THAT déjà vu you’re experiencing, summer-airfare-to-Europe-wise? That’s no glitch in The Matrix, friend.
Take June in Prague. (Please!) A midweek departure from JFK on Delta: $1,558.
Nonstop, sure, but fifteen hundred bucks, just to go to sweaty, old Central Europe?
Believe. Things don’t get much better when you try bigger airports, either. Face it: This is the summer of 2008 all over again. The one before the big crash, the one before everyone lost their 401(k)s and jobs and what have you; the one that brought traffic down, which forced the airlines to scramble — yet again — to figure out how to survive the tough new reality. “Airlines have balanced out their capacity,” says Joel Grus, fareologist for Bing Travel.
In English: Fewer seats. A lot fewer seats.
“Airfares,” Grus continues, “are well above last year’s rates, more in line with summer 2008 during the height of oil prices and fuel surcharges.” Remember those? They could be coming back.
“Oil prices could still rise going into the summer, which could push fares higher . . . and don’t forget about luggage fees,” Grus warns. Bottom line: It’s a lousy prognosis for the busy season, but hey — all’s not yet lost. Your first step, should you still be thinking of going to Europe, should be to consider bundling up.
Nigel Osborne, president of package dealer Virgin Vacations, says that his customers save between 25 and 30 percent when they book their air and hotel together.
The facts don’t always line up all that neatly with such a claim — not in the middle of the summer, anyway — but at the very least, packages usually offer some savings.
For example, a round-trip fare to London in mid-August from New York, including taxes and fees, is currently available for $930, with Virgin Atlantic.
On Virgin Vacations (a separate entity, just so you know), prices for the same flights with 6 nights hotel, and breakfast, were as low as $1,099, based on two people sharing a room. Not bad, huh? Travelers appear to be getting the picture. According to the European Travel Commission, which promotes and tracks travel across the pond, tour operators are reporting bookings up from 20 to 70 percent over last year. Hate to lock everything in so far in advance? Pray for the occasional fluke — those can (and sometimes do) happen.
“Yes, you can save with a package, but I still advise people to sign up for fare alerts from all the usual suspects,” says George Hobica, founder of Airfare Watchdog, a fare monitoring site.
“You just never know — there might be a flash sale on various routes,” he says.
Playing the waiting game has other advantages.
“United States currency is up 10 percent against the euro and 5 percent over the British pound,” says Nora Brossard of the European Travel Commission.
Brossard also points out that Europe’s hotel rates plummeted in 2009; trends do not point towards any appreciable bounceback for the summer. In other words: Do your homework. Shop around.
with David Landsel