look at air france (delta partner)...i use them out of boston all the time and they generally are cheaper....also american from boston to paris or northwest through amsterdam....try using travelocity...i like them better too...

i just did boston to berlin with a 2 day stop in london (free) for november 19 for $434 inclusive (prices drop considerably on nov 1)

Bluestructure,

Where are you flying those rates for Icelandair? When I checked their website last night I got a ridiculous price for a ticket with 2+ connections! Are those fares applicable for the third week in April? What am I missing?

Thx,
Natalie

oops . . . I mean "finding"

This morning, sidestep shows fares of $565 available at orbitz on BA for travel BOS - CDG 4/16 to 4/23

Found a flight on Orbitz roundtrip Boston-London-Paris 585 (listed as 565, but when you go to buy it, is says the airline has changed the price). Should I book this? A lot of you have said that I should wait, but I am traveling during a peak period (April vacation) and I don't know if I will get a better price if I wait any longer. Many airline deals do not apply to school vacation periods, so I am inclined to book this fare now. Any thoughts?

Natalie:)

Also checked Delta and Air France . . . tres cher during the times I want to travel!

I've had good luck using Travelocity as it has a function to simply get the best prices regardless of specific dates. (You can limit based on month or range of months. The initial list is exclusive of taxes, but you do get the total before you pay.) It gives a list of the base prices for many airlines which you can select and then pick specific dates to book for. We used this to get $250 Newark to Frankfurt last Feb and $400 Greenville, SC to Frankfurt last May.

Enjoy your trip,
Paul

Try looking through the same website at the same day/time again this week. I was eyeing flights to Paris myself, and found that Wednesday afternoons were the cheapest, but they would vary hour to hour, day to day. I never tried Saturdays though! I also would recommend Air France directly through their website. Not only is it direct from Boston, but the ticket I bought ended up being $60-70 cheaper than either Expedia or Travelocity.

Not sure too, but don't you have to switch airports in London to get to Paris? That was why I ruled out BA to Paris last year, anyway. Not worth the hassle for me.

I have checked the Air France website and they gave me an more expensive fare than BA for that time period. I don't imagine it would be any different if I called them. I just found a fare on travelocity 1,180 for both tix with taxes and fees included. Also, travelocity gives you the option to get electronic tix, so no delivery fee! I think I am going to book . . . my goal was to spend under 1200.

I would love to fly non-stop with Air France, but their prices were too high, so we will have to connect somewhere.

check the fares every day. i fly on northwest. i kept checking on the dates i wanted to go to paris at christmas and the price was $750. one day i check and the price went to $404. after i got up off the floor, i bought the tickets. just keep checking.

I agree to keep checking. For my upcoming trip to Italy we checked for 5 weeks and the fare varied only slightly. One night we decided to book, regardless of the price, and guess what...the fare dropped $170. Well, we booked immediately. Fares change all the time. You still have a lot of time before your trip. The fares may come down toward the end of the year if airlines are trying to make revenue numbers look good for last quarter of the year.

You should also check KLM and Northwest out of Boston. On KLM, you'll need to fly via Amsterdam, and on Northwest, via Detroit. But the return on Northwest is about 2pm out of CDG, and you arrive in Boston about 8pm EST.

This past year, I flew on Northwest, and with two price reductions, the fare was about $276, including the taxes, and that was departing from Boston via Detroit to Paris.

By the way, if you're not flying midweek, your airfare is going to be $25/$50 more per segment.

I also read about Icelandair sales, and I'm not surprised they don't apply to your routes. However, I just checked their web site www.icelandair.com and got a quote including all taxes at $556 for RT BOS-CDG with only one stop going over in Icelandair, departing 4/15 and returning 4/24, which I thought were the dates you wanted from your hotel post. They don't appear to have a return flight with only one stop, the cheapest return is at 11:10 am on BMI to London and then london-iceland-BOS.

I would much rather fly Icelandair than BA, only disadvantage on that ticket is the two stops returning. If bags are checked through and you don't have to go through customs at London, that wouldn't really bother me that much (it is Heathrow arr and depart, no changing airports).

Flights going #632/542 9:30 pm to 1:05 pm
Flights returning, BMI 174 and IA #451/633 depart CDG 11:10 am, arrive BOS 6:30 pm

Natalie,
Be real careful if you book BA to Paris via London. You may end up having to go to Gatwick to make the connection (sometimes on the real cheap fares you get an unpleasant surprise). That can add hours to your trip. If you have the option of going Air France non-stop to CDG I'd take it, even if it was a few bucks more. We've done the change planes thing at LHR to go to Paris and it's a pain, altho flights from LHR to CDC are from Term. 4 where we come into.

To be sure about where your flight connects I'd call BA directly if you plan on using them. As I said, there are reason's why somethings are cheap! The time of the day for the flight can make a big difference in fare too, you just have to be careful. All in all tho, I'd take a non-stop if I could if I were you. Travel is tiring enough without adding a connection into it.

I understand having to travel at a specific time/day, we often have to also. If you want to be sure you get your day/time you sometimes have to bite the bullet and buy the ticket. Good luck with this and keep us posted.

Non-stop flights of of Boston for my dates of travel are in the 700's . . . too expensive for us. Also, I live in fear of not getting the flight on the dates we have to travel, so waiting to the last minute is not an option.

Double checked the BA flights . . . switchover is at Heathrow.

I simply don't have the time to be chained to the computer anymore. I think I will have to "bite the bullet" and book sooner than later. I got as far as picking seats on the BA flight before I chickened out! Anyway, why is that a flight on Travelocity can be cheaper than the same flight on the BA website?

Thanks,
Natalie:)

Hello Natalie.

Flight prices are like an auction - they rise or fall depending on the intensity of the 'bidding.' Sometimes a third party might buy an entire block of seats on your flight, which would cause the price to spike sharply and suddenly on the remaining seats. Then, if demand slows, the price drops again.

Speaking of blocks of seats, different operators can sell blocks of seats allocated to them for whatever price they like, including at a price lower than what is offered by the host airline.

Try not to sweat it too much, you can't foresee the market. (And if you could, you'd be rich enough to afford full fare business class. :) )

what, no school today ilovelabs?

Don't panic Natalie! As everyone has said, fares fluctuate. I too had the same experience last year. One day the route I wanted (on BA too) cost $900 for 2 tickets. Then it went up to $1100, then $1200. I thought I'd missed my chance. In the end, I got my tickets for about $889 2 months before travel. I did have to adjust my dates slightly though. Since you don't have that flexibility (although you COULD travel Sat to Sat instead of Fri to Fri) here are a few things to consider:

BA seems to change the prices on different planes on the same day depending on how popular/booked they are & that can change from day to day.

It never hurts to call. While we're told internet prices are cheaper, it's not always true. They're often the same & you get to talk to a real person.

There are other options on a Boston/London/Paris route. I checked sidestep (mentioned above) and right now the cheapest fare listed on your dates between Boston & London Heathrow is on AMERICAN for $458 (vs $$477.82 on BA) The cheapest roundtrip fare listed between London Heathrow & Paris is on Air France at $110.34. Assuming these include taxes that's $568.34. There are flights that make decent connections (ie no more than a 2 1/2 hour layover). And yesterday I mentioned I saw fares on the British Midlands website between Heathrow & Paris on your dates for as little as 12 GBP each way (although this didn't turn up on sidestep-I don't know why). I didn't check how the times coordinated with other flights though.

Finally, be aware BA has a class of service that's called world traveler plus or something like that. It's Business Class seats with coach food. The $674.11 price you saw could be for that. I noticed on sidestep that there were a range of BA fares & some of the higher fares had an added note about comfort - not explained- but that note didn't appear on the lower fares.

If it were me with 7 months to go, I would wait & hope Air france or Delta had a sale for a direct flight, but since you seem to be a worrier, book something you can live with & relax!

I booked our flight! Boston-Heathrow-CDG for 585 each on expedia. I couldn't wait any longer, and all I wanted was to pay below 600 dollars for each ticket. I am so relieved! Now that we have air and hotel, I can relax and look forward to the trip!

Thanks to all!

Congrats! Now, don't go getting buyers' remorse on us! Be happy that you are on your budget and with the dates you wanted. You can now enjoy the rest of the planning process. Just remember to leave enough unplanned time for relaxation.