That's way too early to begin looking. I'd begin looking about 6-8 months before your departure. Also consider checking for flights to London. A LON-CDG flight should be inexpensive. This is what we did when we went to France 4 years ago.

yep you are way too early.

rncheryl - I agree on the timing.

Also, try to stay on U.S. carriers. European carriers have a sort of a carbon fee that will add several hundred dollars to your flight.

See if you can ferret out a charter flight. You won't see them on search websites, so it takes some looking.

See excerpt and link to USA today article below, it may answer some of your questions.

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/time-buy-international-plane-tickets-62529.html

Advance Booking

Buy tickets around four months before you plan to travel. Airlines don't usually release cheaper tickets before this time but, when released, reduced seats are likely to sell quickly. Therefore, you should start checking price comparison websites well before you want to leave.

Timing

Airline tickets are not only cheaper mid-week, but they also tend to be cheaper in the afternoons on those days. Sale seats are usually released on Monday nights, so buying your tickets on a Tuesday or Wednesday could help you save money. In addition, airlines don't manage their inventory as much over the weekend as during the week so if cheaper seats sell on a Saturday or Sunday, ticket prices might automatically jump higher before fare analysts return to work the next week and decide whether to lower them again.

Season

When travelling internationally, also check the public holidays within your destination country, as these could influence ticket prices.

Dates

In addition to the time of year, the days of the week you fly can also influence ticket prices. Flights that depart Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday can sometimes be significantly cheaper than those that depart on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday, as most people choose to travel around or over the weekend. If you can be flexible about when you leave and return, consider starting your journey halfway through the week.

I would also suggest to REALLY play with your dates, I was planning on leaving on a Tuesday or Wednesday for "those cheaper fares" and accidentally typed in the date for a Monday, and it cut off $500.00. For the two of us that was $1,000.00, we can easily (oh TWIST my arm!) spend another night in Paris to save $1,000.00. I thought I had caught a bargain, until I realized I had typed in the wrong date. And yes, I agree, it is WAY too early to buy tickets. Sometimes if you travel off season you can pay less, though I had that brilliant a couple of years ago and had to pay $1400 a ticket. $1,100 is probably the ballpark you are going to look at and you might budget for $1,500, if you are budgeting, just to be safe. If you over budget, that is more money to play with later! Alas I seriously doubt I will ever see a $400.00 ticket to Paris again.

Like suggested above, We prefer to fly to London and take the Eurostar, We can fly direct and it is always less expensive. I book around 4 months out . Also this way I get a few extra days added to trip and love London!!

Hey rn,

If, as some posters have suggested, you should book your flights 4 months out now is the time to see what next September's prices will be.

I use www.kayak.com and http://www.1800flyeurope.com

The latter shows a 1-stop from MIA via Lisbon to Orly for $844.

There is no optimal time to purchase airline tickets. If you wait until four months ahead, you may have missed the lowest fare, never to be seen again. Sometimes you'll find fares lower various days of the week/times, but not necessarily, but they may be much higher/lower the week before/after.

There are no constants, only variables. Much depends on your city of departure. You might shop between now and this September to check for trends, but those don't necessarily repeat from one year to the next.

Air fares have been on the increase for years due to fuel costs and airport taxes. $1100 may be quite reasonable.

I've often had terrific luck booking Nov-Feb for September.

There is just no substitute for diligent shopping. You need to figure out when to pull the trigger, as fares may go up and up while you're hoping they'll come down.

We go to Paris in May, June, September. I shop fares as soon as seats go on sale because you just never know. When I find fares I like, I book.

Note that September is a very busy time for the hotels in Paris, so booking far ahead give you a much wider selection.

Thanks to you all. Fodors is a treasure!

This is but one of many posts that will request Francophile assistance.

It is over a year away, and I am actually DREAMING of Paris!

I think it is way too early also but that fare isn't at all high for RT to Paris nowadays, it is actually a decent fare (but depends on the dates, of course). Don't expect things to get cheaper, that's my suggestion. Fares for this summer are more like $1400-1500 and they are around $100 for this September, so can't imagine why they would get cheaper next year.

My recommendation is to start collecting empirical data relevant to your travel right NOW. That means fare alert from all likely US airports to all likely European airports across several different travel period combinations. I routinely have more than 30 daily fare alerts programmed in at kayak for one trip to learn which way the market is going and which airport show price softness, so that when I actually buy tickets, I know where in fare trend I am buying tickets. Kayak gives ACTUAL historical trend graph of ticket prices relevant to your trip.

The rule of thumb you see are usually an aggregate of trips to many destinations from several different airports to different destinations at different times of the year. Such data might have various degree of relevance to your particular city combinations for the period of interest.

If you start collecting data in now, you have at least some empirical data you can look at relevant for your trip you can use in 2013. It does not imply that the 2012 trend repeats in 2013. However, compared to having NO empirical data, you have at least some data from the 2012.

We also have gone to Paris in Sept. for many years now. We have flown many different airlines, some direct from Chicago to Paris, and some changing on the East coast.

Sometimes we've waited as long as July to book, most times sooner.

I agree with watching the airfares so that when you see a good one, you can jump on it. If you snooze, you lose, but you have to know the market. Wall St. Journal says 22 weeks out is the best time. It is probably too early for next year, but hey, I'm a planner and like to know my options.

Last Sept. we made a huge mistake. We saw an American Airlines fare in July that was $250pp less, saving us $500 direct from Chicago. What a nightmare. Yes it got us there but with such discomfort. The plane was really old, the seats felt like cardboard, and they had a drop down TV in the middle rows(that we couldn't see) with 1 movie!!! Followed by a cartoon movie at 11 at night. The main thing though, was the uncomfortable seats.

Before this, whatever airline we took across the Atlantic we had more comfortable seats (even in economy), individual seat monitors with many movies(Continental had 138 movies) and a hand held remote for games. This may not mean much to some, but for an 8 hr. flight it was nice.

We have learned:
Never change in Newark, JFK, or Boston(obviously flying from Fl, you won't do this)

Always try and get a direct flight.

New rule---check out the aircraft. The older ones are miserable.

When you see a good airfair, grab it! You can go in a few hours later and it will be gone.

The flight starts out your trip, and a miserable flight can start it out on the wrong foot.

This year we booked in April for our Sept. trip. Will the price go down? Maybe, but we found one we can live with.

Another tip: sometimes you can get a better deal if you include the hotel(try Expedia, etc) We did this a few times in the beginning. Later we got picky on the area we wanted to stay. That said, we have had some very interesting stays in other areas of Paris.