Need affordable airfare, travel to France
 

Hi,
We are planning to visit close friends in southern France in 2013. The months they said are best for them are May, June, or September. We will be staying with them, so hotels are not an issue. What we need to find is the most affordable airfare option for 2 adults and 2 children (5 and 7). Does anyone have any advice as to when and/or where we should fly into? We will be departing from Chicago and are open to arriving into southern France by train from any surrounding area/country. Length of stay will be about 10 days give or take. Budget is our key factor right now, although we'd also like to avoid the first week of June and the first week of September due to school timing.

Thanks for any help!

check www.kayak.com

Where in "southern France?" That's a huge area, so no one can say where you should fly into or take a train to. Could be Bordeaux, Marseilles, Nice, Toulouse, Biarritz, Montpellier, or any number of other places.

As for airfare, you just have to keep checking on flights and fares (once you figure out what your destination is). Sign up for alerts from Air France, United, Delta, Kayak, etc.

It probably doesn't really matter between those months, actually. It is possible air fare could be lower at the very beginning of May or the very end of September, those would be the best possibilities.

It's a small village near Valence, closest big city I think would be Lyons. They will be able to pick us up at any reasonably close station.
Great ideas for the alerts and kayak.com. Do you think it's too early to actually buy our plane tickets (say for September?). We found tickets for late September in the $700's in and out of Paris which is the best we've found so far. It's been several years since we've traveled internationally and I just feel out of the loop.

thanks again!

Hey wow, extra thanks for the kayak.com tip! They just linked me to Lufthansa which priced them under $600! very happy!!

You can take a TGV either directly from the airport (CDG) or from Paris to Valence. Go to www.voyages-sncf.com 3 months out from your date of travel and book PREM fares (the cheapest, but nonrefundable and nonexchangeable). Lyon is 100 kms north of Valence, so I assume your friends wouldn't want to drive all the way there to pick you up, especially since you can get a TGV right to Valence.

I hope you seized those tickets which must have been priced by Santa Claus. On Dec. 31, Kayak is showing a cheapest price of $819 for the end of September, routing through London and Finland and taking 17 to 19 hours, hardly a bargain with restless children. Lufthansa itself has nothing this morning under $1100 on its ORD-CdG flights. The prices you quote would have been a steal in 2012 and will be a tremendous value in the new year.

Yes, please elaborate on your under $600 fare with Lufthansa. Is that a one way price, based on a round trip purchase?

I've been watching all the fares looking for anything under $1000 and the cheapest I've found is US Air at around $1030. Fares from NYC to CDG are a touch cheaper, but not a huge lot.

As Southam says, you better have jumped on those. And if not , check several times a day, EVERY day and jump on it when it comes up. if you snooze you lose.

If you saw $600-700 take if it's still around. I just checked Lufthansa for May 2013, it shows between $1050 & 1100 R/T. September is even slightly higher.

This just came out this morning on ASTA SmartBrief regarding airfare in 2013:

Air travelers may see higher fares, "rebundled" fees in 2013
Ticket prices will continue to rise in 2013 as reduced competition and seat-reduction strategies allow carriers to retain pricing power, airline-industry experts say. The practice of "rebundling" services -- offering several fare tiers packaged with a selection of ancillary services -- may also see a rise. "The airline industry is in a period of transition regarding the pricing of its products. Airlines will offer fare products, such as basic, basic-plus and comfort, and allow consumers to purchase their desired level of comfort," said Jay Sorensen, president of airline consultant IdeaWorks.

I found the cheapest flights to Europe on hipmunk, better than all other websites. You are flying out of Chicago, which is good. We have always flown out of Atlanta, but we discovered that by driving to NYC we saved $450 per ticket which made the drive worth it. So, it might be worth it to look into getting to NYC on a cheap flight, then fly out of there. Or alternatively, getting to London for cheap, then fly Ryanair or a discount airline from there. Might involve some inconvenience, but the savings could also be big.