is it me, or have airline ticket prices skyrocketed?

[milgreen2]

we're hoping to book a trip to Puglia or somewhere in the French countryside, or anywhere, really, for about 2.5 weeks in May or October, 2024, and airline prices seem through the roof, compared to the trip we just took to Andalucia last month.......
not sure whether we just have to chalk it up to how things will be from now on, or wait patiently for ticket prices to come down. how is everyone else approaching airline travel??

 

[Ian Sutton]

It can be a timing thing, as especially booking a year ahead can be pricier than 3 months ahead. Nonetheless international fuel costs and wider inflation I'm sure are having an effect. There does also seem to be an understandable pickup in demand post Covid.

We would often flex our trips by days or even weeks to get a good price for our short hops from UK to Italy. Changing the day of the week and the time of the flight used to often bring different prices.

For longer haul flights, it was often the carrier that made the most difference, and amusingly we felt that the Asian/Middle East carriers were not only cheaper, but much better than the BA/Qantas etc. alternatives to get to/from Australia/NZ. Checking prices for sooner / later did help to inform as well e.g. Feb/March would be good dates to check to see if they've come down.

 

[GailS]

I'd agree prices are still rising. It also seems that the difference between "premium economy" and economy have been growing rapidly in the past year and a half. I'm flying to Italy in December and tickets were not cheap. A week ago our return flight segment from Florence to Paris was cancelled by AirFrance (we booked through Delta) and I had to wait until today to get rebooked through Delta on flights that would work for me (AirFrance rebooked me on a flight to Paris that was to arrive after my flight to Boston was due to leave). Not sure why our original flight was cancelled but there were still a lot of seats on other SkyTeam flights the same day. I'm sort of hoping it's a slowdown in the post-pandemic demand.

 

[NoSpin]

(AirFrance rebooked me on a flight to Paris that was to arrive after my flight to Boston was due to leave).

Reminds me of a Steven Wright joke -

When I go, I'm flying Air Bizarre. It's a good airline. You buy a one way round trip ticket. You leave any Monday, and they bring you back the previous Friday... That way you still have the weekend.

 

[georgemiller]

Yes, it's crazy! Economy is pretty much the only choice these days if you don't want to break the bank. Fingers crossed things level out again soon.

 

[milgreen2]

Update: finally found a fare we were willing to accept, Delta roundtrip JFK - MXP at the end of April for 18 nights, premium economy and the way there, and comfort plus on the return. it's a bit of a hassle to drive to JFK and leave the car in long term parking, but I tried every other permutation, including flights from Bradley or Boston to JFK for the connection but either option involves many more hours in travel due to layover time.
In the end, with the regional carrier connections to our ultimate destination, the total airfare will be only slightly higher than for trips in the recent past. But it was not easy sorting it out -- tried every possible combination (through London, Paris, Madrid, Dublin and Munich) that I could think of.

 

[Andrew]

Living in Vermont, we sometimes consider flying to Europe from the New York area, including Newark (an extra hassle). We haven't gone through with it to date, but I've thought it could work best to do a one-way car rental to the departure airport.