Is this fare actually a deal?
You found a fare. This tells you whether it is any good — measured against 40 European cities priced from 26 US airports on one day, not against a rule of thumb.
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Enter a round-trip fare and we will tell you what it is worth against 40 European cities priced from 26 US airports on one day.
Why “under $500 is a deal” is bad advice
Every rule of thumb about transatlantic fares fails the same way: it ignores which city you are flying to. Our grid puts Stockholm at a $617 median across 26 US departure cities and Mykonos at $965. A $700 fare is poor to one and excellent to the other, and no round number can tell them apart.
So this checker does not use a threshold. It uses what we actually paid: 1,037 round trips priced in a single sitting, the cheapest one-week trip in the following six months for every combination of city and departure airport.
The second verdict is the one that matters
Pick your departure city and the bands recompute against that airport’s own fare. This is not a refinement — on a thin market it changes the answer completely.
Salt Lake City is the only one of our 26 gateways where noEuropean airline sells a ticket, and it pays a median of $918 on the routes it can price at all. New York has 23 European carriers competing and a $664 median. Judging a reader in Salt Lake City against New York’s fares would tell them, correctly and uselessly, that every fare they will ever see is bad. The question worth answering is whether this fare is good for them.
What the bands mean
- Exceptional — below the cheapest fare we recorded from any US airport. If the dates work, book it.
- Good — better than three quarters of the departure cities we priced.
- Ordinary — around the median. This is what the route costs.
- High — above the typical fare. Check another date, another arrival airport, or wait.
What it cannot tell you
The grid is a snapshot, collected in one sitting so that no two fares in it are compared across different weeks. That is what makes the comparison between cities trustworthy, and it is also the limit: it describes the market rather than today’s screen. Fares move, and the bands move with them at each monthly refresh.
It also prices economy round trips. A business fare will read as absurd against these bands — for that comparison, our business-class pages carry the separate grid.
If the answer is “high”
Three things worth trying before you accept it, in the order they usually pay. Check a nearby arrival city — Belfast costs $214 more than Dublin and they are two hours apart by coach. Check another departure airport, since the gap between the cheapest and dearest US gateway on the same city runs into the hundreds. And if your dates are flexible, watch the route rather than refreshing it.
This tool tells you whether a fare you have already found is good. It cannot tell you when the next one lands, and that is the half of the problem no amount of checking solves.
Common questions
- What counts as a good fare to Europe?
- It depends on the city and on where you are flying from, which is why a single number is useless. Stockholm's median across 26 US departure cities is $617 and Mykonos is $965 — so $700 is a poor fare to one and an excellent one to the other. This tool compares your fare against what we actually recorded for that city, and against your own airport where we priced it.
- How do you decide whether a fare is exceptional?
- Against observations, not a rule of thumb. Exceptional means below the cheapest fare we found from any of the 26 US airports we priced. Good means better than three quarters of them. Ordinary means around the median. High means above it. Choose your departure city and the bands are computed from that airport's own fare instead, which matters enormously in thin markets.
- Why does the verdict change when I pick my airport?
- Because the honest bar is different. Salt Lake City is the only one of our 26 gateways with no European airline selling it at all, and pays a median of $918 on the routes it can price. A fare that looks ordinary against the national picture can be excellent from there. Judging every reader against New York's fares would tell most of the country that every fare they will ever see is bad.
- Does a fare below your exceptional band mean nobody can beat it?
- No. It means it beat every US airport we checked on the day we collected, which is a strong signal and not a guarantee. Our grid is a snapshot: 1,037 round trips priced in a single sitting so that nothing is compared across weeks. Fares move, and the bands move with them on each monthly refresh.
- Should I book straight away when a fare is exceptional?
- If the dates work, generally yes. An exceptional fare by this measure is below anything we recorded from anywhere in the US, and the odds of it improving are worse than the odds of it disappearing. If the dates do not work, an exceptional fare is not a reason to change your trip — it is a reason to check whether a nearby date is close.
Written by
Jon Miksis
Jon Miksis has run travel businesses since 2017 and spends 3–6 months a year traveling, two to three of them in Europe. He has taken 250+ flights and booked every one himself, and regularly flies Boston to Europe for under $300 round trip. Every “Flown” review is from his own seat.
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