Summer 2024 hasn't officially begun, but it's already shaping into one of the busiest – and cheapest – travel seasons in recent memory.
Last year was the first full summer of “normal” travel in years, especially for international trips. This summer could easily top that. According to the Transportation Security Administration, five of the 10 busiest travel days at U.S. airports have occurred in the last two weeks alone. That's right: Half of the top 10 busiest days at U.S. airports in history happened this month…and we're not even into summer yet, where travel will certainly ramp up even more.
All that travel demand typically means flight prices will be through the roof, but some unusual trends have emerged this year.
When it comes to cheap summer flights, our Thrifty Traveler Premium team starts searching right when the calendar opens 11 months out, and that's usually when we find some of the best flight deals, too. But the flight deals for peak summer travel never stopped…and in some cases, they've gotten even better as we get closer to June. In just the last few weeks, we've sent our subscribers a $135 roundtrip mistake fare to Dublin for June, business class flights to Paris (CDG) during the Summer Olympics for 50,000 points each way, and cheap roundtrip flights to some of the most popular U.S. spots for summer vacations like Disney World, national parks, and more.
All this got us thinking: Is this the best summer for travel…ever?
The Cheapest Summer Flights We've Ever Seen
Most years, your best bet for a cheap summer flight is booking way, way in advance – we're talking August or September the year before, especially if you're looking to go to Europe or other popular summer vacation destinations. The same goes for using points and miles. After that, you have to wait until a few months before summer when some late August fares typically tend to get cheap.
June and July? Forget about it. That's the peak summer travel season when airlines know everyone wants to fly and therefore charge outrageous economy prices just because they can.
As soon as summer flights are bookable, we start searching for them and sending out flight deals to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members. Most years, we encounter the challenge I just described above. But this year, we started finding summer 2024 flights 10 months ago…and we never stopped.
So, why is this happening? The past two summers have been nothing short of chaos in the skies. Two years ago, as pandemic restrictions lifted in the U.S., everyone started flying domestically again. To meet that demand, airlines added flights and increased capacity flying all over the country.
It was the same situation last summer but with Europe. Everyone was eager to take that trip to Europe they put off during the pandemic, so airlines added more flights and new routes across the Atlantic. Many major U.S. carriers are flying their largest schedules ever this summer. Delta says it's flying roughly 6% more domestic and international seats compared to 2023, with a handful of new routes to destinations worldwide. American Airlines, too, says it's flying more seats than any other summer, with a 10% increase in departures compared to last year.
All those extra seats mean airlines have had to discount fares to fill those planes. It's an over-capacity problem for the airlines, not for the rest of us!
Just this morning we found more flight deals for June, July, and August flying to some of the most popular travel destinations. It's been a wild spring of incredibly cheap summer airfare. Here's what we're talking about.
Cheap Peak Summer Flights to Europe
Just last week, we found the granddaddy of them all: A mistake fare to Dublin, Ireland (DUB) from just $135 roundtrip!
Join Thrifty Traveler Premium to get an alert the next time we find a mistake fare like this!
We dug up these stunning fares just about a month before the trip was set to depart. “Last-minute” and “peak summer” are two phrases that don't go in the same sentence in normal times.
It didn't stop there, though. A few days later, we rounded up all of the June, July, and August cheap flights to Iceland in this exceptional deal for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members. Late June and July in Iceland is the best time to visit, weather-wise, but it's also when you'll experience the “midnight sun” where the sun never really sets completely. You could start a hike at 10 p.m. and do it all in the sunlight.
It's not unusual to find low fares to Iceland in late August, but these peak summer flights were even lower than the typical shoulder season rates. The pricing for Europe fares is upside down right now, and that's great news for our subscribers!
Unprecedented Business Class Award Space
For travelers looking to use their hard-earned points and miles to go abroad this summer, there's more good news.
Business class award space – seats you can actually book with points and miles – flying to Europe has never been more abundant than it is right now. Seriously. So far in May, we've sent Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers more than 10 flight deals for lie-flat business class seats to Europe this summer, including:
- Flying JetBlue Mint Suites to Western Europe for under 78,000 points each way
- London (LHR) and Paris (CDG) in American Airlines business class 62,000 AA miles each way
- Aer Lingus Business Class to Ireland and England from 45,000 points each way
- Condor Business Class to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) from 55,000 miles each way
- Emirates Business Class to Milan, Italy (MXP) from 87,000 miles each way
- Air France Business Class to nonstop Paris (CDG) from Quebec, Canada or onward to elsewhere in Europe for just 38,000 points each way
And, of course, this outstanding unicorn fare flying to Paris (CDG) and Amsterdam (AMS) for just 50,000 Flying Blue miles each way.
You can transfer credit card points from American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and even Wells Fargo to Flying Blue, meaning you might have these miles and not even know it!
This was the most availability to fly Air France or KLM business class to Europe that we've seen, especially during peak summer during the Olympics.
We've been noticing it for months, but it's more clear than ever: The best value for flying to Europe this summer is in lie-flat business class.
Historically, business class has been targeted at business travelers who travel less in the summer months and around the holidays. Therefore, business class fares rise and drop opposite to economy fares, which are targeted more at vacationers and leisure travelers.
The pandemic changed things, but now business travel is returning, meaning the usual backward business class fare calendar is back! And with more flights flying abroad than before, airlines are still trying to fill those seats for peak summer by making more of them available to book with points.
Read next: Want to Fly to Europe This Summer? Think Business Class, Not Economy
Domestic Flight Deals Are Sticking Around, Too!
You don't have to go to Europe to snag a sweet deal for this summer though. The trend of cheap fares for peak summer flights is in full force in the U.S., too, and not just to places no one wants to go.
The U.S. has some incredible national parks, and summer is arguably the best – and most popular – time to visit. And outside many of those parks are airports…with cheap flights!
Read our guide to visiting the U.S. national parks!
This flight deal roundup from a few weeks ago could kickstart your national parks trip for just a drop in the bucket.
Orlando (MCO) and its plethora of theme parks is a popular vacation spot when school's out. And thanks to Delta SkyMiles flash sales, you don't need many miles at all to fly the whole family down there.
With a Delta Amex card, you could fly down to Florida and back for as few as 8,000 SkyMiles!
Finally, we'll head even further west out to Hawaii. Who wouldn't want a late summer last hurrah trip over to Maui, the Big Island, or Oahu, especially for less than $200 roundtrip?
Prices like these on flights that long are exactly what you need to make your Hawaiian Island retreat affordable in 2024.
It's truly the best summer we've ever seen for cheap flights – no matter where you want to go. But there are some logistics to keep in mind if you're taking to the skies over the next few months.
The Summer of Challenging Travel Logistics Looms
I mentioned it earlier, but it's worth repeating here: Five of the top 10 busiest days at U.S. airports have happened in the last two weeks…and it's not even officially summer yet!
Friday, May 24 was the busiest day in the history of U.S. airports with close to 3 million passengers being screened at checkpoints across the country. The third, sixth, eighth, and ninth-busiest days also fell in the last two weeks.
Before this month, the other busiest travel days came in June, July, or around Thanksgiving. It's safe to say that trend will continue this year. In fact, we could see this top 10 list filled exclusively with 2024 dates in just a few weeks.
While we don't have security screening data abroad, it's fair to expect that travelers and airports overseas are going to feel a similar pinch. All at once this summer, the Paris Olympics, the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany (International soccer tournament), the Tour de France in Italy and France, and many, many more attractions will have travelers from every continent descending on Europe's largest cities all at once.
Bottom line: Airports are going to be incredibly busy this summer. Arrive extra early, pack your patience, and use all of the travel tools at your disposal like TSA PreCheck or Global Entry.
See our tips to travel like a pro this summer!
Getting around in Europe might be slightly trickier, too. The Times of London says it expects strikes to affect air travel in the U.K. and public transportation in France this coming summer, although it's not known exactly when such disruptions might occur.
And finally, there's the heat. Europe – especially the southern half – has dealt with record-breaking heat waves over the past few summers, according to data from Copernicus. Unlike North America, air conditioning is more scarce in Europe than you might be used to, making those weeklong heat waves even more dangerous.
The New York Times quoted a climate scientist and meteorologist whose computer models predicted, “another unusually hot summer,” that should be worst in July and August. Greece, Croatia, and Italy, he said, should see the worst of the stifling heat as usual.
Of course, the heat isn't a deal-breaker for some travelers, but if you want to beat the heat, follow where the best flight deals are anyway and head north to Scandinavia. The heat is significantly less of an issue for countries like Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. It's not terribly hot in the Alps (Austria and Switzerland), Germany, Ireland, and the Baltics, either.
Is This the Best Summer For Travel Ever?
With all that in mind, let's return to our initial question: Is this the best summer of travel ever?
While the cheap flights can get you almost anywhere this summer (still!), what awaits some travelers may be less than perfect. Does that mean you should cancel your trip? Absolutely not. But taking a cautious approach to travel and thinking through these possibilities is important if you're taking advantage in 2024.
So, is this the best summer of travel ever? It is shaping up to be that way, and I think when it's all said and done, it will be.
Airlines, hotels, transportation, and the entire travel ecosystem have learned a lot of hard lessons from the last few summers coming out of the pandemic. Airlines and airports have upped staffing and capacity, and many tourist hotspots have systems in place now to manage crowding.
In short: This busy summer in both North America and Europe is expected at this point, so nobody and no entity should be surprised by it.
Will there be lines, delays, and some frustration along the way? Absolutely. That's part of travel. But with flight prices and award availability being where they are right now and the door still wide open for fares to stay low, summer 2024 will be one to remember.
Bottom Line
Over the past few months, we've seen some of the cheapest and best flight deals ever for June, July, and August and unlike this time in previous years, they don't show any sign of stopping.
With cheap flights, more capacity, big international events, and increasing travel demand, summer 2024 is in prime position to be the biggest for travel yet.