Well,I booked the award ticket and will wait a bit to book the second seat. Still thinking about transferring my husbands miles and buying the extra miles. It works out to be about $950 if we do it that way, still a few hundred less than buying it outright now.

I wouldn't book your second ticket until next year even with the risk of it being much more expensive. The way things are going you don't even know if you are going to have service from Boston to Paris.

Problem with transferring/buying miles is that you don't know if once you've done all that you'll be able to book another seat with miles. Then, what will you do?

I totally disagree with waiting until next year to book the second ticket.

There is no evidence that prices do drop at the end of August, or will this year.

And, with specific dates, you're far more likely to pay more than less the longer you wait.

My recommendation would be to watch the fares for a few more weeks and book the same flights and count yourself lucky that you were able to book that award ticket.

<i>There is no evidence that prices do drop at the end of August, or will this year.

And, with specific dates, you're far more likely to pay more than less the longer you wait.</i>

At the risk of being rude, you don't really watch airfares do you?

There is plenty of evidence that $1221 is a very high fare for BOS-CDG. It is at least $300 over the average high season fares on this route. And May is not high season. And there is no reason to believe that you get a better deal booking 10 months in advance, rather than, say 3 months in advance.

Prices fluctuate pretty widely. And the best deals are absolutely not found this far in advance. You are confusing the fact that tickets booked very close to the departure date are cheaper with a theory that ticket prices are linearly cheaper the further you get from departure date.

<i>very close to the departure date are cheaper</i>

Should read &quot;are more expensive&quot;.

&lt;&lt;There is plenty of evidence that $1221 is a very high fare for BOS-CDG. It is at least $300 over the average high season fares on this route. And May is not high season. And there is no reason to believe that you get a better deal booking 10 months in advance, rather than, say 3 months in advance.&gt;&gt;

Yes, $1221 is high. But, not necessarily for those Delta flights, especially when specific dates are required.

For last September, BOS/CDG with n/s Delta (Air France), I paid $794, booked the previous November. For last May, $631, booked the previous July. Year before that for September, $558, also booked the previous November.

By the way, I just received an offer from Delta: AmExp, no fee, 20,000 bonus miles for spending $500 within 3 months, another 2500 by adding additional cardmember (no fee), double miles thereafter...

Boy, are you lucky Boston to Paris for 50,000 miles. We are going to Rome in October, and to fly from Tampa to Rome is 100,000 miles! This will be our last trip using FF miles because by the time you pay an annual fee on the credit card, you can buy the ticket and pay cash and save money. Since they only have so many seats you can use with FF miles, you may not be able to use them when you want to. Plus, since we were short 5,000 miles, we had to &quot;buy&quot; 6,000 since they do not come in odd increments. Plus, we had to pay $25.00 booking fee through an agent, but we wanted to do it before Delta raises the fee to $50.00 a ticket. Since I had to buy the miles, I could not book on-line, the agent told me.

mhyde1

I don't understand, and I'm not being a smart aleck. How does it cost more to pay the fee on the credit card and get the ticket for points, than it does to pay cash for the ticket?

<i>Yes, $1221 is high. But, not necessarily for those Delta flights, especially when specific dates are required.</i>

If you are willing to pay $300-$500 extra to avoid a stop, then I would assume you aren't posting questions about pricing on Fodor's.

$1221 is simply too much. Even if you get one ticket with miles, $1221, works out to over $600 per ticket. And I value 50k miles at more than $1000. From, Boston in May, I would be targeting no more than $750 at this point. I think $1221 is a very bad deal.

I think it's relevant whether the original poster would be happy to have her husband travel on a separate flight, should the savings be sufficient. Some non-Delta flight with connections will likely be cheaper, at some point, than $1221.

<i>Since I had to buy the miles, I could not book on-line</i>

I don't see why not, unless your itinerary couldn't be booked online due to other issues.

&lt;&lt;If you are willing to pay $300-$500 extra to avoid a stop, then I would assume you aren't posting questions about pricing on Fodor's&gt;&gt;

Of course cheaper tickets can be booked...but not necessarily on the SAME flights as her husband.

By shopping far in advance, I've been able to book non-stop flights for LESS than Iberia, Iceland Air, Air India, etc., with inconvenient connections.

To me, it is worth a bit extra for non-stop flights, but I've never had to pay an extra $300-500. It's worth the extra to me not to have to connect at JFK. We did that on our very first trip from Boston - never, ever, again! The first connection was too short, the second way too long. Not to mention the aggravation of collecting your bags, getting to another terminal and rechecking them. On the way home, our arriving flight was long delayed in getting a gate, there were long, long, lines at passport control and customs, and our connecting flight home was delayed. We had to get up at 6AM Paris time and didn't get home until after midnight our time, and we both had to take the next day off from work to sleep.

Since then, I book the later flight (4:30 or even 7:30) home from Paris. So, we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to pack and get to CDG, or cut our last evening short. Rather, we're able to enjoy a nice lunch and another stroll around Paris before heading to CDG. And, with no connection, we still arrive at Logan at a reasonable time. Booking with Delta, the flights are Air France. And, seats on the upper level are pure heaven!

Yes, it is important for us to be on the same flight together. And we are always willing to pay extra for a direct flight. We don't want to spend a whole day of what would be vacation time waiting in airports to make connections. The flights that save any substantial money all involve a minimum of a 6 hour lay over and most have 12-14 hours.

This last May we traveled JFK to Paris (direct) and paid $749 RT. We bought the tickets about 6 months in advance. There was a sale 3 months later where we could have bought those same tickets for $89 less, but who knew. I was OK with the price we paid.

This year, all the prices have gone up. JFK to Paris direct is the same price as it is from Boston, and Boston is much more convenient for us. I do think we might be able to get the second ticket for less if we wait a bit but there is no guarantee and we do know if we wait until after August 15 we'll pay an extra $50.

I think I prefer to just buy the second ticket before the 15th at whatever price (I will check 1-800-fly europe) and think of it is 2 tickets for less than we paid per ticket last year.