My husband and I would love to spend the last week in June in Paris next year (summer of '02) We both have all summer off (we are teachers), but we figured that we might be able to get cheaper flights then rather than in July or August. The flights that I have looked up for the last week in June this year are very high (at least 900 per person)--is June a bad time to go? i always hear about cheap flights to Paris on tv and in the paper. Do these apply to summer. Is there any benfit to booking far in advance? What about Priceline? Has anyone tried them? We have over a year to plan, but any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

Nat (and Jim!) -- I don't know how long your school calendar takes you into June, but for the best airfares you'll want to try to go in the first half of June, rather than the second half. And since you have THIS year to just look, I would suggest that you follow the fares carefully from now through June in hopes of learning how to better anticipate what the best timing and carrier options are likely to be in 2002. Things change, it's true, but some patterns seem to repeat year after year. If you care to clue us in on your point of origin, others will probably have experience and suggestions specific to your situation. My guess is that while you won't hit the annual rock-bottom fares in that season, you should be able to get something for $250-$300 less per person than what you've seen so far without too much difficulty. You may even luck out and be able to cut it by more.

Nat, <BR> <BR>You might be able to find lower fares by checking at qixo.com or tiss.com. I recently found tickets to Japan on tiss.com that were $150.00 less than the cheapest ticket I could find any place else. That noted, June- August is considered high season and tickets are likely to be fairly expensive. Try to buy as far in advance as possible. Try a variety of dates and see what you can come up with (e.g. flying on Saturday is often the cheapest, etc.).

Another hint is to stay flexible. We're goint to Paris in the second half of June for $443. RT from Phila. The trick is, we're acually flying to Brussels, 2hrs. from Paris by train. When US Airways had a "sale" on a new route, We jumped on it.

You don't say from where. You will get better advice here if you specify your origin. <BR> <BR>

another way to look at your origin: We live in Richmond, VA - there are no cheap fares from here, and every flight involves a transfer at a hub. Because I work and my time is so limited, we still usually fly into and out of Richmond. But, if I had more personal time, I would drive the extra couple of hours to the D.C. area, where there is better competition and also direct flights, thereby saving money. <BR>Since you have the full summer off, I would suggest that you also check any "hub" points within a comfortable drive of your home. And, as another poster said, use this year to get familiar with the seasonal patterns.

I think bottom line is last week in June is same price as July/Aug. Peak fare season usually starts right after Memorial Day or maybe a week later or so on some airlines, but never do fares not go up until July. Since you have so much free time, though, you could probably save money by choosing indirect flights and layovers; I have so little vacation time that I consider my time very valuable and won't take flights like that. Also, you have the flexibility to choose a charter flight which are sometimes cheaper than regular ones, notably in peak fare season. The one I'm thinking of is Corsair which flies out of LA and Oakland to Paris (and also from JFK in summer). This is a French charter airline and while it is no frills as they always are, I have not heard of any safety or other problems. Their flights are sometimes several hundred dollars cheaper than the main airlines in my experience. You can book them at www.newfrontiers.com (they are owned by same company). I believe www.frenchexperience.com also gets cheap flights to Paris, maybe uses Corsair also. All the cheap flights to Paris you hear about are for winter or early Spring; they are cheap at those times of year every year in my memory. You will never find summer airfares at those rates, they are limited on dates for use. If weather is not a problem for you, you could easily go cheaply for a week during your winter vacation, as the teachers I know get about a month off in Dec/Jan. Anyway, I would not expect June airfares to be any cheaper next year, but for planning why don't you check out Corsair for comparison. You can sometimes get sales on new routes as someone else did above, but you can't count on that. I haven't used Priceline but I think they are legitimate in that you get a ticket (be sure to add in all fees) if you don't care about time of day or inconvenience (ie, 3 changes). I haven't heard many comments about their international tickets, but you have to be sure you add in the extra fees to consideration (about $100 a ticket), and I thought they were on shaky financial ground, anyway. An alternate is www.hotwire.com, sort of same idea but I think you get to see the tickets before purchasing. There is a benefit to booking far in advance in that the cheapest APEX fares sell out early as seats are limited, I have wasted money that way, fooling around not making up my mind and the fare goes up in the meantime (even when far in advance of the flight date) as those allocated seats sell out. But I'm talking about 3-4 months ahead of time, not years. YOu can't save money just by buying a ticket in January for June, for example.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Oh, we would be flying out of Boston--sorry I forgot to state that in my earlier post. Are there any other cities in France or other close European countries that are cheaper to fly in to? Say, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, etc.? We could always take a nice train ride if it would save us money!

Nat- <BR>A difficulty in booking more than a year in advance is that the best of the reduced fares are not yet posted for when you want to travel. June is high season which runs through the summer; the cheapest of the cheap fares usualy require travel completed by May. If business is slow some airlines may offer higher discounts, but the statistical forecasts that drive the discount programs aren't generally done and fares advertised until the end of the year. <BR>Boston is a large enough market that some good discounts should be available. If you'd consider hopping to NYC you'd likely have even more options. <BR>As to Priceline, I haven't used the service myself, so can't comment. I'm a tremendously loyal patron of Continental and have found uniformly great fares and service the rule on Continental. <BR>Best of luck and bon voyage!

I'm flying to Paris Saturday on tickets purchased through priceline. Although I was willing to make more than one change, I got a very convenient flight on Continental from Houston. Although I was given only a 20% chance of my bid's being accepted, it was. I was somewhat flexible as to my departure dates and got tickets on my #1 choice for leaving the states and only one day's difference on the return flight.

We bought TWA tickets for Paris from NYC to CDG for $425 each (came out to about $950 I think for the two tickets after fees and taxes). We bought in March for September, which is pretty far in advance, through cheaptickets.com. Can't cancel or make changes, so you need to be very sure you'll be taking the trip if you do it this way.

We just got tickets on Expedia (Minneapolis - Chicago - Paris) RT for $567. Those were the lowest we'd seen and we've been monitoring for 4 months. We're traveling end of May.

Nat: <BR> <BR>Is it possible to push back your travel to earlier part of June? <BR> <BR>For instance, did a quick search thru Travelocity & came up with following for June of this year. <BR> <BR>Price: 1 adult @ USD 696.20 Total: USD 696.20 <BR> --------------------- <BR> <BR> Flight: American Airlines flight 146 on a Boeing 767 Jet <BR>Departs: Sunday, Jun 03 <BR>From: Boston, MA (BOS) at 8:55pm <BR>To: Charles de Gaulle (CDG) at 9:45am Monday, Jun 04 <BR>Stops: None <BR> <BR> <BR> Flight: American Airlines flight 147 on a Boeing 767 Jet <BR>Departs: Tuesday, Jun 19 <BR>From: Charles de Gaulle (CDG) at 4:40pm <BR>To: Boston, MA (BOS) at 6:30pm Tuesday, Jun 19 <BR>Stops: None <BR> <BR> <BR>

My husband and I found the best fares to Paris from the East Coast were the last week in May and the first two week in June. We are staying for 6 days and 5 nights for $1700, including air/hotel. Air France Holidays. We booked in late February.

Unfortunately, I cannot push the date of our trip up. I am a public school teacher and I do not get out of school until the 3rd week in June (later if we have a lot of snow days). I have checked out www.tiss.com and found some pretty good fares, some of them with only one connection. I am not a great flyer, so I love non-stop flights, but I am also not a rich person, so I will have to settle for connections Thanks to all who have replied. Perhaps I will check out Air France Holidays when the time comes to start planning!

Last yr, 1st wk in april we bought delta/air france tkts for under 500. <BR>if you are willing to fly to london & then take a train or flight to paris you can get a fare in the low 400s for the london leg. have fun & do the pariswalking tours if you go -- great!