I came across a feature on the web recently that you might be interested in learning more about. Quite simply it is called Daily Low Fare History. What you do is to go to the website
Daily Low Fare History and do a search on the fight you want to get pricing and travel dates about.

For example, since I live in Colorado, I am always looking for flights between Denver and Italy. In my case I did a search on a flight from DEN (Denver, CO) and FCO (Rome, Italy - Fiumicino Airport). At the top of the listing was a hyper link, just above the price, that said, "Details and fare history". The price that I saw when doing my search was $569 for a trip between March 15th and March 22.

I clicked on the link for "Details and fare history", and learned that this price was a 98 day low price. What's interesting is that it gives backward pricing. So you can see what the prices were over the last three months. I liked that because the dates that were included in the fare history went from September 17th through December 31st.

I like Italy best in the fall starting in mid September. It is not tourist season, the days are warm (55º - 78ºF) and the nights cool (48º - 60ºF). I usually take a sweater for evenings, but always wonder why I took it. That's how nice it is. There are no crowds at any of the attractions. And prices for rooms and meals are generally lower than in the spring or summer.

The price on September 17th from Denver to Rome was $699 and went up $820 on September 28th. Then it dipped down starting on October 3rd to $656 for just about the whole month of October.

What is nice about this feature is that you can use it to plan your trips in advance. Since I like mid September, I might want to start checking on air fares this in March or April for September rates. I know that historically the rate for September 17th is $699. So that becomes my air fare rate to beat.

Another feature is you can have the web site send you alerts on the fare so that if prices go up or down, you can get an e-mail about it. This is nice if you are flexible about when you can travel and want to get the best deal and are not fussy about when you go.

Another thing to consider. I have always heard that the rates to London from the States are very reasonable and that you can take a flight on RyanAir to a lot of places that the major carriers down't travel to. I have to tell you that I have never been able to make that work out price wise for me.

When you go to Daily Low Fare History you can do two searches and you'll see what the rate is for a fare from your first pick, which was Denver to Italy and then see what the farte would be from Denver to the UK. In just about every case, the fare to Italy was lower than trying to get to the UK and then having to book from there to Italy. Your results might be different if you live on the East Coast in the States.

All in all this is a great website to keep in your travel favorites in your browser of choice.

Despite the economy I hope you are travelling and enjoying yourself. Until next time, let me know what is on your mind, and how you are doing, O.K.?

Jim Fortune - the Bella Budget Travel Guy