I'm close enough to both AVL and GSP, but I'm willing to drive to CLT or ATL when the price is right.

Oddly enough, in checking fares for a May trip, I'm finding it's now cheaper to depart from the smaller airports to connect to the big ones. We used to save up to $300 or so a ticket by driving one way or another on I-85.

I'm tossing away everything I thought I knew about buying plane ticklets. It's a different world this year.

@Reese22

yes, that was non-stop from Philadelphia to Paris. I bought the tickets on Monday the 19th of January for my trip this past August.

I don't have the Delta/Amex card, but my Amex gold points can be transferred for miles.
Well it sounds like upgrading is out of the question, too expensive!

Does it sound ridiculous or too exhausting to fly round trip from Paris, since our trip ends in London and we would have to take the Eurostar back? I think it was a little over a $100 more to do open jaw home to or from London. We can change planes in ATL or JFK.
It seemed worth it to us to be able to fly non-stop even though we would have the Eurostar return and not have a layover, but someone mentioned to us today that it would be stupid to do that?
I guess I'm trying to weigh paying a $100 more to fly open jaw and have a 3-4hr layover in ATL or JFK vs. non-stop Paris and pay for the RT on Eurostar!

It's funny because it's not a savings cost to fly out of Dayton over CVG and we would have to change planes flying to Paris or London!

It sounds ridiculous to me, if you really want to know. I find it very surprising it cost more to fly home from London, as usually London is the cheapest city to fly to from the US east coast. The problem is that you would have to be combining airlines that way, probably, and AF which has very good France fares doesn't fly from London to the US, obviously.

Can you get a Eurostar fare for a lot less than $100? I'm surprised. What is the real difference in cost that you are talking about when you put in the Eurostar fare? Then it's just a matter of how you value your time, as well as the potential of your bags getting delayed or lost during that layover as well as the hassle of going through US customs and immigration at that first place you land versus final. You'll have to get your bags and recheck them, I imagine. I always do when I fly into some other city than my final destination in the US when coming home.

Some people don't even care about all that, I guess if you don't work you have lots of free time so you don't view it the same way, and then maybe $25-50 would be worth it to them.

trafaelwyr - we are also looking to fly from Phila to CDG in early summer - USAIR currently has 1008 rt non-stop - hoping rates drop a bit

Christina- I'm looking at Delta and I don't know why but it's coming up almost $100 less to fly RT Cincinnati to Paris (non-stop) vs. doing an open jaw of flying into London and home from Paris. I know the cost of the return on the Eurostar eats up the flight difference for sure.
I guess it really is a question of spending the time riding back on the Eurostar, but then being able to fly non-stop home vs. spending that time having to change planes in an airport and have to spend 2-4 hours changing planes!
Our thought was to spend 3 nights in Paris before the UK portion of our trip, take the Eurostar back to Paris after and spend one additional night and then fly home!
I really hate flying and I guess I was thinking if I have to spend 2-4 hours of "layover" time, I would rather do it on the Eurostar and not having to fly to another city and then home! I've never been to Europ though and I didn't know if that just seemed crazy!

Changing planes in ATL is just not that hard and seems a lot easier to me than taking the Eurostar and spending a night in Paris and then getting to the airport, which would take a lot more time than 2-4 hours making a connecting flight.

You would check your luggage through to your final destination in London but would have to go through customs in Atlanta, which has always been a simple procedure to me.

In Atlanta you would go through passport control, then to baggage claim, get a free cart, put your luggage on it and push it through customs. A few steps outside the customs hall someone will take it from you and put it on a conveyor belt to go onto your final flight. you would go through a security checkpoint with your carryon luggage and then take the train to whatever concourse your final flight leaves from, walk to your gate and relax. Eat, shop, read, walk around, whatever.

I've made connecting flights in JFK too but Atlanta has always been easier for me.

I am flying Delta (AF) from Bosotn to Paris Jan 1 for one week. When I began looking at air fares in July they were $775 per seat. When I bough tickets in Sept I paid 850. They are now selling at 1150. This is the only daily direct flight. I always thought winter travel was cheaper but not any longer.

Davidjac

The good thing is we have time! I guess we will just have to weigh if flying non-stop is worth the added trip on the Eurostar.
It looks like I can transfer AMEX points to Skymiles and they have where you get 25% more free miles. Plus if someone wants to transfer Skymiles, you get 50% free miles if you do this by the end of December! I'm hoping we can get at least one free ticket!

I think the reason London is more expensive is because you want to go to CIncinnati. If you were just comparing open-jaw from an east coast city where you could do nonstop both legs, I don't think you'd see that. The fares I saw were only $50 difference, not $100, both on Delta (RT Paris versus go to Paris and leave London). But I just used hypothetical dates of 9/8 and 9/15, so maybe that's why. Eurostar isn't usually that cheap, I just am surprised if that would save you any money and it could even cost you.

How much do you think a typical RT on the Eurostar runs? I know you can't check that far out for prices.
I know it will end up costing a little bit more, but we have decided it's worth it to us. We aren't actually spending an additional night in Paris, we are just going to break up 3 nights before and one night after our UK portion.
I was checking Cincinnati and Dayton since those are both close to us, I really don't want to fly into anywhere else.