Still, with just a little legwork and research, you could save several hundred dollars on the price

First, the bad news: We're looking at yet another summer of very pricey flights to Europe. The good news? Relatively reasonable rates are available for travelers willing to take the time to seek them out.
Airfare has increased about 10 percent since last summer, which was already free international travel brochures one of the most expensive seasons in the past decade to fly to the Continent. Fewer departures and higher fuel costs are to blame, experts say.
"Since ample numbers of travelers are buying transatlantic airfares at these higher rates and seat inventory still is limited, the airlines feel no need to run any sales to attract more buyers," says Ann Lombardi, a travel consultant with The Trip Chicks in Atlanta.
Still, with just a little legwork and research, you could save several hundred dollars on the price of a ticket. In addition to the following tips, the best advice free international travel brochures we can offer is this: If an airline does happen to cut prices or offer a discount this summer, don't sit on it and wait for an even better fare. Whip your credit card out of your wallet and grab that deal. Given the way prices are looking this summer, periodic discounts won't last long.
Right now, trends seem to indicate that flights from the United States to Europe are cheapest in August (the later the date, the better). For instance, trips from the East Coast to Amsterdam are around $1,200 in June and July, with a brief dip in mid-July, and then hover around $1,000 in August. This is according to Bing Travel, which has a cool set of monitoring tools and airfare predictors to look at rates.
Unless there's a specific and unchangeable reason why you have to be in Europe on a certain free international travel brochures day, be flexible on your travel dates. Use a flight search site such as Kayak or TripAdvisor Flights and select the "flexible travel dates" option. For example: When I searched for a flight from D.C.'s Dulles International Airport to Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris during the first two weeks of July, the difference between the lowest and highest prices was $232.
However, keep in mind the additional costs that may come along with an earlier free international travel brochures departure or later return. Will you have to pay for additional hotel nights and meals, for example? Do the math to determine if leaving earlier or returning later would be worth it -- or if an earlier-than-planned return free international travel brochures home would save you even more money.
For the aforementioned Washington-to-Paris flight, free international travel brochures the lowest-priced flight was on a Wednesday. Mid-week flights tend to be cheaper across the board. Aim for Tuesday or Wednesday departures and returns.
free international travel brochures This rings especially true if you're planning free international travel brochures to go to central free international travel brochures or eastern Europe free international travel brochures -- flying to western European cities tends to be much cheaper, and then you can connect with flights on one of dozens free international travel brochures of European discount airlines. (Learn more about international discount airlines .)
London especially is one of the most affordable hubs in Europe, with a plethora of no-frills airlines -- easyJet and Ryanair among the longest-running, most popular and best priced. Frankfurt and Amsterdam are two others.
Let's say you're planning to spend a week in Germany. Flights from Boston to Berlin in mid-June are priced at $1,207 including taxes and fees, but flying from Boston to London is only $980. Using Skyscanner.net -- the best Web site to aggregate flights on Europe's discount airlines -- we turned up a rate of $78 roundtrip for Ryanair flights free international travel brochures between London and Berlin (and that's free international travel brochures expensive for Ryanair; we've seen rates as low as 20 bucks!).
Of course, there are a few caveats. free international travel brochures Flights from the United States usually land at London's Heathrow International Airport, while Ryanair flies out of Stansted Airport 65 miles away -- so you'll have to connect via shuttle bus and plan on extra travel time. And the budget airlines tend to have much stricter luggage weight limits and smaller maximum sizes for carry-on bags than the big airlines.
As in the tip above, maybe it's worthwhile to consider other airports besides the one closest to your house. Could you save a few hundred dollars by driving to Chicago for your departure instead of flying out of Milwaukee?
If a business focuses free international travel brochures solely on booking flights to Europe, you can bet they're working hard to line up inexpensive flights and land your business. One we like a lot is California-based Europebyair.com, which has partnerships with about a dozen airlines serving Europe and thus can broker discounted deals.
Even if you don't book your international flight through an outlet such as Europebyair.com, its Web site is definitely worth checking out for discounted flights within Europe. When we last checked, the company was offering $120 one-way flights between London and Athens.
You probably already receive the weekly e-mail blasts and special offers that airlines send out, but don't expect miracles from them; so many people receive them that it can be hard to nab a deal when it's available. Better yet is to track your desired flight paths through sites like FareCompare.com or MyAirDeals.com.
Things change at a moment's notice in the fast-paced, algorithmically driven business of determining airfare, and Twitter is a good place to keep up with it. A few feeds we've been following lately to monitor airfare include: @airfarewatchdog, @dealsonairfare, @traveldeals, @farecomparedeal and @myairdeals. (Don't forget to follow IndependentTraveler.com on Twitter  too!)
During past summers, you could cobble together free international travel brochures a do-it-yourself package deal by finding well-priced flights and matching them up with reasonable hotel and local transport options. This summer, because free international travel brochures of the high price of airline tickets, tour operator-offered package deals are a better way to go. This is especially true if you plan to fly into and out of different cities.
For example, a six-night trip to Italy, including New York-to-Rome and Venice-to-New York flights, six nights' hotel, breakfast, train fare between cities and hotel taxes, starts at $1,369 per person through EuropeanDestinations.com. free international travel brochures The flight alone costs $1,200 on Expedia; certainly six nights' worth of hotel accommodations alone will cost you more than $169.