When to commit to Airfare
 

Hello All, I have to book four adult fligts from Toronto to Paris the last week in August. Does anyone have a suggestion of how long to wait or how cheap I can expect to go. I'm pretty committed to a direct flight and now am looking at 1400 per person. Are ther often last miute deals? Allyson

I can see fares of around $800 on Air Transat for Thursday departures in late August.

As for bigger airlines like Air Canada or Air France, requiring a direct flight will pretty much limit you to their fares. They might go down by August, but they might go up, too. Want to bet on the price of oil in July?

It's a crapshoot, but with the bellicose rumblings coming out of the neocons odds are that the price of oil will not decrease, so buying now is probably wise. here is the possibility that prices could rise so far that demand would drop far enough to induce fare sales, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Buy now, be gad for the fare you get and do not check back....that way on the off chance they drop you won't be frustrated....

I always see the advice to never check again, after purchasing, but personally I like to know if I made the right decision so I can get more information for the next time I buy airfare.

Anyway, with four people, you have much less chance of a startling sales fare than you do with one or two. Often, sales fares are only good for one or two tickets purchased at once.

Air Transat is not the greatest airline, but I think I read they are increasing seat pitch to 31". If that is true (double-check), it will be much more comfortable than it was at 29".

Have you looked at flyzoom.com I have seen some pretty low sales on that route. Usually the sooner the better with budget airlines.

I plugged in some dates the end of August on www.kayak.com and Alitalia has a fare around $1250.

OK so prices on Zoom look amazing. I can fly on their Premium class and still save 400 per person. Big difference with four of us going. Has anyone flown with them, are they reliable. A

I'm playing the same game and getting possible airfares as low as $650 and as high as $1400 for Dulles to CDG for end-July/beginning August. I'd grab whatever you can that seems affordable. There will NOT likely be last-minute deals.

I haven't flown Zoom myself but my sister has flown the Toronto/London route a few times. She's never had any problems or complaints.

My experience over the past 15 or so years is that Paris prices don't drop in the summer months (including September). If you have to go then I'd just book now to make sure you get what you want.

I would however do a search on Kayak or Air Gorilla and then check the cheaper airlines for direct flights.

Here's a suggestion: go to www.itasoftware.com and use the MONTH-LONG view for August YYZ-CDG and you'll see the price ranges for the major carriers.
Right now the price ranges from almost $1400 to less than $900.

THEN check the possible budget carriers for comparisons.

Ive gambled and waited till 3 weeks before and got some good deals. However, Ive noticed that within 2 weeks of departure date, they never go down

Check in every so often, if you see a good airline at sub 1000 Troonto CDG, grab it (IMO) Right now, I think about 1100 is a fare fair(lol). If you are flexible and wanting to visit other cities, try alternates like Barcelona or Zurich. Last year I found an incredible fare to Zurich