Finding Cheap Flights to Europe

I ook a lot of travel for our copany business as well as personal travel. I NEVER ever go through discounters because those tickets are the first ones bumped when there is an issue. Also, there is no support for you at the airport if you have issues. It is not worth it to us to have that kind of problems when we do have business deadlines to meet. Of course we are more flexble on personal travel.

That said.. I workdrectly withthe airline websites that we use all the time. Mine are American and Southwest. You CAN find deals on their websites if you look. Also, you can plug in flexible dates and it will show you the pricing so you can choose the date best for you with the price.

I know it is not Europe but I fly hubby from Dallas to Houston at least once a month for less than $120 and it all is factored on WHEN I make the purchse.

I don't have a "need" for an agent but there are times that it might be worth it if you are looking for something specific and if you are not accustomed to working with the airlines and websites often.

Good Luck and have a great trip!

It's hard. When you go to Kayak it searches several sites. It also lets you search for the cheapest fare for an entire months. Also when the search is completed it has a picture on the top left that recommends buying or waiting and a percentage of confidence. When you press on that it opens up a graph that shows how the prices have fluctuated for buying now vs. earlier or later and there is a second graph that shows how the prices for each travel date. This graph also shows about a months worth of data.

Flights to Europe are usually fairly cheap in Spring and late fall. Summer is always expensive and travel around Christmas is also expensive. The cheapest ticket I ever got was for November, but unfortunately the weather is bad in November so I wouldn't go for a vacation in November.

i get my best tickets for europe through an agent. i contact the agents in NY. louis travel is one i use the most because of the prices they offer.

A met a guy at a Meat Shoot one eveing and he said he had a Sensna. It was a loud bumpy ride, and it took damn near 4 days non-stop, but no waiting in line, and no baggage fees.

I never got his name or number but I have his last known address if you're interested.

Our agent says the cheapest way to fly is book more than a year in advance. You need to understand cheap does not necessarily mean affordable. At best you can expect to knock off a couple hundred. It is simply expensive to fly across oceans.

Oh, yeah and agents can see the flights the way you wish you could. Only they can pull this off.

I disagree with having to book a year ahead. I fly home to Europe almost every year and tried all kinds of "tricks" to save money.
In my experience it is a combination of timing and booking about 3 months in advance. The cheapest time to go is off season: February into March and then again in November (before all of the holidays). Of course that is also the time when nothing interesting is going on in Europe and most places in Central Europe ( like Paris) will be rainy and gray.
Also flight are cheaper if you leave and return mid-week, like a Tuesday to Tuesday rather than a Friday to Saturday stay.

I usually check the big travel sites first for an overview of prices. I tried kayak, but honestly I do not find it very helpful...but again just for an overview it will be fine. Then I do check the airline's website. There are some airlines who do not sell their tickets through the big travel sites at all. Iceland Air comes to mind, Condor as well. Both fly out of our home airport and I have gotten good deals with them before. So check out who flies out of your preferred airport and look up their website. I know that a lot of European discount airlines fly to Florida airports and you need to book them directly or through an agent.
Last but not least you can look for a travel agent, I used to have a great one about a decade back, but the web has ruined their business... Most of them nowadays specialize in business travel, but you may be able to find a good agent around where you live.
Good luck.