Ticket price puzzle: Part 3

It's been another 7 weeks since I documented ticket prices, so I thought I'd give it another go even though I found the article about buying tickets in January. Once again, I used the dates of June 15 - July 1, and, well, ticket prices are holding stead at "way too high." But! The good news is that they came down just a smidge!

Prices, as of 8/4/10:
- LAX-Rome, Vienna-LAX: $1466.88
- LAX-Rome, Dublin-LAX: $1332.52
- LAX-Rome, Stockholm-LAX: $1432.00

Prices, as of 9/21/10:
- LAX-Rome, Vienna-LAX: $1406.64
- LAX-Rome, Dublin-LAX: $1331.62
- LAX-Rome, Stockholm-LAX: $1331.62
- LAX-Rome, Venice-LAX: $1418.51


Prices, as of today, 11/11/10:
- LAX-Rome, Vienna-LAX: $1386.54
- LAX-Rome, Dublin-LAX: $1311.16
- LAX-Rome, Venice-LAX: $1422.00
- LAX-Rome-LAX: $1294.20

These prices, for the first time since we started looking, are sort of encouraging! I also checked for the actual dates we're considering, and those prices haven't dropped nearly as much, but it's still something, right?

I removed Stockholm, because that's not an option anymore (neither is Vienna, technically, but I left that one in to have another comparison), and I added the round trip in and out of Rome to see if it's significantly cheaper enough to make it worthwhile.

To fly round trip to Rome instead of into Rome and out of Venice is currently $127.80 cheaper. Which, if you ask me, doesn't end up being worth it since the train from Venice to Rome is a little over $100, and you'd lose 1/2 a day of travel getting back to Rome from Venice. But still, it's nice to see the tickets a little lower than they have been.

Where I haven't seen a change, however, is in the price of the flight combination I have flagged on Kayak's site. I found a flight that was direct from LA to Rome, then did Dublin-Atlanta-LA on the way home, and it has been holding stead at $1540. WAY more than I'd like to spend on a ticket, but it would be nice to fly directly to Rome and have another 1/2 day not be eaten up by travel!

I'm still planning on buying tickets in January, unless there are some drastic drops in airfare around the holidays. I guess anything is possible, right?