Airfare Miami to Paris $1500 + OUCH!
 

Planning a trip for the summer July/August 2008. We need 4 tickets - 2 adults 2 kids. Can I expect to pay $1500 pp (American and Air France) from Miami to CDG? I don't know if I should book it or will the airfare go on sale for the summer at some point?

ITASoftware.com has a price of about $1245 on Iberia, with a change in Madrid. Still not great, but a little better. I'm not sure what to advise about prices going up or down.

Well AA has numerous flights at around $1300 with change in New York or elsewhere. But I'd be really surprised if prices don't come down between now and then. Too far ahead for much on deals.

This is about the time last year I booked my flights with FF miles for this summer from Miami and I was gloating at how much money I saved, but as the time came closer, the fares went down a lot.

Thanks. I am going to wait it out a bit. $6000 on four tickets is crazy!

I assume you are registered with AA FF numbers? Be sure if you haven't done so to register on the aa.com website and list Miami-CDG as a chosen destination. Whenever a special for that route is added, it will show up on your homepage there. I think you may even be able to have them email you when that happens?

Hi IL,

I've been following prices for various routes for the past 3 mos.

I think that airfares are up about 25-30% over last year, especially for non-stops.

The tickets I purchased last year at this time for May 2007 have gone from $787 to $972.

((I))

The airfare is going up the dollar is going down and yet I still want to go to Paris - hmmm???

Prices are going to probably be higher across the board than previous years due to gas prices. However, open skies next year may negate that, or even make things cheaper.

I found a one-day sale in Feb 2006 on Travelocity (I was checking the sites every day at that point) for June travel, Miami to London non-stop. Got tix for $590 each incl taxes on Virgin. Usually you can get cheap flights from London to anywhere, though landing in London sucks greatly now.

I am looking for tix for next June to Scotland, and will likely look every week until January, and then start looking every day. The trick for me is to set the price I'll buy at ahead of time. For me, it's $700 right now - if I see $700 tix, I buy them then and there. I figure that's a reasonable increase over previous years, yet still less than the $1100+ I'm seeing on most of the sites for my tix now. Also, US Airways briefly had some $750 tix for sale last month (much too early for me to commit for June) so it's not unreasonable, IMHO.

If I haven't gotten anything by March, I'll start bidding on Priceline.

Thanks GreenDragon I like that approach. I check each week too but so far nothing has gone down. We even considered changing our plans to go to Paris at the end of March when the kids are off for spring break but with two kids and coming from Miami if the weather is bad it could be a disaster.

For that kind of money I'd fly to Toronto and use Zoom Airline to go. Their fares can be in the $400-500 range.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about the weather in March. We have only been to France twice...once in early March and then this summer in June/July. Our airfare for this summer was outrageous. But, we flew nonstop from San Francisco. When we went in March we enjoyed it a lot because there were no crowds. We had our kids with us, and even with the cool weather we still did everything and did not feel that the time of year was a detriment at all.

Michel, the last time I wanted to fly Miami to Toronto, I couldn't find a flight under $500 -- and that was with plenty of advance planning. Kind of defeats the purpose if the end price is the same or even remotely near it.

I gave in and paid $1200 from Seattle to Paris. Our dates weren't going to be flexible.

i don't understand your remark about bad weather in march. if you're flying non-stop from Miami to CDG, i don't imagine you'd have any weather-related problems at either airport. we've been to paris in late march and the weather can be chilly and rainy, but can also be quite nice - within the same week. though i'm not sure if prices will be so much less over the easter break

good luck, it's hard to give up on a trip to paris!

I don't think the bad weather remark was in reference to worries about the flight, just in general not wanting a vacation with bad weather. Well, late March sure isn't predictable weather in most climates that change, it could be quite nice or dreary, rainy and cold. I spent late March in Seville once a couple years ago, and it was really rather cold and rained a lot.

I think $1500 pp is high for summer, as this year it was more around $1100 to Paris nonstop (from the East Coast). I thought that was really high as I had paid only about $900 just the year before. I never buy air tickets this far ahead, but I don't know why it should go up that much in just one year. Oil was really expensive this past summer, also. Gas, for example, cost more then than it does now.

Prices are apparently driven by supply and demand as much as gas prices. We planned to go to Western Europe from the Washington DC area this summer. We couldn't find anything under around $800 round trip per person. So we checked out other trips and ended up flying to Alaska (about the same mileage as it would have been to Europe) for $550 each. It was, by the way, a great trip.

I was watching the Florida prices to Europe last year for summer travel and the only good deals were to Dublin and London, and they didn't occur until May.

Aer Lingus is now flying from Orlando to Dublin several days a week. Ryan Air could get you to Paris, but beware, if you pack a lot of luggage, this flight is not for you.

American and British Airways had cheaper flights to London in May, but, for American, you had to go through New York. Heathrow is not alot of fun, either.

Prices may not come down much on direct flights, but if you don't mind a hop, with four people, you should save some money.

If anyone is going to Frankfurt next May Air India has roundtrip ORD to FRA for 525.00

Try www.flyzoom.com - they have some great deals coming up before next summer. Of course, they only fly transatlantic from New York to London Gatwick, so you will have to add flights from MIA to NY and from London to CDG - or take the Euro. I priced my own tix and came up with $578 each (including taxes) from NY to London on 6/13/08-7/6/08.

I have also been watching ticket prices from Virginia to Europe for the summer. We are planning to see family in Austria and hoping to get some tickets to a soccer game. Well, I was looking at 1200-1500 for coach on every airline. It was crazy.
I found 4 FF seats to Paris and grabbed them. So, now we just HAVE to go to Paris as part of our trip! YEAH! The prices to buy the tickets were 6000 for the 4 coach seats. So, now more money to spend when we get there.
Good luck on the pricing. I still have to get my mother in law a ticket from NJ.....

Have you looked at www.itasoftware.com and used their "month-long" feature to find the lowest air fares?

Have you considered using a consolidator such as www.onetravel.com?