

Thanks much!

Greg

I think you're looking a little early for travel dates that are 10 months away. There's really no incentive for airlines to offer sale fares to Europe this far out, and with Open Skies coming up in March we're probably going to see a lot more routes, and potential for fare sales, come along. BA has already been talking about new routes to the U.S., possibly from Brussels.

I'm going to Rome late this month on a $500 fare that I just booked two months out on a sale. Just be ready to jump when you see something, even if you have to wait until late summer.

Traditionally, the cheaper fares have been to London, but now that taxes are higher there that is no longer the case. This winter Germany has been the cheaper destination. Keep in mind there are some cheap European carriers that mimic Southwest (EasyJet, RyanAir), so you might be able to fly somewhere else and buy separate flights to get into Rome. For instance, you may find it cheaper to fly into Frankfurt or Milan, and then either fly or take the train to Rome. Don't focus exclusively on flying directly into Rome when there may be cheaper avenues to get you there.

As usual, tom911 offers excellent advice (actually ALL posts I've seen, but since I haven't seen all posts, I qualify my statement).

There is not much for me to add, but what I want to say is that October is just past tourist season, so prices WILL go down, though this far in advance the airlines want to sell a few tickets at higher prices. Be patient, check prices regularly, and look at the Mileage Run forum stickies. You are not looking for an MR, but the stickies address how to find low prices as well.

In a nutshell, sign up for email serivce (as outlined in MR stickies) that will alert you when the price drops on a given route (you can monitor several, and a whole bunch if you have multiple email addies).

Unfortunately prices fluctuate a little too much to give you a definitive answer, and with oil about to hit $100 a barrel all bets are off :( (I'll spare you my analysis of how that happened).

EmailKid

Ryan Air in combo with other flights can be a good plan, but check the specific airports first. Ryan's "Barcelona" is actually Girona, maybe 50 miles away, "London" is Stanstead (two undergrounds and a bus, or $$ and a couple hours away from LGW), and "Frankfurt" is someplace I forget, but a long distance from FRA.

Romelle

Ryan Air in combo with other flights can be a good plan, but check the specific airports first. Ryan's "Barcelona" is actually Girona, maybe 50 miles away, "London" is Stanstead (two undergrounds and a bus, or $$ and a couple hours away from LGW), and "Frankfurt" is someplace I forget, but a long distance from FRA.

Romelle

It's Frankfurt Hahn, which is a good 2 hours away by a bus that runs to and from the main Frankfurt airport.

But yes, a combo of a flight to another Euro country and then an LCC down to Rome could be a cheaper alternative. For instance, you can fly Zoom Airlines from New York JFK to Gatwick and then take a Ryanair or EasyJet or whatever down to Italy. However, when considering my own trip to the Canary Islands, I chose to not go this route as the amount of $$ saved is not worth the potential problems should my US-Europe flight get delayed, since I know that LCCs like Ryanair won't care and won't rebook me for free. I'd rather fly legacy carriers that care about their pax a bit more.

Tight_Spot, I've PM'd you. I fly out of BHM routinely & find decent fares on trips to fco..

anyway, Check your PM's I'll try to help you find a good one.

Tip1: be a little more flexible on your dates ;)

Try the www.farecompare.com map. You can plug in your city, date ranges and even specific airlines. Also, Travelocity had a Dreammap. I don't have the link in front of me, but have found it just searching on dream map.

Youth hostels can be a good way to find your lodging. Maybe $25 a night and that usually includes a light breakfast. Pretty basic, but you meet a lot of fun people. Some of them have private rooms too. Florence, Italy is one - in an old mansion, but there are others.

Lately, there are really good fares to lots of cities in Germany - Frankfort, Berlin, Dusseldorf, etc.. Amsterdam is often a bargain fare.

Romelle

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. We'll be flying to Barcelona, not Rome, but the advice still applies. The current fares seem to be pretty high, so I'm going to sit tight, keep an eye on FareCompare, and see what develops.

Greg

FYI. If you're flying into Barcelona and want to head to Rome, try Vueling.

www.vueling.com

tight_spot

You might also want to sign up for those alerts from FareCompare. The good deals don't last very long and an email notice might help.

For housing, www.hostelbooker.com turns up some interesting modestly priced stuff not on the usual hotel sites.

Romelle