By this time in November last year, there were discount fares from California to Europe for winter travel. There has not been a good Europe-wide fare sale since August. There were two sales in August for travel into December.
Then, the sales on USA to Europe routes stopped. I have not seen a good value Europe sale for routes outside Scandinavia since August 14. By good value, I mean when fares drop below $700 round trip from California to Europe. There has been one or two cities with low fares, mostly eastern Europe or Spain.
Back in spring 2015, I did several articles on low summer fares to Europe from Canada. The dearth of low fares for USA to Europe winter travel had me looking north of the border again, and there are all kinds of low fares to Europe from Canada. Frankfurt, London and Paris for under $600 round trip from Toronto. Some good deals from Vancouver too.
Google Flights Toronto YYZ – Europe Feb 13-21, 2016 shows many airports under $600 USD round trip.
- Riga $484
- Oslo $491
- London $540
- Paris $544
- Stockholm $565
- Copenhagen $571
- Porto $572
- Milan $580
- Lisbon $587
- Dublin $589
- Marseilles $595
- Rome $607
- Edinburgh $630
- Frankfurt $641
New York JFK currently has comparable fares to many of these cities with a big Icelandair sale for travel from JFK to Europe.
The difference in fares from west coast are more noticeable.
American Airlines Vancouver YVR – Dallas DFW – Paris CDG
$564 USD Monday February 15 – Tuesday February 23
Fly from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Paris and you will pay hundreds of dollars more.
San Francisco – Paris CDG is $1,139 to fly United or Air France. There is a $965 round trip fare flying JetBlue to Boston or Virgin America to JFK and Icelandair to Paris.
Los Angeles offers lower priced flights to Europe, especially on some routes like London where Norwegian Airlines flies.
LAX-CDG $914 fare is a combination Air New Zealand LAX-LHR and Air France or British Airways. Since they are itineraries with different alliances, there is not an online booking option. Aeroflot has a lower fare at $833 round trip flying via Moscow. Aeromexico is $966 flying via Mexico City.
Canada is an alternative for low fare travel to Europe. The ticket price to get to Vancouver or Toronto or a round trip miles award USA to Canada can mean a ticket price difference in hundreds of dollars.
Loyalty Traveler curated Airfare Deals and Google Flights tutorials.
