PalmPilot

Traveling to Paris in early October. Any one have suggestions on when I should purchase airfare in order to get the best price?

Thanks in advance for your help.

SAnParis

Typcally deals abound for the winter months so I would be patient. I would think you should be able to find something under $400 r/t for that time of year (depending on your location).

Intrepid1

The airlines already KNOW when the traffic drops off (and are undoubtedly pricing seats in October accordingly) so I somehow doubt that waiting is going to <b> necessarily guarantee </b> you a better fare <b> unless </b> there is a &quot;sale.&quot; The question is always the same: are you willing to wait for one that may, or may not, happen???

I would at least START checking now and using every possible combination of aggregator and consolidator sites and the airline sites as well so you'll at least have some idea of what to expect.

Please do not forget that whatever price you do get will be somewhat dependent on the amount of competition on the route you actually fly.

mamc

I would check prices now and continue to watch until late May or early June. We went at the same time last year and things did not change much, if at all, after we booked in early June. One concern is the price of fuel. I wouldn't be surprised if fares begin to rise soon.

Travelnut

I don't think fares are reduced much, if at all, for October...more likely for November as the first month for discounting...
The worst I ever paid was $700 from East Coast non-hub; a 'good' fare for me is anything in the $500's. So if you don't like suspense, and you see something come up in the $500-650 range, that would be a decent fare. (unless you're coming from Hawaii or something!)

Christina

October isn't winter season, and you aren't going to get a winter fare in early October. Actually, early October is very peak business season in Paris and hotels are quite booked up, and I don't think air fares would be real bargains for that reason. They might be lower than summer, though. IN any case, I wouldn't worry about booking airfare this far ahead (unless you find a good deal, of course), I'd think you can wait a bit to see what shows up. Sometimes I think they may offer &quot;sales&quot; (so to speak) in July or so for the Fall, if they think they need to due to low volume, but I don't think there's any evidence of that recently. Everything I've read is that travel is up this year, and many flights are full.

PalmPilot

Thanks all of you for your direction. I am flying from NYC, obviously a major hub. I will begin trolling the FareChases, etc.

Best.

pennx4

We're traveling ORD to CDG in mid September. Is that still summer or will it be part of a Fall airfare sale? Should we buy or wait?

ira

Hi,

Air France is having a sale for travel after Nov 1. $299 RT from NYC.

Sept and Oct are *not* low season.

Try www.mobissimo.com for discounted fares.

I also suggest booking hotels now.

kjenn

Sites like Gotoday.com are offering R/T air from NYC, plus 6 nights hotel starting at $649+tax from Sept 1- end of October. I have used them before with no problems.

mermaid_

We too used go-today to get to Paris in late September/early October. I couldn't find any airfares that came out cheaper than their hotel/air package, even after checking daily on all the big sites like travelocity and competitors like mobissimo. Go-today's package was for six nights in Paris but we extended our trip (at our cost, of course, but no penalty for changing the return date) and ended up with a reasonably priced France vacation. We paid what I expected to pay for airfare and got hotel and breakfast thrown in for &quot;free.&quot;