ehe123

I was hoping that someone might have insight based upon the history of previous years. I am looking at a current NW fare (coach, of course, not upgradeable) for Sept. 27 departure, 1 Oct return, Washington (IAD) to Helsinki of ~$540 ($600 after taxes, etc.). This must be purchased by 27 July as part of a current fare sale. But given the overall weakness in air travel, I would expect that new fare sales will appear in Sept. (after the summer season) that might be even lower. Does anyone have a recollection of the timing of such sales? Does anyone expect that this fare might go much lower? The end of Sept. might still be a shoulder season, so it is unlikely that we will see the type of $300 fares that have appeared to CDG and other European destinations. But I am still wondering ...

tartetatin2

ehe123,

Welcome to FlyerTalk! I too am playing the waiting game for lower US-Europe fares on NW for my annual birthday dinner in France. I don't know if you have your heart set on traveling in the shoulder season, but waiting until the 1st of November makes a big difference. Last year I was watching for GRR-NCE to reach a reasonable number and made an online reservation on 8/25, regular published fare of $524, when it had been at $688 for a couple of months. Since this was not an e-cert or special web sale (identified by the gold star), I was then able to get vouchers as a refund for the difference when it dropped $71 on 9/13. For comparison sake, GRR-CDG was going for $423 at the same time, or $399 on web sale.

I'm sorry that I can't comment specifically on October fares, but hope this helped.

Happy hunting.

T2

Edited to add: These fares I cited all have taxes included.


[This message has been edited by tartetatin2 (edited 07-17-2001).]

ehe123

I am aware of the lower fares already posted for after 1 Nov. However, to take advantage of a free Starwood weekend, it must be for 27 Sept. to 1 Oct.!