We are planning a trip to France in Sept. Please help me with some thoughts. I know there will be "Fall Specials" - I've seen them in previous years. I would need to wait and be patient. But if I wait, are flights going to booked up limiting my choices more ? How early do you book ? Is there anything to this 0200 Wed. morning thing to buy ? Thank you.

Hi M,

For our Sept trip, we bought tickets in Feb. Price didn't drop more than $20.

For our visit this May, we bought tickets last Aug. Price dropped $200 for 2 days in order to fill up the last center seats.

Sept is awfully early for Fall Specials - it;s still high season. You usually don;t see much lower rates until late Oct or Nov. If you see a decent price now I wouldn't wait.

Air France was having a pretty good sale but it was for Oct 29 through March. You may have better luck if you can change your timeframe to Oct/Nov.

I was looking to go in Oct as I made a deal with my husband to get the best deal possible. Turns out, I was able to get a flight from Sfo to CDG for $554 (including taxes,etc) for Aug. Unfortunately that was a sale in Feb. I wouldn't give up though, I would just keep watching the fares everyday for a couple months, something is bound to come up.

I know there will be "Fall Specials" - I've seen them in previous years

Unfortunately, in prvious years airlines weren't doing business as they are now: fewer empty seats in the first place, economizing like never before, etc., etc., so don't count on any "specials" because if you do you may be in for a big shock.

I would start looking right now and continue looking and sign up for any and all low fare "alerts" at sites like Expedia.

In the meanwhile do a month-long search for September at www.itasoftware.com and use that as a benchmark.

Also look at sidestep.com

onetravel.com

farechase.com

kayak.com

Travelocity, etc., until you are sick of it.

IMO that's all you <b>can</b> do and eventually you'll have to bite the bullet and the question is always <b>the same</b>: how soon will you give in?

Good luck.

i agree. fall specials typically start in oct...