European Flights

There's better options the pros use, by that I mean the guys that travel for business or travel agents. But I use google flights OP. You can set a "flight tracker" and it gives you estimated rates for your dates in regards to high, low, avg prices. Then it will email you when prices change. You can pick what airports, what times, any options basically.

I do a bunch of options. My home airport is VPS. But I'll set flight trackers from multiple airports as you just don't know. Direct flights sometimes will have great deals, and other times you can beat them by having a layover. Depending on where you live, if you have another airport within 2 hours or so don't be afraid to use that airport also, especially if one is a hub or not.

What time of year are you looking? Just know, that there are usually certain times that airlines will run deals to basically book up. That time is generally somewhere from 75-120 days out. Sometimes more, sometimes a lot more, sometimes less. But that's a good rule of thumb. Far out, 9+ months they don't run deals because...why? People that want took to book and be done are more willing to pay full price. To get exactly what they run. Airlines run deals to book up their least in demand flights and times.

There's also high demand times that are much less likely to have deals, like mid summer to europe is very busy and few deals are out there. But they can be found.

I use google flights to look for dates and times I want to go, then set the tracker for the prices. Once it drops to a good deal you need to book it fast, some of the deals only last hours. Some will last weeks. You never know.

But late april and may are great times for flights to europe, as well as October through the winter.

Thanks for the advice. I will look into tracking the prices using Google.

I am looking at either late April/May or late October

Where are you flying out of? That plays a pretty significant part in cash fares

I will be flying out of New Orleans

If you have fixed dates and a specific location in Europe as your destination, then Google Flights is the best tool.

If you are not set on dates or destinations and price is a key factor, I recommend signing up for "Going" for a yearly fee (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) to receive frequent cheap airfare notices.

Going sends you cheap fare email notifications for the US airports you select. It can be more than 1 airport located near you. I get great RT fares out of SEA (e.g., $450 plus seat fees to Gdansk, Poland last year) and have flown out of SFO to Milan for about the same price). Pre-Covid, I flew to LHR for $277 RT and CPH for $470 RT. Some of those flights involved longer layovers.

Going occasionally publishes "mistake fares" for international destinations (e.g., $200 RT to a place in Asia or Europe). But you have to jump on that fare or it is gone in a matter of hours.

8 to 9 months before your international trip is the best window for cheap fares. And the key with using Going for the maximum benefit is being flexible with your dates and destinations.

Good luck.

Track the flights on Google flights.
Do several flights and several days if your days are flexible.

I tracked a specific flight to Rome. I get an email each day. The flight fluctuates up to 10-15 percent day to day. Just book it on the day you get the cheaper email.
My ticket actually went from $1115 to $861 in one day.

First class round trip was $5400 one day and $7200 the next.

Ended up clicking on the right day, Delta changed my flight so I was able to rebook. Ended up getting tickets in delta one for the flight home. $2400 for the round trip.

Check Norse Airways too. We've had good luck flying to Europe on Norse in premium economy.

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f you are not set on dates or destinations and price is a key factor, I recommend signing up for "Going" for a yearly fee (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) to receive frequent cheap airfare notices.

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Use them constantly. They still have a free version as well (I think) but it doesn't cost much annually anyways and you get more customization for your alerts. I've never gone to europe for over $550 round trip economy. You can generally do what they do if you want to take the time and effort to set up a lot of google alerts and stuff, but for a really hands off one, this is a great option.

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You can generally do what they do if you want to take the time and effort to set up a lot of google alerts and stuff, but for a really hands off one, this is a great option.

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This is what I do. If I know I’m going on a trip I’ll set up 6-8 Google flight notifications from various airports.

Google flights also has the map that shows you flight prices to every airport in your map.

I disagree with not going through a hub directly. It varies greatly by what the airlines need. You may find the best deal to fly ATL - FCO (Rome) or you may find it cheaper to fly Birmingham to Charlotte to Florence.

I would suggest that most people undervalue their time and money it takes to move around. You maybe can fly into an airport 3 hours away but if that saves you $250 and you still gotta pay $100 to get back plus your time, that’s often not a deal. (Including myself here)