<p>Not me. The soon-to-be college grad wants to go for 2 weeks. Wants to see London, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Rome but could drop London and Barcelona. What should I expect to pay for a flight? Doesn’t matter to me where they start or finish. Or go for that matter. . They may be traveling by train within Europe. May be doing the Ryanair thing, but right now I can’t get past the $1200 flight to Europe. I didn’t pay near that last year on Spring Break to flippin’ Sicily. </p>
<p>They want to leave 6/13-4 from Nashville or Dallas, come back the 28-30th of June. If connecting in NYC is the way to go , they’ll do that but I have to add in the NYC part, too.</p>
<p>Anyone else trying to find a flight that doesn’t bust the budget?</p>
<p>The flight is only ONE piece of the expensive experience. Lodging is rather pricey as well, especially that time of year (and especially London & Paris). </p>
<p>The $1200/ticket sounds about right, but if they are willing to search a bit, they might come up with something lower. I booked May/June LAX to LHR and VIE back to LAX for just over $1000 each, but that was a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>You might check itasoftware.com or kayak.com to see what you can come up with. You could also post on the Fodors.com forum on airfares to see if anyone there has suggestions. When the people are most flexible on dates and airports, they can generally come out with somewhat lower fares. Openjaw flights (fly in one city & out another) is a way of saving backtracking.</p>
<p>I used AMX points to book tickets last week. We are on the east coast in the south and I couldn’t find any tickets less than $1200. If you are in the NE, there might be something out of NYC. Especially NYC to London.</p>
<p>In January, I booked Boston to London to Rome and back; including all the fees, etc. it came out to about $1100. I booked my daughter’s ticket back in October; hers came out to about $850!</p>
<p>New grads shouldn’t have to worry about housing; student hostels are still pretty reasonable.</p>
<p>The best price searching engine I’ve found is itasoftware dot com. You select “search for fares” and “login as a guest” and then can enter lots of different parameters - like finding the best prices over a month’s time on all the airlines it covers (basically all but southwest and really budget airlines). The site doesn’t sell tickets, so if you find what you want, just pop over to the airline website.</p>
<p>The best price we found for Europe in May was on Icelandair, but I am not sure if they’ve made it down to Texas yet!</p>
<p>check student universe, just in case
D2 is also trying to head to Europe in June (these parallel med students ought o meet up in a cafe in Paris or something!) and thus far $1200ish is the best she has done
BUT, D1 just bought a june/july ticket from EDI-SEA for $790 out the door on KLM
check the sites directly on KLM, lufthansa, icelandic air, and Birtish air</p>
<p>D is in Switzerland doing research for 4 months(arrived about 10 days ago).Cheapest flights she found by far were on British Airways,connecting to her destination through London.Flying in and out of NY , but still cheaper even with her St Louis to NY flights added in.She booked directly with them.</p>
<p>OP wrote,
" (she) wants to see London, Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Rome but could drop London and Barcelona."
Four, five or six cities in two weeks! Europe is not a buffet - she needs to take her time and savor the regions, not graze them. Give her a budget and let her figure out the expense of relocating so many times. She is going at the beginning of high season, so the timing is not in her favor, whether its airline or housing prices. </p>
<p>One tip if she stays in hotels - visit the cities on the weekends and the country on weekdays; prices may be as much as 50% less.</p>
<p>There’s a site that forecasts which way fares will go–up or down. I can’t remember the name, but someone else will. </p>
<p>I’ve found that sometimes, it’s better to wait until the 30 -21 day window, preferably on a Tuesday, to get new fares. Last year, I went to the UK at almost the same time as your proposed D’s trip. Two months before, best deal was a smidge under $1,000. About 27 days in advance, we got the tickets for less than $600. So, she MAY be better off waiting. </p>
<p>It would also help if she can change the date of departure. Weekends are usually the highest though going over, Sundays are usually okay. </p>
<p>I just did Nashville to London on Kayak, but changed departure by one day to get a Thursday. Fare was $1027.</p>
<p>If she gets a flight and wants to take the CHUNNEL either way, buy those tickets ASAP and ask for student fare. BUY THEM IN US. Those tickets really are much cheaper further out.</p>
<p>June is expensive. It is when many Europeans have a break (around Pentecost, in the Catholic regions.) Plane flights are always high then, and in August. Experiment with flying to different starting points - some countries’ vacation schedules may vary.</p>
<p>Also experiment with flying out of different US cities. Leaving from Atlanta to Paris on Delta, for example, might give you a better option (especially Mon thru Thurs) than another route that requires changing planes and long layovers.</p>
<p>Youth hostels definitely a good option. If flying Ryan, travel light - checking bags is expensive, and their carry on size is a bit smaller than most – and they do measure. Boarding is a lot like a cattle call.</p>
<p>May want to look into trains for getting around Europe.</p>
<p>Somehow the airlines seem to have figured out when everyone wants to travel between the USA and Europe and they adjust their rates accordingly. The last time we went we wanted to go to Scotland but found that flying into Manchester England was cheaper than flying into Scotland and it’s right next to it. That was a Delta flight through Atlanta (from San Diego). </p>
<p>Make sure you check some flights to some of the other airports since they’re hitting all over - London Gatwick as well as Heathrow, Amsterdam, maybe Frankfurt.</p>
<p>I have been searching for tickets for June for my annual trip home to England to seem my Mum. I have also not found anything below the $1200+. I have some remaining miles and am having problems finding a decent ticket with them - so far can only find ones with a 12 hour overnight layover in Chicago :(</p>
<p>Check out cheapoair.com, just don’t think about the name! LOL. My S just booked tickets to Europe in early June through the site and found them to be the cheapest. I just found DFW to Heathrow(6/13) then a return from Rome to DFW(6/28) for $909. Long layover coming back, but even a night in an airport hotel wouldn’t come close to the flight price difference. It used a combo of United, Air Canada and Lufthansa for the routes. Sounds like a great trip!</p>
<p>Have you used them before? I just looked and could book a ticket for about $400 less than I have found elsewhere. Seems almost too good to be true.</p>
<p>Virgin Atlantic out of NYC to London may have some flights around 900 - depends when you want to fly. </p>
<p>Two weeks for all those cities seems too short. At least a week for Italy…I love Florence. I really don’t love Paris (I know, how retrograde…), but I personally would love to see Barcelona. Bon voyage…</p>
<p>My daughter has a research job in Zurich this summer. I looked around at flights (she hasn’t booked any yet) that leave about a week before your D wants to leave. It helps to play with the date slightly (though June is more expensive than going NOW). I just mean by a few days one way or the other. And while many flights were in the price ballpark you mentioned of $1200, I was able to find some flights from Boston to Zurich for about $975. Not many, but it only takes one. I’m keeping my eye out as I find these things are constantly changing. She has worked in Europe before and traveled a great deal and my experience is that the rates change frequently.</p>
<p>In her funding, she was offered $800 for flights and so it would be nice to get it as close to that as possible.</p>
<p>Another poster recommended vayama.com. I found a rate there Dallas/Madrid (realise that wasn’t on your list but they could bus from Madrid to points thereafter) for $992. It really will be difficult to get bargains to Europe from June-Sept just because that is when most people want to travel.</p>
<p>Airfare to Europe seems to be much higher this year. DH is in London right now. I was tempted to go along, but couldn’t find a flight under $1200 with less than 2 weeks notice. If it makes you feel better, business class is pushing $10,000 so it makes the cheap seats not feel nearly as miserable!</p>
. They may be traveling by train within Europe. May be doing the Ryanair thing, but right now I can’t get past the $1200 flight to Europe. I didn’t pay near that last year on Spring Break to flippin’ Sicily. </p>
I’ll keep trying. I really, really suck at this.</p>