=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/06/12/f= inancial1113EDT0075.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, June 12, 2003 (AP) Airfares to Europe soar ELEENA DE LISSER, and (06-12) 08:13 PDT (AP) -- RON LIEBER The Wall Street Journal With the airline industry flailing, Kate Aiken was looking forward to lo= ts of options on low-priced tickets to Italy this summer. What she got instead was sticker shock. Last week, Ms. Aiken did an exhaustive fare search, combing through four travel Web sites and calling the reservation line of one carrier. The result: The best she could do was a whopping $850. "I was expecting more of a buyer's market," says the New York communications executive, who wound up buying the ticket. When airlines began rolling out low fares to Europe a few months ago, ma= ny travelers decided to take a gamble. Convinced all the red ink in the industry would force carriers to drop their prices more, they held off booking tickets. But procrastinators are in for a surprise: Airlines may be struggling, but the deals are doing a disappearing act. Back in February, British Airways was selling a Los Angeles-to-London roundtrip ticket for $198. That same ticket has since soared to $1,038. In March, a Philadelphia-to-Paris roundtrip on US Airways was going for $300. Now, it will set you back $809. Summer, of course, is the most popular time for Americans to jet off to Europe, and ticket prices always rise as June nears. But this year is unusual. One difference is that fares began their ascent from an artificially low base. Airlines had to offer deeper-than-normal price cuts to counteract the long list of consumer travel fears, from terrorism to war in Iraq to the weak economy. Now, having passed up those deals, travelers are having a tough time finding bargains, in part because there are fewer seats on the market. Many airlines -- looking to stanch their losses -- have cut capacity on their U.S.-Europe routes by as much as 20 percent from the past year. That means less supply just as more people are starting to shop for overseas trips again. For travelers, capacity can be just as important a factor as overall ticket prices. In fact, prices on tickets to Europe are cheaper now than they were this time last year -- by 15 percent on average, according to Harrell Associates, an airfare consulting firm. But in many cases those seats are selling out as soon as they are posted. The next best prices can be $100 or $200 more, says Geoff Silvers, director of marketing for the travel Web site Orbitz. That doesn't mean Barcelona on a budget is out of the question this year. Some carriers are gradually adding back flights or switching to larger planes, which frees up additional seats. US Airways recently resumed service between Pittsburgh and London's Gatwick airport and Frankfurt. UAL Corp.'s United Airlines added more service between Chicago and Amsterdam, and Washington, D.C., and London. Beginning next month, Delta Air Lines will add another four flights a week between Atlanta and Frankfurt. Broadening your search to include Asian carriers and smaller European airlines can also sometimes scare up low-priced tickets. Tap Air Portugal, which Americans might typically overlook, was recently offering a roundtrip fare of $432 between New York and Barcelona. In an attempt to get SARS-wary passengers back on its planes, Singapore Airlines launched a $99 each-way fare sale on May 25 between the New York City area and Amsterdam or Frankfurt. Those seats are already sold out, but the airline continues to announce new promotions. As of Wednesday, it had a roundtrip New York-to-Amsterdam ticket for $471. As the bargains dry up, some people are giving up on Europe. Francophiles Alan Deutschman and his girlfriend had hopes of sampling some Paris bistros this month. But after failing to find tickets for less than $1,300 each, they've shifted gears. Their new destination: Mendocino County, Calif., just north of San Francisco. But with domestic travel on the rise, even finding deals within the U.S. can be challenging. Focusing on routes where low-cost carriers are fueling fare competition helps. Southwest Airlines, for example, has a roundtrip Baltimore-to-Las Vegas flight, for travel in mid-July, for $208. If you aren't finding reasonable prices from your home airport, try the next closest one. Delta Air Lines is charging $388 for a Cincinnati-to-Las Vegas ticket, but the fare falls to $148 out of Louisville, Ky., which is just over an hour's drive from Cincinnati. It will cost you $528 to fly Continental from Dallas to Acapulco, Mexico, but only $228 if you leave from Houston. Asia is also an option for those willing to venture there. Singapore Airlines Wednesday announced $249 roundtrip fares from New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles to Singapore. The airline said about 2,000 economy-class seats would be available at that price. Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific is selling an "All Asia Pass" for $699, down from the original $999. It includes roundtrip airfare from New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco to any of the 17 Asian cities on the Cathay Pacific network, like Jakarta, Osaka and Bangkok. This quest for "that real travel steal, not just a good deal" may now be causing consumers to overlook reasonable prices, says Amy Ziff, a Travelocity.com executive who deals with market research. As a rough gauge, she says, airfares to western Europe from the East Coast of between $650 to $800 aren't bad for peak summer travel. Anything above $800 and travelers should play with the dates, destinations or airports to see if they can get something better, she says. Another option for squeaking out better prices is to look for an airfare to London, where more competition between carriers means greater capacity. Once on the continent, travelers could travel by rail or arrange ahead of time to book flights on a low-cost European carrier like Ryanair or easyJet. That's what New York recruiter Sunny Bates intends to do. She is determined to find a way to drop her daughter, Lola, at science camp in the south of France without breaking the bank. On Travelocity, the cheapest Paris flight she found for late July was $770. An hour later, it was even more. Finally, she jumped at a $440 flight on United to London instead. "I wanted to lock and load on the airfare," she says. Now, they need to buy train tickets to France. Unfortunately, she probably won't save any money on hotel rooms when she gets there. While room rates in Europe are down about 8 percent from last year -- in London, they're down 14 percent -- those savings has been eclipsed by the roughly 20 percent appreciation of the euro against the dollar. The Cheap Seats Flying to Rome can set you back well over $800. For some cheaper options: * Check smaller European airlines and Asian carriers * Fly to London and take a low-cost European carrier to your final destination * Fly in or out of "alternate" airports * Consider an air/hotel package deal Summer Escapes Finding cheap airfares may take extra effort this year. Here's a sampling of current bargains. International ROUTE: New York to Amsterdam FARE: $460 CARRIER: Delta Air Lines ROUTE: Houston to Vancouver FARE: $228 CARRIER: American Airlines ROUTE: Boston to Dublin FARE: $626 CARRIER: Lufthansa ROUTE: New York to London FARE: $570 CARRIER: British Airways Domestic ROUTE: Los Angeles to Honolulu FARE: $482 CARRIER: Hawaiian Airlines ROUTE: New York to Orlando FARE: $145 CARRIER: Delta Air Lines ROUTE: Tampa to Los Angeles FARE: $206.50 CARRIER: AirTran Airways ROUTE: Baltimore to Las Vegas FARE: $193 CARRIER: Northwest Note: All tickets are roundtrip fares =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP