Cheap Travel to Europe this year

Greetings! So in the dead of winter (for some deeper than others), the discussion of Cheap Travel to Europe may not sound appealing, especially if we are talking cheap travel to Scandinavia or some of the northern parts of Europe. Interestingly, this year Europe seems to be having a much more mild winter than the States, so perhaps the idea of escaping to southern climates like Southern France or Italy by finding cheap flights to Europe will be appealing to some trapped in the snow and ice of the season. If cheap is the top priority, then indeed, hop on the plane, of course first that means hop on the internet and look for cheap travel to Europe. During this season it's pretty sure to be had, as mentioned in my last blog on timing in finding cheap travel to Europe. If you are interested in traveling during the summer, it is also (past) time to jump in and start looking. Of course there will usually be some last-minute offers, but for the summer months ("high season") you will be very lucky to find anything close to cheap travel to Europe if you don't buy well ahead. The pickings will be slim the more time goes on and you will have very few options on what is available for truly cheap travel options to Europe. Don't get me wrong, catching a cheap flight on Iberia to southern Portugal or Spain will still qualify as cheap travel to Europe, but do you really want to have the 100+ F temperatures or long rides from there to get to other more temperate parts of Europe? Go ahead and carefully shop and buy a summer trip to Europe soon if you haven't already. Why is it tricky to get cheap travel to Europe this year? The main reason is: oil prices. They are already volatile this year and look like they are headed up. Will this really make the price of travel by air more expensive for the airlines? IT DOESN'T MATTER. The last time oil prices went up, so did several fees that the airlines added. The fares also climbed and cheap travel was made more difficult. The oil prices then went down. Guess what? None of those fees and prices really significantly went down during that period. The airlines saw a way to acceptably raise the prices because everyone knew that oil prices had gone up and so they raised fares and added several fees, such as baggage fees which had previously been "unacceptable" to customers. The price of oil finally fell significantly and these fees imposed stayed. If oil goes up again, it's fair to reason that the airlines will try the same trick and raise fares for sure. They will probably also add or increase some fees that will stay even if the fares go back down. This will make cheap travel to Europe harder and harder to find. One way to avoid this is to buy before this happens. When they lowered the luggage weight allowed from 70 pounds to 50 pounds, people who had purchased their tickets during the 70 pound limit were allowed to fly with 70 pounds. Of course if you pack light and go for a short time, this doesn't affect you. However, the concept will remain the same for fuel excess fees, anti-terrorism fees, passenger service fees and the like that will be tagged on if the airlines perceive that they can get away with it (they are not running their businesses as a charity after all!). So cheap travel to Europe may be elusive this year. But hey, what fun would it be if it wasn't a challenge?

On the optimistic side, with the economic outlook still pretty grim, there are several good deals to be had that really qualify as genuine cheap travel to Europe. The airlines are trying to lure people to travel with lower fares despite the bad economic indicators. If you are signed up for alerts from your city, I am quite sure you will see more than a few attractive offers come across the wires. Don't give up. I wish you all great luck in finding cheap travel to Europe this year!