I really appreciate sites that seek out, find and share great airfare deals.
Years back, the main site I found deals from was Airfare Watchdog through their Twitter account. Over the past bunch of years most would agree that the king of airfare deal sites would be The Flight Deal.
More recently, Secret Flying and Airfare Spot have shared deals.
With my school schedule, it can be challenging to take advantage of great fares but when sites post about summer travel deals, they definitely catch my attention.
With summer fast approaching, I’ve been thinking about where the Michael W Travels family should go. I’m thinking that we’ll do a short trip when the school year ends and then a much longer trip a couple of weeks later.
When airfare deals are tagged with summer travel, I’ll definitely check out those deals over others. However, in my opinion, one site likes to flag deals as summer when they’re not. I know this frustrates me a bit so I’m sure it must do the same for some of you.
Airfare Spot likes to post deals for late May into early to mid-June and call that summer availability.
I’m sorry but that is not the summer travel season.
Summer starts on June 21 this year. If a bargain flight needs to be taken before that date how is it summer travel???
Another thing I wondered was if I travel from my home destination before summer to a country where they are in the summer season, is that summer travel? I think it could be argued both ways.
When I pointed out (in a tweet) to Airfare Spot that end of May, beginning of June is not summer, they replied that “June is considered summer month in the northern hemisphere, even though the cal. summer starts on the June 20th. Still warm”
I then countered that it isn’t summer in NY and Europe. (The deal I was commenting on originated from NYC and went to Iceland and Switzerland.)
Airfare Spot then responded that “The summer months in Europe are June, July and August – Northern Hemisphere. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer“.
I understand that the exact dates and months for summer vary by country but I feel that a deal listed for summer travel should mean summer in the country where you are flying from…
I also searched Google to clarify the dates for summer:
I responded to Airfare Spot’s tweet by saying that “it could be argued either way for sure but anyone in NY will prob agree an airfare deal at end May is not summer“.
Airfare Spot’s final response was “There are dates at the beginning and mid of June. End of May are 29-31, which are basically June. Thanks for conversation“.
I’m sorry if I annoyed you Airfare Spot, but deals with dates like the ones mentioned above are not summertime. It’s SPRING!!! My guess is that a deal with summer availability gets more clicks so it makes sense to list deals this way.
What do you think? Does summer travel include the end of May until mid-June?
MW,
Based on what you have posted, can I assume you are an educator by profession?
When I think of Summer, I think of May – Aug. I see ads for Summer sale that starts around memorial day. So, I don’t see this ad as an odd one.
Though technically summer isn’t until June 21st, the summer travel season still begins late May. Most colleges are done with the semester and more commonly, the Memorial day weekend will signify the start of the travel season.
Would you have the same issue with not advertising Early September sales as “Summer” even though technically it isn’t until the 21st? High schools and colleges have generally started by then, even though the scientific end of summer isn’t until Sept 21…
Ric Garrido- Interesting points. It seems as though most of the deals to Europe seem to end around mid- June! But like you mention, some do appear again in mid- August.
David Brown- Fair enough, thanks!
I am from the US and believe that “summer” is generally recognized as Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. This is widely supported by the numerous media stories every Memorial Day weekend about the start of summer. In my opinion, late May to early September is fair to be classified as “summer”.
When it comes to airfare to Europe, June is basically summer peak season rates.
At least by June 10-15 fares generally rise significantly in ticket price from nearly all USA.
On the other hand, fares drop again in mid-August between Aug 10-20 for travel to Europe. Late August fares are similar price to May fares.
I don’t think of September as summer travel in terms of airfare. I tend to travel to Europe in September, technically summer by the season calendar and generally shoulder season by the airfare ticket price calendar.
September offers the best of both calendars.
Guy- Good point, some might consider those holidays as the summer.
JEM- It’s funny how you mention that public schools have summer breaks starting in early June. The deals I am talking about originate from NYC where public school ends on June 28.
Henry LAX- People can certainly use whatever they want to define the start of summer. Does it mean that it’s correct- no.
I don’t see how using summer solstice or some kid’s school calendar makes a definitive definition of summer. FYI many Americans use Memorial Day to delineate the start of summer.
I think you’re both technically correct and way too pedantic. Only meteorologists use solstices and equinoxes to tell the seasons.
Throughout the US , public schools have their “summer break” starting in early June. Many, many colleges break for the summer in May.
How do you feel about kids going back to school in the fall – even though it’s summer through Sep 21?
And in both NY and northern Europe, winter weather often starts long before Dec 21.
I’ve seen a lot of people culturally treat Memorial Day to Labor Day as the “Summer season”.
mwwalk- Thanks for sharing! I am curious to hear what others think.
Just my opinion but I tend to think of summer as middle of May to middle of August because that’s what coincides with my school schedule.