Who did you book your air fare with?

[edwinm3]

Doing ED in Feb and was wondering if there are any special deals for ED.

[hababa]

For anyone who doesn't already use this website, it's great for looking for airfares in one month blocks.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

[khaye1]

doesn't lufthansa offer a 10% discount if you're doing ED?

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by edwinm3

Doing ED in Feb and was wondering if there are any special deals for ED.

Book online, on a Tuesday, ~60 days out and if no great deals wait until ~30 days out.

[dclowd9901]

Use google flights. Best flight prices anywhere. It's actually the same software as that matrix app (Google bought them and brought their software in house).

I went Icelandair business class. Aside from the 2 connections (one of which being in a very windy Reykjavik), it was very comfortable and super cheap.

[edwinm3]

Was able to book a flight with AA with miles and $110 out of pocket. Not bad. Thank you guys

[afadeev]

Originally Posted by khaye1

doesn't lufthansa offer a 10% discount if you're doing ED?

Lufthansa claims to have a BMW ED 2-for-1 deal: you buy 1 full priced fair, they throw in the second ticket for free.
Unfortunately, when I checked, their full priced fairs were more than 2x higher than what you can get online

Long story short - shop around for flights out of your favorite airport.
MUC is a relatively small airport, so don't be surprised if you end up with a connecting flight somewhere in Europe to get you to MUC.

a

[Doctor///M]

AA miles ftw!

[jayyp]

I used Air New Zealand through cheaptickets.com. It was still cheaper than the 10% discount with Air Lufthansa.

[edwinm3]

Originally Posted by afadeev

Lufthansa claims to have a BMW ED 2-for-1 deal: you buy 1 full priced fair, they throw in the second ticket for free.

Nope, not an option anymore, they just discount a small percentage off the ticket price

[BD SM3RF]

Originally Posted by GrussGott

Book online, on a Tuesday, ~60 days out and if no great deals wait until ~30 days out.

So booking early is not the way to get a better deal? I have no experience booking international travel and most of my domestic travel is booked on SW where booking early = best fare.

My ED is planned for July (high season) so I am wondering if deals are even in the cards.

[mul1gan]

I booked through expedia on Lufthansa, pretty pricey but when I called the BMW ED Lufthansa it was pretty much the same price but they were able to find connecting vice direct flights which tacked on another 5 hours each way

Originally Posted by afadeev

Lufthansa claims to have a BMW ED 2-for-1 deal: you buy 1 full priced fair, they throw in the second ticket for free.
Unfortunately, when I checked, their full priced fairs were more than 2x higher than what you can get online

Long story short - shop around for flights out of your favorite airport.
MUC is a relatively small airport, so don't be surprised if you end up with a connecting flight somewhere in Europe to get you to MUC.

a

[MFNATIK]

Originally Posted by hababa

For anyone who doesn't already use this website, it's great for looking for airfares in one month blocks.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

I heard that site is like the backbone for all those big name travel sites. Great tip btw!

[vonmayr]

Originally Posted by hababa

For anyone who doesn't already use this website, it's great for looking for airfares in one month blocks.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

As much as I travel and I didn't know that one..... Way cool. Thanks!

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by ecleland

So booking early is not the way to get a better deal?

Not usually. Airlines manage their routes and seats as expiring "products" like produce. They have algorithms to maximize per-unit sales so ~ 60 days out, after their weekend batches run (thus tuesday), they drop prices to fill in their seats to a certain level and then begin to lift them again as time-to-expiration nears.

Things can always change but in general 60 days out on a Tuesday will get you low fares.

[ben1233]

I've read (and seen analysis) that the 60 day rule generally only applies to US domestic routes. For International destinations (from the U.S. to Europe) the rule of thumb is actually 151 days out. Of course YMMV.

[edwinm3]

Some good info here, also FYI citi is giving 50k miles with their aa card

[BD SM3RF]

Originally Posted by edwinm3

Some good info here, also FYI citi is giving 50k miles with their aa card

I took advantage of that offer some time back and have over 200k points but am having great difficulty finding flights that match my plans for which they will let me use the points

[BD SM3RF]

Originally Posted by ben1233

I've read (and seen analysis) that the 60 day rule generally only applies to US domestic routes. For International destinations (from the U.S. to Europe) the rule of thumb is actually 151 days out. Of course YMMV.

So that would mean Feb 4th would may be my best timing for a July 5th flight to Munich. I have been following flight pricing for several month and basically they are generally in 1,800-2,000 on economy fare.

At the end of the day I'm going to pay whatever it costs but I am interested in understanding how this works as a few more frequent trips to Europe is something I am interested in so I am very curious about the airfare pricing system/strategies.

Any thoughts on this GrussGott in terms of the 60 vs 151 days.

[IRNM4N]

we just started looking this week and surprisingly, Delta had great flights in economy for $1100 each (TPA-ATL-MCH then NICE-JFK-TPA). Upgraded to Economy comfort for not much more. My date is 4/27.

Originally Posted by ecleland

So that would mean Feb 4th would may be my best timing for a July 5th flight to Munich. I have been following flight pricing for several month and basically they are generally in 1,800-2,000 on economy fare.

At the end of the day I'm going to pay whatever it costs but I am interested in understanding how this works as a few more frequent trips to Europe is something I am interested in so I am very curious about the airfare pricing system/strategies.

Any thoughts on this GrussGott in terms of the 60 vs 151 days.

[BD SM3RF]

Originally Posted by IRNM4N

we just started looking this week and surprisingly, Delta had great flights in economy for $1100 each (TPA-ATL-MCH then NICE-JFK-TPA). Upgraded to Economy comfort for not much more. My date is 4/27.

Not bad at all. I suspect the difference is primarily APL vs JUL. where the best I have seen is about $1800

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by ecleland

So that would mean Feb 4th would may be my best timing for a July 5th flight to Munich. I have been following flight pricing for several month and basically they are generally in 1,800-2,000 on economy fare.

At the end of the day I'm going to pay whatever it costs but I am interested in understanding how this works as a few more frequent trips to Europe is something I am interested in so I am very curious about the airfare pricing system/strategies.

Any thoughts on this GrussGott in terms of the 60 vs 151 days.

ben1233 makes a good point ... in general what I"ll do is

(1.) find a baseline price with multiple month combinations from today (pick a tuesday if you want) - i.e., what does a flight to MUC cost 60 days from today? 151 days? etc. I'll check a bunch of time frames to find the low price.

(2.) check multiple city pairs & routes that may be near you. For example we flew SJC-LAX-JFK-CDG-MUC there and CDG-JFK-SFO back. This was both to use points and also to find the cheapest pairs & break up the trip. In general find the route/price you're comfy with and then forget worrying about price and focus on good times to come.

(3.) Check, re-check, re-check your flights/seats as the dates nears. Can't stress that enough: seat selection and route changes. One or both of these has happened every international trip we've taken.