Talk about Frustrating!
The fares this year haev been INCREDIBLY OVERPRICED compared to the past 6 years. I guess Europe is a hot spot and the airlines see no need to lower their fares to a reasonable range. As long as people continue to pay this outrageous fares, the prices won’t come down. My guess is that sometime in the next couple of months the airlines will see that they have a lot of empty seats on their planes and then the feeding frenzy will begin(hopefully). Until then, you can either bite the bullet and purchase a ticket that is $400-600 more than last year…. or wait… in hopes that lower fares will come!
I’m not going until September but I still get pissed off everytime I check flights and find the best fares well over $1200 and then see the lowest fare is British Air with a 9 hour layover in London, arriving in Athens at 230am in the morning and then returning with an itinerary that requires you to spent another 100-200 euro on a hotel(plus transportation, food and expenses!)
So far the best you can probably do is find a less expensive(not inexpensive) flight to Europe and then continue from there using one of the strategies I’ve posted at GreeceFlights.com
So far, my strategy is to wait until the fares come down. I have some miles that I can get a flight from RDU to Athens(Sept 8-22) for $82 dollars, but the companion ticket through the airlines(Delta/Olympic) is about $1100(Still WAY out of line for those dates!)
If I have to wait a year before going, I probably will….but I feel like I’m paying ransome to desparate airlines struggling on their last legs! I’m pretty sure that with their horrible fininacial status and teetering on the verge of bankruptcy and extinction, I can hold out longer than they can!