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I track 8 airfare feeds a day (3 domestic and 5 international) and this past week has seen the domestic airfare market in a bit of a lull. There has been a few little skirmishes but nothing major to get super excited about, this evening for example:
These are small and targeted “airline price tweaks” that occur all the time, so nothing really exciting. But … |
On the international side however, the outlook is pretty good. Delta (Barbados) and American (Manchester) fired out some new low prices for the typically slow fall and winter season along with United (to Belfast).
I chatted with Michelle Higgins over at the New York Times and she posted a nice article on the cost of fall/winter travel you should take a peak at.
I was disappointed on the delay of the Boeing Dreamliner until late next year because it was one of the keys to my prediction for cheaper international travel in next few years, but I am still high on the prospects of much cheaper travel internationally starting next year (and this fall/winter for that matter)
- Open Skies allows more airlines to quickly jump into the fray for travel between U.S and Europe (March 2008)
- Airbus and Boeing with new bigger and more fuel efficient planes going into service almost exlusively on international airlines which will compete more heavily with domestic airlines international routes driving prices down
- Domestic U.S. Airlines pulling all their wide bodies out of the U.S. domestic market and reconfiguring them for international routes, more seats, more competition means lower prices
- Currency conversion will keep Europeans pouring into the U.S. which will spur more routes inbound (thus outbound, although the conversion hurts us going outbound, we seem to be less sensitive to it)
- I am an optimist and hope that $75 a barrel oil will go down and fuel surcharges will be lowered the next few years (well not really overly optimistic on this, but it is a possibility)
I am very high on the prospects of getting some super international deals in the next few years, so stay tuned …
Comment by Rick Seaney — October 11, 2007 @ 12:26 am
I don’t see how all those Europeans visiting the US will help US travelers wanting to visit Europe. Won’t it create a shortage of seats (outbound and inbound), leading to higher fares?
Comment by Miles — October 11, 2007 @ 10:44 am
Comment by Rick Seaney — October 11, 2007 @ 10:59 am
I want to bring my sister from London to West Palm Beach R/T and the lowest fare I’ve found is $672. Expedia and Travelocity no longer have the fare alert/fare watcher tool for international flights. How can I get the best fare?
Comment by Samantha — October 11, 2007 @ 11:25 am
Hey Rick,
Flying to Europe next May from Charlotte, NC and was thinking of locking in our tickets pretty soon even though it’s a little far out as I think the price is fairly decent now ($720-735 from some fares i’ve seen). After reading your post should i go ahead and hold off til the first of the year?
Looking to fly open jaw either Paris/Frankfurt w/ CLT or maybe Zurich/Frankfurt last 2 weeks of May ‘08.
Thanks!
Comment by Michael — October 11, 2007 @ 11:37 am
We just booked tickets from Roanoke, VA to Cologne for $690 RT next April/May. United going, Lufthansa return with stops in IAD and FRA. The last leg is on the high speed “I.C.E” train which covers the 110 miles from FRA to Cologne in 50 minutes! Check-in and custmoms are at Cologne Central station which has airport code QKL.
Orbitz seems to be the only major site which finds this routing. We figure that the last leg on the train should wake us up for the rest of the day!
Comment by Gary Darby — October 11, 2007 @ 3:51 pm
hi there where can i get best fare for mia to cdg or lax to cdg in month of nov07 arond thanks giving pls reply thanks vry much
Comment by BHARAT — October 11, 2007 @ 10:27 pm
We have a family friend that will graduating from Durham,England next year and I’ve been watching the fares. There may be low prices but the fuel and surcharges are bringing them up a lot…in some cases almost doubling them. I’m a teacher, any ideas of good rates? Should we try and book now? Also, we’ve got some free vouchers on Southwest and was wondering if we’d be saving anything using a free voucher to the east coast and then over to the UK instead of flying out of San Diego or Ontario? Would you suggest flying into Dublin since they have cheap flights and then taking a ferry or hopper flight over to england?
Comment by Angela — October 12, 2007 @ 4:54 am
SO MUCH for my excitement over the great price that popped up DFW to Dublin…via, you guessed it… Delta. Could clearly read the price and Fare Code, BUT there was no sign of it on their website and they have no place to enter the FARE CODE, even though they admit it is their code. Call and talk to someone…you get another price and they can’t explain why the prices are different. I am disgusted with them. I see no way to book the selected flights from FareCompare… am I airline ticket booking challenged?! Delta will charge you $20 per ticket, in addition to the unexplained $25.90 - $40.00 different to help you out. Two of my family members traveled in September, 1 to Hawaii and the other to Niagara Falls. Ironically, when I spoke to them when they arrived at destination, they both said they “would never fly Delta again”. Maybe I should take that as an omen.
Comment by J.J. Pueblo — October 17, 2007 @ 3:00 pm