I love being right. (Conversely, I HATE being wrong, who doesn't) But, I was right on last winter when I wrote my newsletter for 2009 titled 2009 Travel Outlook. In it, I predicted that even though airlines were promoting great discount fares for 2009, it would be best to wait because these fares probably would not lure enough traffic to the airlines so that they would/could RAISE fares for the summer and end the discounts.
Well guess what? Not only have I been blogging about more low fares and more sales since January, it appears the mother of all sales has hit home just as the travel vacation season starts. I still think airfares will be even lower after Labor Day (it's a seasonal thing) but now is the time to book for this summer.
The N. Y. Times In Transit blog notes that FareCompare just reported that sales are bounding to lots of domestic, international and especially European locations. Such as these round trip fares from New York: Paris for $349 (all taxes incl!) Zurich $237non stop, London $529 and Rome $296.00
From Chicago, go to Cancun for $253, Paris for $634 and Frankfurt for $506. And from LA: Paris $825 , Bangkok $703, Frankfurt $521 and London $817. More lower international fares are available also, such as LA - Manila $699, Puerta Vallarta $325, Rio $480, Sydney Aust $591 and Tokyo $598.
Even if fares dropped some more, how can you beat these prices? It isn't worth the risk of them selling out just to save another $40 so I suggest if you are going overseas, now is the time to buy. As the blog notes, these fares are 50% off what they were just (days) ago. With gas prices surging once again, fares may rise soon (or fuel surcharges raised) and it makes no sense to wait any longer to book these flights.
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