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The highest I've ever paid getting in and out of Europe was about $900 CAD. I thought that was too much back in 2012. If your flexible it's pretty not bad. I've gotten them in the $600-700 range flying on shoulder seasons. From Toronto.
Nonstop is what's killing the price. I can also find sub-$900 on a couple of routings on Matrix that are one connection routes and not insane (ie. 15-16 hours of travel time and reasonable connections).
Right. While I wouldn't ideally want to do the 32 hour, 1-3 city connection deal (even for a $600+ savings, though I would if I was desperate) as that's such a huge chunk of time that is taken out of the time you have to spend at your final destination, I have no problem doing a one city connection with a reasonable layover time. Note, the long layovers with huge savings become more palatable to me if I can make it financially worthwhile to see the layover city. Still, I can understand why some people desire non-stop flights.
I always wonder about the GREED. Flying in and from Europe was always much cheaper...
It is infuriating. My round trip from Oslo to London was less than $100 (I booked a round trip from NYC to Oslo and from Oslo to London to save money). Greed is the only reason why we can't have such a setup in the States.
It is infuriating. My round trip from Oslo to London was less than $100 (I booked a round trip from NYC to Oslo and from Oslo to London to save money). Greed is the only reason why we can't have such a setup in the States.
Sure it's greed. Just ignore the bankruptcies of the 1990s-2000s, the demise of PanAm, TWA, Eastern, etc. in the US.
The US airlines are currently profitable after a lot of attrition (employees, employee cost, ditching routes and seats to regain pricing power).
You can either have a viable airline industry, or everyone operating in bankruptcy while seats go for $100 roundtrip like things were pre 9-11. Without government subsidies, you will start seeing the major European flag carriers roll over and die due to budget airlines...
Sure it's greed. Just ignore the bankruptcies of the 1990s-2000s, the demise of PanAm, TWA, Eastern, etc. in the US.
The US airlines are currently profitable after a lot of attrition (employees, employee cost, ditching routes and seats to regain pricing power).
You can either have a viable airline industry, or everyone operating in bankruptcy while seats go for $100 roundtrip like things were pre 9-11.
Europe and Asia seem to be doing just fine with pricing their tickets and running viable, profitable airline companies. The bottom line is that, if budget European air travel is any indication, people are just fine forgoing certain "luxuries" like the ability to choose their seat, having in-flight meal service (which sucks in the US as is) and the ability to check a bag, among other "luxuries" if it means saving serious dollars . . . for those who want them, they can pay a premium to get them (again, looking to budget European airlines, plenty of people will choose to do so). Again, this is something that is already being done, and viably so, by airlines in other countries; no, traditional airlines haven't fully embraced this model in other countries, which is why they continue to lose customers to the budget airlines. No need to reinvent (or invent) the wheel here.
Last edited by prospectheightsresident; 02-14-2015 at 12:37 AM..
^^^ I agree. Those prices are just discouraging lots of Americans from long distance travel and seeing the world.
Travel in other countries is not such luxury, and MOST people can afford it. But US airline industry isn't concerned about making its product affordable to passengers.
In the US the industry has consolidated a lot over the last few years. We have now only four major airlines.
With fewer planes, less competition, and higher capacity, US airlines can dictate any price they want....
They set their prices high and will keep them that way. If they lower fares, that would stimulate demand for flying. They would have to add more flights to accommodate the new passengers. That's not what they want. They want to reduce flights and number of seats, which increases demand and keep prices high.
This PLUS extra charges for all the taxes and fees, extra luggage, food&drinks, reserved seats makes the prices even higher.
Travel in other countries is not such luxury, and MOST people can afford it. But US airline industry isn't concerned about making its product affordable to passengers.
Which explains nothing, as the OP was discussing trans-Atlantic travel, and plenty of foreign airlines fly those routes. The US airline industry has no power over foreign carriers' ticket prices. So why aren't those foreign carriers selling cheaper tickets, if (as you imply) they'd gain more business by doing so? The answer is that it wouldn't gain them more customers (like the U.S. carriers, their planes are flying full), so they have no real incentive to lower their prices.
Well, if I can lock in the fare for $900 or so midweek then I guess I will be going to Greece end of May... I refuse to pay anything over that, i'll just choose a different destination if that is the case, perhaps in Central America - for now I think the Greece thing is workable, now the only thing remaining is requesting vacation from my employer...oh the fun! LMAO!
Now I hope the Euro stays low through May And of course I sure hope there isn't some crisis in Greece caused by a potential GREXIT, yikes!
Which explains nothing, as the OP was discussing trans-Atlantic travel, and plenty of foreign airlines fly those routes. The US airline industry has no power over foreign carriers' ticket prices. So why aren't those foreign carriers selling cheaper tickets, if (as you imply) they'd gain more business by doing so? The answer is that it wouldn't gain them more customers (like the U.S. carriers, their planes are flying full), so they have no real incentive to lower their prices.
Foreign budget airlines are selling cheaper tickets (and, let's be clear, elnina's response, which was in response to my post on the matter, was referring to budget European airlines). I traveled towards the end of January from New York to Oslo for about $275 round trip on Norwegian Airlines (you should really check this airline out!) and from Oslo to London for under $100, for a total of about $375; NY to Oslo and back was on a Dreamliner. True, the traditional airlines have many full flights (though there are also plenty of flights that are less than full), but they aren't growing as much as they could due to serious competition from budget airlines. There is certainly demand to fly out there and the budget airlines are snapping up a lot of these customers, in addition to taking customers from the traditional airlines; for instance, I would have not traveled to London, whether via Oslo or direct, for the $700-$800 the traditional airlines were charging for that time of the year. These are customers that traditional airlines are losing out on. The incentive to lower prices will come from increased competition. Sadly, US airlines and other interests are fighting the expansion of foreign budget travel in the US. For instance, see: Norwegian Air and Norwegian low-fare carrier lobbies Foxx for bigger share of international traffic | CharlotteObserver.com).
Apart from investing in more fuel efficient planes, budget airlines like Norwegian work by taking away some of the "luxuries" like pillows, meals, checked bags, the ability to choose your seat, etc. All of that requires payment of an extra fee, which, from my experience, many people are happy to pay.
Trying to price a trip from LAX to Athens 05/21 - 06/1 and cheapest i'm getting is $1550, holy smokes! Thats for the nonstop 10 hr flight. For the same date I can fly LAX to Bangkok which is a much longer flight for only $883 now. It's ridiculous how insanely expensive flights to Europe have become and this is with the Euro losing 30% of it's value.
For those who are trying to make the argument about high season etc. right now it's high season in Bangkok so I priced a ticket next week via Cathay Pacific for $1079. I fail to understand why flights to Europe have become so astronomically expensive... I checked my history and see I flew to London in May 2008 for $850 roundtrip.
I feel your pain. Gf and I were considering flying from Houston, TX to Charleston, SC for a brief moment. Although our trip is several months away, the BEST ticket price we're getting is $1000. We're not sure the price is going to go down. She's been monitoring the prices week by week and they have hardly changed at all. We're hesitant to fly anyway; security is such a hassle now. But it's a long drive-21 hours one way. At $1000, the choice is easy, since we can't afford the ticket.
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And of course I sure hope there isn't some crisis in Greece caused by a potential GREXIT, yikes!
