WASHINGTON — If you’re looking for a last-minute way to get away with the bit of summer that’s left, CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg says your time has come.
With many kids getting back to school before Labor Day rather than afterward, he tells WTOP, airfares are coming down seriously, beginning this weekend.
“You’ll start seeing airfares coming down … all across the board, anywhere in the United States,” he says. “Check the websites to see those fare deals come in.”
He says that once the discounts hit, “the numbers are pretty drastic,” even more so in Europe, where the recent 30 percent drop in the euro has made travel to 19 euro countries more affordable than ever.
What’s happening, he says, is that thanks to the drop in euro, “for the first time, Europeans can’t afford to come here.” So the flights that can take you to the continent — which are usually ferrying Europeans back home from U.S. trips — have lots of empty seats.
Greenberg adds that while it’s a great time to check the travel websites, that doesn’t mean you should buy your tickets there.
“You research online, and then [book] the old-fashioned way: Pick up the phone and talk to a human being.
“The biggest myth out there is that all the available inventory is on the web; it’s not.”
Only about 51 percent of the available travel — “what the travel providers choose to put on the web” — shows up. So the time you spend on hold will be well worth it.
