Cheap Summer Flights to Europe are Sticking Around…For Now

Travel demand to Europe exploded last summer, leading to eye-popping airfare upwards of $1,500 a ticket for many travelers. We thought we’d see more of the same this year, but cheap summer flights to Europe are hanging on in 2024. 

We’ve seen it again and again over the last month – and so have our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers. We’ve found airfare sales from airports big and small (nearly all 200-plus airports in the U.S. and Canada we search, in fact) to Europe for June, July, and especially August. We’ve found roundtrip economy fares in the $400s, and even found wide-open nonstop business class flights to and from the U.S., too. Plus, these deals are flying to places like Paris, Zurich, and Rome, so you’re not sacrificing a popular destination for a great fare, either. 

Deals this good rarely last long – as summer draws closer, we’re likely to see the cheap rates evaporate entirely. But for now, flight prices don’t get much better than this. It’s somehow not too late to plan your 2024 Eurotrip – and we’re here to help.

Let’s take a spin across the continent and see just how cheap flights to Europe can get for a trip later this year.
 

Cheap Summer Flights to Europe

If you want to find yourself on one of these flights, aim for August. From about the second week of August on, airlines are periodically slashing fares flying across the Atlantic. 

Take, for example, Paris. The city on the Seine is hosting the 2024 Olympic Games this July and early August, but once the games are over, airfare gets super cheap. 

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These fares in the $500s were gobbled up by our subscribers, but luckily, a few days later, we found another inexpensive way to Europe. 

We find flight deals from 200+ airports in the U.S. and Canada!

This Ireland deal had close to 200 U.S. and Canadian airports on it, but the lucky travelers in Boston (BOS), Minneapolis (MSP), New York (JFK), and Newark (EWR) saw peak summer availability. In cities like Minneapolis, there was even some rare June availability! 

This is a trend we saw continue with these fares to Switzerland flying Icelandair, too. 

One quick stop in Reykjavik (KEF) could send you on to Geneva (GVA) or Zurich (ZRH) from all of the cities listed above during August. Consider that August flights to the Swiss Alps are typically in the $1,000 – $1,200 range. 

The same goes for summertime flights to Croatia…usually. This time around we found a handful of trips from Chicago (ORD) to Zagreb (ZAG) in the $500s roundtrip in August. 

If you wanted to go to Athens (ATH), you’d have to settle for September or October, but these Zagreb flights were the real sweet spot of this deal. 

Of course, better than paying $587 roundtrip for your summertime flight to Europe is just paying the taxes and fees instead. That’s what you get when you use your points and miles, and perhaps no points and miles are better for booking Europe flights than Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles. Better yet, Flying Blue is a transfer partner of all the major banks: American Express, Bilt, Chase, Capital One, Citi, and Wells Fargo.

From these three Air France and KLM hubs, you could fly to Europe this summer for just 30,000 miles roundtrip! Save your cash and use those hard-earned points instead. 

Cheap Premium Economy & Biz Class Flights to Europe

There’s doing whatever you can to get to Europe this summer, and there’s getting there in style. Let’s explore that side of things, shall we? 

The first step beyond a cheap economy deal to Europe is premium economy, the wider, plusher seats in between business class and economy with better service and amenities. Luckily Air France and KLM have lovely premium economy options that you can also book for a huge bargain using points.  

  These deals are gone – get the next alert in your inbox with Thrifty Traveler Premium!

These fares are all roundtrip, too! If you don’t have enough points for business class but still want a little comfort, this is the best course of action. 

But if you do have the points, sitting all the way up front is what it’s all about. And nobody does the front of the plane like Emirates. 

Emirates business class – including its ridiculous (yet awesome) onboard bar – can be booked between New York (JFK) and Milan, Italy (MXP) nonstop for just 87,000 Emirates Skywards miles each way. If you have points from Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, or Citi, you can transfer them to Emirates to get the miles you need.

If you have some Alaska or American miles instead, American also released hundreds of lie-flat business class seats flying to and from Europe this summer. 

As you can see, American opened up availability on nearly every one of its transatlantic routes, an unheard-of release of business class award space to Alaska and American miles holders. 

Use those points and miles! They’re not getting any more valuable and there are some spectacular ways to redeem them for travel this summer. 

Amazing Fall Fares to Europe, Too!

Finally, for those willing to wait until shoulder season – September, October, or even November – to travel, there are some serious savings to be had. 

This flight deal flying American Airlines to Nice, France (NCE) on a new route from Philadelphia (PHL) with connections from all over the U.S. was a stunner. If you can wait until September to travel, there’s almost no way to get to the French Riviera for cheaper than this! 

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But the deals haven’t stopped there. Nice was just the latest one, but these fares to Italy during fall (including Thanksgiving) might be the greatest. 

Ditto for these cheap, roundtrip flights to London (LHR, LGW) for travel this fall. With fares getting close to $900 or $1,000 in August, these September and October fares are about half-off. 

Copenhagen (CPH) is a dreamy summer destination. The Nordic nations know how to do winter, but they celebrate the warm, long summer days like nobody else can. 

These cheap flights to Copenhagen on Icelandair were phenomenal not only because you can get to Denmark, but because you can stop in Iceland on the way there or back with a free Icelandair stopover! 

Bottom Line

Flight prices to get to Europe this summer and fall have been dropping. But summer deals like these don’t last long: Time is running out to book low fares (or amazing points deals) before they disappear in June, July, and August. 

But for now, the deals just keep coming. From deeply discounted nonstop economy fares to ultra-rare business class points deals, Thrifty Traveler Premium members are getting email alerts almost every day alerting them to cheaper flights all over Europe.