HOW FAR IN ADVANCE TO BUY AIRLINE TICKETS TO PARIS

Generally depends on flexibility but
www.xl.com best prices I have been finding recently
cheapoair.com farecompare.com(great booking tips) kayak.com/buzz also great comp sites
If you want to risk it and can be flexible
the majors do drop fares in August put things on sale
IF demand is poor. AA.com has AAdvantage CC you can get free
off-peak flights over the pond my wife and I just did.

Happy Hunting!

I would not buy tickets just yet. I would start watching the fares, and you will see how they go up and down. I watch them nearly everyday, when I know I need to book a ticket. After seeing how the prices fluctuate, you can then decide what your price point is. When you see the fare you like, buy it. I usually buy tickets about two months out. Sometimes I see lower fares after buying.... oh well. If you start watching them, you will see how they change. There really is no BEST time to buy.

I'm looking to buy tickets to Paris for July 2012 from BOS. The fares are high, of course, it's high season. I can't bring myself to purchase yet. Does anyone have experience with summer airfares and when or if the prices start to be on "sale"?

The first two weeks in December are usually a slow time as everyone travels during Thanksgiving and then starting around the 15th.

The industry is changing so much that plans based on historic data are no longer much use.

Sales are an exception to normalcy, but one cannot predict with certainty when or if any airline will have a sale. Sales also usually limit the dates in which you can fly, so a summer sale would probably not include flights in winter.

My feeling is that there are bad times to buy, and those are far in advance of the flight, and at the last minute (say a month before the flight, when availability diminishes and prices increase.

Violating my own rules, I bought a ticket three weeks ago for a flight in August, when I discovered that Continental was apparently having an unannounced sale.