I'll be home for Christmas. Can you hear Frank Sinatra singing? Well, whether home for you is Europe or the US, and you aren't there yet, you'll be interested in finding cheap travel to or from Europe. You may not get what you are wishing for this season! If you don't have a ticket yet, Santa may not even be able to get one into your stocking.
Airlines are busy this year and there aren't very many seats left on flights. This doesn't mean good things for the traveller looking for cheap travel. The more seats that are full, the less the airlines seem interested in filling the rest of the seats.
It is interesting that the airlines make about 94% of their profit off of only 6% of their passengers. That's right. 6 out of 100 (is that approximately the number of first class passengers? Coinqy-dink, no doubt!) passengers make up for approximately 94% of income. If they don't sell some cheap tickets at the last minute, no sweat!
If you want to hear the jing jing jingling of the bells and at least a little change left in your pockets this Christmas, you might want to stay put right where you are. That's right, maybe a Christmas staycation this year? It doesn't have to be forever, but this Christmas season, the crisis definitely seems to be over, at least for the number of travellers on airlines. Cheap Travel to Europe will be a little harder to find right now.
Having said that, if you are free to travel early in 2014, you might be able to find something closer to cheap travel to Europe. Air Lingus is competing on flights from Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to London Gatwick (GTW) for around $869. This isn't really cheap, as we have defined it before on this site (approximately $750 would be an unbelievable deal right now from the midwest to Europe), but it isn't outlandish, considering what we have seen. Looking at the otherwise dead months of March and April right now also might be a good strategy. This gives you time to plan, look for cheap fares, and plan your travel. Maybe spend St. Patrick's day in Ireland or visit the old continent during the late winter months? Seems so far away? I know, but it will be here before we know it.
After all, that's what we said last year about Christmas and now it's right around the corner. If you happen to be in Europe right now, the weather is unseasonably warm with some sunny days even forecast for London and low 50's (Fahrenheit) this week.
Maybe that means no "white Christmas" but we hope that all your Christmases are bright! All the best and here's hoping that 2014 is full of cheap travel to Europe, from Europe and in Europe.
17 December 2013
20 October 2013
Missing the Boat for Cheap Flights to Europe
Finnair is the cheapest? For Chicago to London? Really? What? No!
I've been looking at tickets for a long time. Finnair isn't cheapest. To anywhere. I don't want to get into the whole "airlines supported by government funds aren't exactly cutting fares to stay afloat" discussion. Oops, guess I just did kind of let the cat out of the bag on that argument. Sorry.
O.K. So forget about Finnair for a minute (yes, they are one of the oldest and safest airlines in the world, I know). $876 for Chicago London in the dead of winter on Tuesday to Tuesday travel is NOT Cheap Travel to Europe! Maybe on June 22 or July 4 or August 5, but NOT in November! OK, so we aren't seeming to find anything "cheap." from the midwest. Let's look at NYC London. There's always a steal out there.
Why can't we find cheap travel to Europe anymore? There are a couple reasons.
1. Consolidation of the websites. One used to be able to go online and see a battle of the big sites to get the lowest price. Now many of those sites (expedia, lowestfare, travelocity, priceline, to name a few) will pop up a window that leads you to "booking buddy" or any number of other comparison tools (kayak, etc.). They then ask you if you want to look at a site that used to be their sworn enemy or competitor! This "globalization" effect makes it seem like the best price is coming up over and over again. When, in fact, that price may be the price that is triggered by the cookie in your browser. Try to go in with a "privacy" setting on your browser and see if you get a different option or price.
2. Consolidation of the airlines. I give Finnair a bit of a hard time, but they are now part of the Star Alliance. They have sold their soul to one of the big groups of airlines. So Finnair is Lufthansa is United is Austrian. So most of the airlines have contractual agreements that they can't set their own fares without consultation with their worldwide consortium of partners. Even if British Airways wanted to run a special on NYC-LON flights, they couldn't do that to American and their other ONEWORLD (sounds really menacing!) alliance. So $849 is the best that BA will do right now. The good news? Icelandair has cut in on Finnair and beaten them by about $10.
One of the websites (already mentioned it above but won't single it out) is bragging about not charging you for "drinks on the flight" and for (drumroll!)... hand luggage. I read it wrong, too. I thought it said luggage at first. No. They still will charge for luggage. But not for carry on.
So they added luggage fees, they added a "fuel surcharge" when oil was twice it's current price and they never took any of those back. And now the fares are climbing toward $1000 to see the old continent, even on a hop-skip-jump flight from the East Coast.
How can you get cheap travel to Europe? Ask family members for tickets for Christmas (then it will at least be cheap for you). Whose family gets each other tickets for Christmas? Not yours? Well, not mine either. But it wouldn't hurt to try. Sing a song... All I want for Christmas is my two front seats.
I've been looking at tickets for a long time. Finnair isn't cheapest. To anywhere. I don't want to get into the whole "airlines supported by government funds aren't exactly cutting fares to stay afloat" discussion. Oops, guess I just did kind of let the cat out of the bag on that argument. Sorry.
O.K. So forget about Finnair for a minute (yes, they are one of the oldest and safest airlines in the world, I know). $876 for Chicago London in the dead of winter on Tuesday to Tuesday travel is NOT Cheap Travel to Europe! Maybe on June 22 or July 4 or August 5, but NOT in November! OK, so we aren't seeming to find anything "cheap." from the midwest. Let's look at NYC London. There's always a steal out there.
Why can't we find cheap travel to Europe anymore? There are a couple reasons.
1. Consolidation of the websites. One used to be able to go online and see a battle of the big sites to get the lowest price. Now many of those sites (expedia, lowestfare, travelocity, priceline, to name a few) will pop up a window that leads you to "booking buddy" or any number of other comparison tools (kayak, etc.). They then ask you if you want to look at a site that used to be their sworn enemy or competitor! This "globalization" effect makes it seem like the best price is coming up over and over again. When, in fact, that price may be the price that is triggered by the cookie in your browser. Try to go in with a "privacy" setting on your browser and see if you get a different option or price.
2. Consolidation of the airlines. I give Finnair a bit of a hard time, but they are now part of the Star Alliance. They have sold their soul to one of the big groups of airlines. So Finnair is Lufthansa is United is Austrian. So most of the airlines have contractual agreements that they can't set their own fares without consultation with their worldwide consortium of partners. Even if British Airways wanted to run a special on NYC-LON flights, they couldn't do that to American and their other ONEWORLD (sounds really menacing!) alliance. So $849 is the best that BA will do right now. The good news? Icelandair has cut in on Finnair and beaten them by about $10.
One of the websites (already mentioned it above but won't single it out) is bragging about not charging you for "drinks on the flight" and for (drumroll!)... hand luggage. I read it wrong, too. I thought it said luggage at first. No. They still will charge for luggage. But not for carry on.
So they added luggage fees, they added a "fuel surcharge" when oil was twice it's current price and they never took any of those back. And now the fares are climbing toward $1000 to see the old continent, even on a hop-skip-jump flight from the East Coast.
How can you get cheap travel to Europe? Ask family members for tickets for Christmas (then it will at least be cheap for you). Whose family gets each other tickets for Christmas? Not yours? Well, not mine either. But it wouldn't hurt to try. Sing a song... All I want for Christmas is my two front seats.
03 May 2013
Cheap Travel to Europe Is A Luxury
Cheap travel to Europe or anywhere else is a luxury. The luxury, however, will not be found in plush pillow-top mattresses or five star hotels. The luxury derived from cheap travel is one of the basic elements that we have on the earth, whether we realize it or not. That commodity is time.
We say that "time is money." This is true in every sense of the word when buying travel. We will pay more for flights that work out during the time we are able to travel. If you don't believe this, try to buy a ticket during Thanksgiving or Christmas where you don't travel on the holiday itself but still maximize your time away and get back in the last hours before work. Buy a ticket leaving Wednesday late and arriving back "home" late Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. If you don't buy months ahead, you'll pay a premium to have the maximum amount of time away without adding days off work. Take days off and you are proving once again that time is money as you suffer deductions on pay or paid days off.
I must confess that over the last few months, my focus has been kept by busy day-to-day activities and my penchant for finding cheap travel has been squeezed out. Other than a couple ventures to find cheap travel in Europe for family members, I have not given it too much thought.
A major part of that is the lack of the luxury of time. My family wanted tickets for Easter weekend and didn't have much time on either side to give or take. They wanted to travel direct and only from one specific city. Almost all options were taken off the table. This is not a good scenario for cheap travel to Europe or in or around Europe (or anywhere in the world). It's bad, unless you are driving your own car, and last time I checked, the bridge between the New World and the old Continent is not done!
Maybe you're wondering about cheap travel to Europe this summer. If you haven't already booked, it's getting late. It's May, already. However, if you keep all your options on the table, you can still make a big difference in your bottom line.
You want a concrete example? So would I. With just six weeks advance notice and in the midst of the high season, you can still get some reasonable deals on travel to Europe. June 12-19 gives mid-week travel days which will save you a few dollars each way. Have your heart set on going to London from Chicago? You are going to pay a minimum of $1294 on the cheapest of cheap flights. You can save money if you have the LUXURY of changing your cities and going to Dublin instead of London (see the entry on Gateway Cities). Dublin will be just as good of a choice as London if you are traveling on to Europe. How much money will you save? How does $350 sound? That's right. $946 from Chicago to Dublin on Air Canada. Disclaimer: Air Canada isn't paying me for this. In fact, I'm not making any money yet on anything! Did we mention you also get to see the Ottawa and Toronto airports (luxury!) on the way?
What can you do with the $350? Probably nothing, because you probably didn't have it in the first place! But at least you got cheap travel to Europe! Send us a postcard from Dublin, or where-ever you go to from there on Ryan Air!
We say that "time is money." This is true in every sense of the word when buying travel. We will pay more for flights that work out during the time we are able to travel. If you don't believe this, try to buy a ticket during Thanksgiving or Christmas where you don't travel on the holiday itself but still maximize your time away and get back in the last hours before work. Buy a ticket leaving Wednesday late and arriving back "home" late Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend. If you don't buy months ahead, you'll pay a premium to have the maximum amount of time away without adding days off work. Take days off and you are proving once again that time is money as you suffer deductions on pay or paid days off.
I must confess that over the last few months, my focus has been kept by busy day-to-day activities and my penchant for finding cheap travel has been squeezed out. Other than a couple ventures to find cheap travel in Europe for family members, I have not given it too much thought.
A major part of that is the lack of the luxury of time. My family wanted tickets for Easter weekend and didn't have much time on either side to give or take. They wanted to travel direct and only from one specific city. Almost all options were taken off the table. This is not a good scenario for cheap travel to Europe or in or around Europe (or anywhere in the world). It's bad, unless you are driving your own car, and last time I checked, the bridge between the New World and the old Continent is not done!
Maybe you're wondering about cheap travel to Europe this summer. If you haven't already booked, it's getting late. It's May, already. However, if you keep all your options on the table, you can still make a big difference in your bottom line.
You want a concrete example? So would I. With just six weeks advance notice and in the midst of the high season, you can still get some reasonable deals on travel to Europe. June 12-19 gives mid-week travel days which will save you a few dollars each way. Have your heart set on going to London from Chicago? You are going to pay a minimum of $1294 on the cheapest of cheap flights. You can save money if you have the LUXURY of changing your cities and going to Dublin instead of London (see the entry on Gateway Cities). Dublin will be just as good of a choice as London if you are traveling on to Europe. How much money will you save? How does $350 sound? That's right. $946 from Chicago to Dublin on Air Canada. Disclaimer: Air Canada isn't paying me for this. In fact, I'm not making any money yet on anything! Did we mention you also get to see the Ottawa and Toronto airports (luxury!) on the way?
What can you do with the $350? Probably nothing, because you probably didn't have it in the first place! But at least you got cheap travel to Europe! Send us a postcard from Dublin, or where-ever you go to from there on Ryan Air!
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