MadeleineRenata

Hello all,
I'm not sure where the best spot is to post this...

I'm planning a trip to Paris for September of '09 for 5 of us, 3 have never been before, and so the pressure is on to try and make great first impression/experiences including which route to fly!

Since flight schedules and rates are not out in general yet for our dates, I thought I'd start by asking WHAT ROUTE WOULD YOU TAKE FROM PORTLAND OR TO PARIS? Air France offers direct from Seattle, but then by the time you add on that, maybe it's better to just take a 1 stop or 1 change from anywhere...

It's the age old question of priorities: saving time, saving money, saving sanity and stress by not switching and running for connections etc.

I would love to hear from seasoned travelers how they decide. My experience with flying to and from Europe from Portland has been with Amsterdam as my point of entry for Europe, and getting into Paris is a different matter. Any airlines that are a YES or a NO WAY would also be wonderful to hear from you all about.

Thank you for any thoughts!!!

Suspaul

Hi MadeleineRenata: I live north of Seattle and flew to Paris this past November on Air Canada, Seattle to Toronto a few hours layover then from Toronto to Paris. Personally did not like Air Canada and would not do that again, this is only my opinion. More recently in April I took the Air France direct flight from Sea-Tac to CDG, so much better and well worth the extra $. Hope this helps.

nytraveler

Get a non-stop - or a non-change flight if at all possible. IMHO it is worth a couple of hundred dollars not to be stressd about making connections, tracking lost luggage and all the other ills of hanging around an airport unnecesarily.

(Here in NYC we're spoiled since we can get non-stops to so many places. If given the choice I will usually fly non-stop and then train or drive to a destination rather than change planes.)

Fodorite018

I agree, a nonstop is so worth it! We live in Portland and in June 2007 we went to Paris. Of course we bought our tickets before AF announced the SEA-CDG route. So we did a nonstop via SFO. This next summer we are headed back and already have our tickets. AF nonstop from SEA!

TRSW

I also agree about the non-stop. I flew Air France SEA-CDG last year. The service and food were top notch.

And Shuttle Express now offers door to door service from Portland to Seattle for something like $30 per person. But if you have more than 2 people in your party, the price goes down.

And the AF flight leaves around 5PM, so you could take the shuttle the day of the flight.

Tom

Fodorite018

Tom, our tickets for June 2009 have us leaving around 2pm. But I know when we went from Seattle to London a couple years ago, the flight left later like what you mentioned. Thanks for the heads up...I will keep an eye on our schedule and see if it by chance leaves later in the day.

BTW, if you don't want to do Shuttle Express, there are cheap Horizon hops as well. But SE is a great company.

ira

>WHAT ROUTE WOULD YOU TAKE FROM PORTLAND OR TO PARIS?<

I would take the polar route.

Much shorter than flying across the Pacific.

hopingtotravel

We flew Sea-Tac to CDG on Air France in May -- pleasant flight.

Take a Horizon Air (Alaska Air) to Seattle. Give yourself 3-4 hours leeway so you can make sure your luggage makes it. We flew to Seattle the night before from Alaska--not wanting to leave anything to chance.

Air France is an Alaska Air partner.

MadeleineRenata

WOW and thanks for the fast reply!!!

I was gasping when I saw that some flights are clocking in at 15 hrs. travel time! With the terrible US dollar, I hate to throw money out, but keeping the flight to less hours sure sounds nice. Maybe a nice little train ride to and from Seattle to Portland would be a break. Probably not as cheap though.

Air France fares (and everyones really) aren't out yet for our dates. We're going first 2 weeks in Sept, or just a few days earlier.

I'm choking at paying $1500 per person, plus getting up to Seattle from PDX... I'm hoping for decent rates, but we'll see!

We picked an apartment from the parisperfect.com people... I hope they are as good as they look in service and unit itself.

artsnletters

Another vote for flying non-stop from Seattle. If you change planes anywhere in the midwest or on the eastern coast, you lose more than the layover time. The route is just plain old slower. Plus, your "sleep" time (or in my case, resting time, since I can't sleep on planes) is interrupted. I have sworn to never again change planes anywhere but the west coast (I live near SFO) or in Europe.

If flying from PDX to SEA, I particularly recommend traveling with carry-on luggage. Then you won't have to worry about your luggage making it - you will have it with you.

Fodorite018

If it makes you feel any better, our tickets in June 2007 were $1700 each This time we managed to snag FF tickets, so I am thrilled to say the least!

TRSW

mms,

I think the summer schedule does leave near 2pm. My flight was in October and I noticed that once fall arrives, the push the departure back to between 4-5pm.

Tom

Fodorite018

Tom, that makes sense. When we went to London it was in Feb. so was like your flight in being later. I am just so glad that this time it is an easy trek to SEA for the flight!

MadeleineRenata

So it sounds like Air France is the only way to go... since AF is the only carrier I'm aware of that flies non-stop to Paris from Seattle. I suppose the other option would be fly PDX to somewhere in Canada's western border like Vancouver... then hop a direct from there to Paris. I believe KLM offers one, perhaps Luftansa too?

Any way I slice it, it sounds like I'll be needing to get up north for the flight. I wonder how cheaply I can fly in early September... the wait on pricing is soooo hard I always like to get the stressful part of the trip planning over with first, so I can kick back and enjoy the rest of the planning.

Yes, I am hoping to make the entire trip carry-on. I have one bag that always fits under seat if not overhead room, and one personal item that is a "train case". Packing efficiently, it's just heaven to avoid check-thru worries.

Fodorite018

As for doing carryon only, yes you can do it Last summer it was myself, DD (16 at the time) and my mother and we all did carryon only for almost 2 weeks. If 3 women can do it, anyone can, lol!