When to book Airfare to Europe Question

[Catherine M]

Have a question for experienced travelers from North America to Europe. A coworker of mine is originally from Italy. She moved here as a child and now has started to reconnect with her Italian relatives; eventually she and her husband plan on retiring to Italy

Anyway, her Italian cousins want her to come visit in August, when they are off of work/school. So she has been looking at airfare via Kayak and its really expensive as August is the peak travel season to Europe. Should she just go ahead and book now or wait a bit and see if the fares go down any?

Oh the travel would be from New Orleans to Rome.

Thanks!

[ballettmaus]

Have a question for experienced travelers from North America to Europe. A coworker of mine is originally from Italy. She moved here as a child and now has started to reconnect with her Italian relatives; eventually she and her husband plan on retiring to Italy

Anyway, her Italian cousins want her to come visit in August, when they are off of work/school. So she has been looking at airfare via Kayak and its really expensive as August is the peak travel season to Europe. Should she just go ahead and book now or wait a bit and see if the fares go down any?

Oh the travel would be from New Orleans to Rome.

Thanks!

She could check back at different times of day and different days of the week, that has done the trick for us in Germany several times though sometimes it were just 50 dollars or so.
Ticket prices don't go down until after Sept 15th, so it's unlikely the rate will drop significantly. It used to be the earlier you book the cheaper it is, not sure if that's still the case. We usually booked about 6 months in advance when travelling during peak season, I don't recall flights to have been cheaper after we booked.
There is no guarantee to say what exactly happens but prices tend to go up rather than down. She could wait a little, a week or two and see what happens but she probably doesn't want to wait too long as flights are likely to be full at one point or another especially during peak season.

[pingu]

Have a question for experienced travelers from North America to Europe. A coworker of mine is originally from Italy. She moved here as a child and now has started to reconnect with her Italian relatives; eventually she and her husband plan on retiring to Italy

Anyway, her Italian cousins want her to come visit in August, when they are off of work/school. So she has been looking at airfare via Kayak and its really expensive as August is the peak travel season to Europe. Should she just go ahead and book now or wait a bit and see if the fares go down any?

Oh the travel would be from New Orleans to Rome.

Thanks!

AFAIK there are some special offers during the summer from Rome and Milan to some north american cities like Montreal, Toronto, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco. If you buy the tickets a few months early you should spend arund 600€. Last year I booked a flight from Milan to Toronto just a month before leaving (July) and I spent 800€. As your friend will leave from New Orleans I'm afraid the price won't get that much lower than now, as there are not usually special offers for that city.
Does she speak italian? Maybe she could try to search in italian.

[Cachoo]

Have a question for experienced travelers from North America to Europe. A coworker of mine is originally from Italy. She moved here as a child and now has started to reconnect with her Italian relatives; eventually she and her husband plan on retiring to Italy

Anyway, her Italian cousins want her to come visit in August, when they are off of work/school. So she has been looking at airfare via Kayak and its really expensive as August is the peak travel season to Europe. Should she just go ahead and book now or wait a bit and see if the fares go down any?

Oh the travel would be from New Orleans to Rome.

Thanks!

Since it is August we are talking about---holiday time in Europe---I would book early. For me booking flights late has not been the same of booking hotels late: Hotels cut rates but I don't seem to be finding cheaper flights. But there are certainly more experienced travellers than me at FSU.

[milanessa]

Since it is August we are talking about---holiday time in Europe---I would book early.

I don't see how that would affect a flight from the states. Not to say booking early isn't a good thing.

It may have changed in recent years but the number of places closed in August in Europe used to be . Good thing she's going to visit family.

[Catherine M]

Thanks for the feedback.

I think she's going to go ahead and book in the next week or so as she is worried about flights filling up with summer travel.

She does speak Italian but doesn't read it very well but I will suggest that she check some of the Italian travel sites.

I think her main problem besides traveling in August is that New Orleans does not have an international airport. Ok, it does have international flights but I believe the flights only go to and from Toronto for convention business purposes.

She's going anyway, no matter the cost, as this is her trip to look at properties for her eventual move back in 2013.

[pingu]

She does speak Italian but doesn't read it very well but I will suggest that she check some of the Italian travel sites.

Let me know if you/she need any help

[milanessa]

I think her main problem besides traveling in August is that New Orleans does not have an international airport. Ok, it does have international flights but I believe the flights only go to and from Toronto for convention business purposes.

She's going anyway, no matter the cost, as this is her trip to look at properties for her eventual move back in 2013.

In that case my plan of attack would be to find a good flight from a large airport and then get to there from NO. Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Miami.

[Catherine M]

Let me know if you/she need any help

I will!

I'm her official helper on all of this. She has promised me when she moves and get settles in her new life back in Italy, I can be her first house guest!

And milanessa, I'll tell her take a look at travel directly from Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, etc to see if that's a savings. Its only a six hour drive over to Houston so that could be an option for her, if there is a big savings.

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I think her main problem besides traveling in August is that New Orleans does not have an international airport. Ok, it does have international flights but I believe the flights only go to and from Toronto for convention business purposes.

She's going anyway, no matter the cost, as this is her trip to look at properties for her eventual move back in 2013.

This is certainly something that will raise her price. How flexible can she/does she want to be re: airport? If there are any major international hubs in driving distance of her home, she can also look at flights out of there. I don't know how far Houston is, for example.

ETA: D'oh! You posted just before I did.

[Southpaw]

If anybody is interested Lufthansa is having a sale right now on fares for departures up to April 4.