Paris air travel - 2013

Sorry to be a pest on this board, but my wife and I have locked in June, 2012 for our return to Paris after my 35-year absence. I'm now looking at about $1450 r/t per person. Are there any times between now and then where the prices have historically come down significantly - if only for a few days? Is this about normal for the JFK/EWR/BOS to CDG routing. Montreal and Philadelphia could be options as well for us.

Thanks.

The expensive airfare is due to summer travel, everyone goes at this time. Demand is greater. JFK will probably have the best fees, hopefully it will go down.

kenmoore,

My guess is your plans are for June, 2013, not 2012.

I recommend you set up an alert on Kayak.com and they will they will watch the flights and send you an email. (Probably more than you want, but you will get alerts)

Defintely plan for Mid-week travel to Europe or Saturday.
Stay away from Friday, Sunday, and Monday. Those are the heavy business people days and are always packed.

Do not rule out Iceland Air or Air Lingus they can offer some great specials.

The other thing to consider if cost is a major factor. Fly into Gatwick in London or Brussels in Belgium and catch the train. Paris can be expensive to fly into.

There also small European airline called Flybe, that I have used that is wonderful. Take a look there and you may be able to fly in Dublin and catch Flybe to Bordeaux for example. Drink a little wine and then head to Paris on the train. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Bottom line there are a lot options, and do not rule out other cities. Mass transportation in Europe is too easy not to consider other destinations.

Have fun planning.

We flew into CDG on 6/11/12 and out of the Nice back to Chicago on 6/25. We paid $2750. Pretty close to where you are for your fare next June. I hunted around for a long time for the best deal we could find and this was it.

It was about 100 bucks more than one other R/T deal I found, but we were able to get a direct flight from O'Hare into CDG and we thought it was worth the extra money.

So from where I sit, you're doing OK.

Alan,

The airfare you quoted was that for per person or two?

For the blonde and me. Through Orbitz. I was looking around all over the place for the best deal I could find and suddenly, there was this R/T deal on Orbitz and it was the only non-stop deal between ORD and CDG I ever found. We had to take a 2 stop back but it was worth it not to have to worry about our luggage being in Paris when we got there. Last time we flew to Europe in 2010, we were delayed into Frankfurt because we had to fly up north around the Eyjafjallajökull cloud. Between Lufthansa and the Florence airport people it took two days to get our stuff. Not what ya want outbound.

Since I posted I actually found my notes and there were a couple of flights, one stop each way, for $1305 each. We could have booked direct with American I think, but we took this one through Orbitz. Out on United, back on Swiss Air through Zurich and Montreal. Nice ride out on a 777.

Just looked on Icelandair web page and you can fly from Boston to Paris for about $950 including taxes next June. I think that is the time period kenmoore (the original poster) was looking to go.

Fares have really skyrocketed in tha last year or 2. In 2010 we paid about $900 for JFK-CDG r/t, and last May/June we paid $1325. (Got 1 ticket on award miles).

The old rules don't seem to apply anymore, mid week, off season, etc. It's all hit and miss. Waiting is risky as well, the prices could go up, never to go back!

Basically, just go for it.

We've just booked non-stop to CDG with Air Transat out of Toronto,end of May returning first part of June for $1713.00 including taxes, 2 adults/return.
It's probably even cheaper out of Montreal because that's where AT is based.
Check it out. www.airtransat.com
<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />