Budget Travel - Recommendation

Hi all,

I'm writing to try to get some suggestion from the pro here regarding travel to Europe. To begin, I have done my homeword regarding flying to Europe from DFW. I found that it's more economical to fly open-jaw. My question is, is there any city in western Europe you know are the cheapest to get into?

Here's what I found so far. The cheapest I found is going from DFW-Frankfurt....and then going from Dublin back to DFW. I must depart from Dublin back to DFW. But I can travel from DFW to any major western European city. I plan on taking the train once I get to continental Europe. I also noticed that the airfare have risen dramatically since 2 weeks ago. I've tried using kayak.com, vayama.com, cheapticket.com. Is there any other website that you guys know that I should try?

Thanks ahead for all your help.

Welcome to FT! Now to your question...

First, you seem to be thinking in terms of two 1-way tickets. Round trip fares are often cheaper and have their own dynamics.

Second, airfare are extremely sensitive to travel dates, therefore no answer is possible without having some idea of the dates or a date range.

Finally, what is this cheapest fare that you found? Which airline(s) and how many dollars?

I will add my welcome to the welcome wagon!

You might also be interested in taking a peek at the sticky at the top of this forum about low cost carriers (you'll have a ton of options for getting around once you get there.

Happy travels!

BAMAT
Moderator, Budget Travel

Hi all, thank you for the warm welcome. Regarding the time, I forgot to post that.

Here's my schedule.

My departure dates are flexible. Nov 21 (Friday evenning) Nov 22 (all day)
My return date is Dec 7 (Sunday)

My original plan was go from DFW to DUB roundtrip, but the cost is over $900.
What I found was that if I depart from DFW to Munich, then return from DUB to DFW, the cost is around $800. I don't know if I can go any cheaper than that. The cities I plan on visiting is London, Paris, Vienna, and Dublin. I will stay a day or two in Munich if I end up flying there on my first leg.

Regarding lowcost carrier, I plan on using that (or the train) to travel within Europe. As I'm a solo traveler, the lowcost carrier may not be a good option because of the transportation cost to and from distant airport.

Any other recommendation you guys can give would be great.

Suggestion sent to you by pm (click on "private message" near top right of the page).

Any other recommendation you guys can give would be great.

I think you're looking way too early, as winter fares won't be out there until sometime after Labor Day. This last winter a lot of us went to Frankfurt on fares that were less than $500 including taxes. Now, you may not see that again with fleet reductions and fuel costs, but personally I would not be looking at booking a winter fare in July that's over $900.

One thing you can look at is which carriers allow "fare rollovers". If you decide to go ahead and book, and the fare drops before departure, you can get a credit for the difference. AA no longer does this, but I believe UA still has it in place and does not charge a transaction fee. If you do a search on the UA forum you'll likely bring up recent discussions on it.

I think you're looking way too early, as winter fares won't be out there until sometime after Labor Day. This last winter a lot of us went to Frankfurt on fares that were less than $500 including taxes. Now, you may not see that again with fleet reductions and fuel costs, but personally I would not be looking at booking a winter fare in July that's over $900.

In seasonal sense he is early, but in another sense a little late as BA's sale is over. He does say that he found an open jaw for 800. Another can be worked for about 700 using the "southern hemisphere" method. :) No way to know if waiting would yield much better results.

I did not know that I'm booking too early. As you know, I'm a newbie. I thought the earlier I book, the better. With the increase fuel cost, I'm sure the fare won't be as good as last year. In the honest opinions from the poster here, is it better to wait till the labor day weekend before I book? I know there's no way for anyone to predict the fare, but what would you guys do? Labor Day is only a little over a month away. I can certainly wait.

I've been flying to Europe every winter since 1992. I can only recall buying a winter fare once in the summer, and that was when Virgin or BA started a sale that everyone else matched one year in August. All my other tickets have generally been bought in September, October, or even early November, when winter fares are going to be out there.

I don't think anyone can tell you with certainly what winter fares will look like this winter because the airfare environment has changed. Traditionally, we always have winter fares that drop a couple hundred dollars from fares we see in the summer. They may not appear right on Labor Day weekend, but they should be along well before November 1 (in some years winter fares have kicked in as early as October 1 or 15). The type of fare you're looking at can generally be purchased 14-21 days ahead depending on fare rules.

In the honest opinions from the poster here, is it better to wait till the labor day weekend before I book? I know there's no way for anyone to predict the fare, but what would you guys do?

We don't know what will happen to airfares, but this is still a fair question. I'd approach it as follows. If the last year's winter fares were ~500, this year's may be ~700. I can get that fare now with the "SH method". So...

If my dates were not very flexible for whatever reason, I'd buy now and have peace of mind. It would also give me enough time to plan my travels within Europe. (There is no guarantee that fares will drop soon after Labor Day. You may need to wait until early or mid October. Even if low fares are announced, they may not be available for your dates. The "SH method" may not be around by then. Etc.)

OTOH if my dates were quite flexible, then I might wait out of the combined hope that (1) The low fares will be announced, (2) They will work for my dates, (3) The "SH method" will still be alive and save me a little extra. If that doesn't work out, I can always find something later, especially if my dates are flexible and nothing very important is involved.

The potential benefit of waiting is that you may save another $100-$200.

The risk is that you may not save anything, and on top of that may also end up with less desirable cities and dates. A guaranteed negative is that you'll have less time to plan your time within Europe - flights, trains, hotels, events, friends, everything.

We were considering similar issues with our December trip (USA-India-Turkey-USA). If it was a pleasure trip with no important constraints, I'd at least be tempted to wait and see if fares drop later. However, we have a family wedding in India (=important occasion, fixed date) and a firm date to return by, so we opted for the peace of mind and, while still trying to get the lowest possible fare, bought our tickets now.

This way we have our peace of mind, and plenty of time to book domestic trips and events in India and Turkey. What if the fares fall through the floor? Unlikely but should it happen, I won't regret anything and just book another trip for a future date. :)

Hi all,

It's me again. Once again, I'm still checking on flight regarding my fall/winter trip to Europe. It seems like the fare is the same and increasing a little bit? Is this normal? I'm still looking for cheap flight from Dallas to Europe. I tried Kayak and farecase. Do you guys have any suggestion?

Thanks

I looked at a variety of cities yesterday from SFO, and the cheapest AA destination I could find was Frankfurt at $502 plus tax. That's still a little too high for me, though clearly a lot cheaper than summer fares. Have you priced Frankfurt from DFW?

I plan on taking the train once I get to continental Europe.
Not sure if the recent Chunnel Fire (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=865343) would have any effect on your train-ride in Europe. You probably should plan your trip to accommodate the possible changes.

Just a quick word to say that the ferry companies (Dover-Calais) are honouring Eurotunnel and Eurostar tickets on their services without supplements when there is space available, and the tunnel will be reopening for limited services this weekend - using the undamaged south tunnel only.

The ITA software:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego

is totally amazing for searching for fares. A little trickier to use than Kayak and others, but worth learning. Try the month-long search, starting maybe a couple days before your date. Don't forget to also check the airline web sites. They occasionally have rates not on the general ones.

And, yes, I'll vote for waiting for the winter rate sales, but do set some of those watchers like the one on Travelocity. That way you will get an email alerting you. And maybe check into the Mileage Run forums on FT. They usually beat the sale announcements by several hours.

Romelle