What's the least I should expect to pay to fly from Chicago to London?

Question

I'm planning a trip to Europe in March. Tickets come to a total of about $720 per person round trip right now. The person I'm going with thinks that this is too expensive and we shouldn't buy tickets until we can find a better deal. I think that this is about the best deal we'll be able to find and we need to buy tickets now before they get more expensive. Who's right?

Answer 1

$720 doesn't surprise me -- even for March -- with the current state of fuel surcharges.  If I were a bettin' man, I'd bet fuel surcharges are more likely to increase rather than decrease between now and March.  You need to know what the historical low fare on this route is, and how much fuel surcharges are currently adding, in order to make an informed guess at what price you should aim for.  For that, you need http://www.farecompare.com

Currently, for March '09 the cheapest published fare on CHI-LON r/t is $712 with Air Canada.  $242 of this is fuel surcharge, with base fare of $288, and the rest is tax and fees to both US and UK govts. and airports.  

For comparison, Virgin Atlantic $803rt total; $302 fuel surcharge, $328 actual fare, the rest is govt. tax and fees that the airlines must collect.  Exact same for United currently.

Having watched transatlantic airfares closely on a daily basis over the past 12 years, I can tell you that base fares of $288 -- which is what the Air Canada price is -- are very unlikely on CHI-LON, even in low-season.  I have seen it drop to maybe $199 + taxes fees several years ago, so you might expect--maybe--another $90 to come off a $712 fare.

I suggest you sign up for fare alerts here: http://www.farecompare.com/fare-search/y...  They show last March $363 on this route, but the high fuel surcharges have really kicked in since then.  Anything under $600 for this trip, I think, would be good.

Try specific dates with http://www.bookingbuddy.com which will hunt fares from consolidators, too, and show the total price with all taxes and fees.  Sometimes those might be a little bit cheaper.

Answer 2

I went to travelocity, typed in Chicago to London, and the cheapest fare it gave back was $507. I put in flexible dates, so it searched the entire month of March. There were several options under $600--you'll just have to see what dates work for you.