I%26#39;m starting to shop around for airfare to Paris from Washington DC in mid to late February. The cheapest I%26#39;m finding (non-stop and within our timeframe) is around $760. I know it%26#39;s still very early to book, but I%26#39;m curious if people think better offers will come along. I know there are often last minute promotions (esp. for off-season), but I%26#39;m not willing to take any chances. I%26#39;d look to book our flights by October at the latest. Is there any hope for non-stop closer to $500 - 600 range??
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I certainly hope so! I started looking at January-February from the West Coast and found some in the range of $600 on Lufthanza, but otherwise most were in the $900 range! So much for getting a really good fare by booking far in advance (and I was not looking around any three-day weekends, or Valentines Day, or other really populare travel times). Last year at the same time it was about $575 from the West Coast (and I would have thought that from DC would be even less).
I would suggest that you watch closesly for short-time specials. I just got an e-mail from American for a fairly reasonable fare in October-November range, that had to be booked within about a week. I suspect others will do the same from time to time - maybe you can get on the e-mail list for several of %26quot;the majors%26quot; to get notices of bargain fares?
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Great tip, thanks! We are actually looking to fly the weekend of Presidents%26#39; Day, so that could be increasing the fares.
For some reason it feels like it%26#39;s not any cheaper flying from the East Coast! I don%26#39;t know what the deal is, but when I moved to DC from Los Angeles, I was so excited that it would be cheaper to fly to Europe. So far, that doesn%26#39;t seem to always be true. We spent a small fortune flying to Italy this June!
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I%26#39;m sure that partly it%26#39;s the fuel increases - gasoline at the pump has gone up about 50% in the past year, so I%26#39;m sure jet fuel has done a comparable rise. One of the real ironies (at least in years past) is that I often saw newspaper ads (in winter - never in summer!) for airfares to Europe that were cheaper than to the East Coast, often by 50% to 100%! But, I have a feeling those days are long gone.
You might also want to try search engines like kayak.com, which seems to work very well at getting all the European carriers as well as the domestic ones - from DC, there are bound to be a lot of options like that.
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Oh yes....kayak.com is my friend! I%26#39;m also using bookingbuddy.com.
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You will be traveling during one of the best times of the year for bargains. This has been my experience for years. The airlines usually have a view of their %26quot;yield management%26quot; numbers that generate sales for that time around late September, early October, so it would be good if you could be patient until then.
Patient or not, you might have a look at - and keep looking at - Kayak.com, which searches all the airlines (well, not Southwest, but that%26#39;s beside the point) for the lowest fares. You can sign up with them for low fare alerts, also.
Some of the airlines, and some other travel websites use the %26quot;low fare alert%26quot; as a come-on, but they%26#39;re not necessarily the real deal. Kind of like %26quot;factory outlets%26quot; that may or may not be. Anyway, Kayak%26#39;s are genuine, and they leverage the time you spend researching.
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There%26#39;s another aspect to this that deserves mentioning vis a vis tactics -- another reason why the September-October line is important. It%26#39;s also the time when the airlines have their last quarter%26#39;s financial projections in focus, and they will pop the short-notice, short-duration sales for a cash infusion. Another reason to have Kayak or something like it monitoring what%26#39;s going on. I mean these sales can be same-day, one-day only, and if you blink... Even if they last three days, you might not be paying attention.
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Sorry (re going on about Kayak). I was writing while you were writing.
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Very helpful. Thanks, Firewind!
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You just have to shop lots and often. Visit Travelzoo often. Look for the sale to Europe. Also try kayak. I believe that tuesdays%26#39;s early morning (which I think means 12:01 AM) would be the day of the week when companies release cheap fares.
Last year I got one from Air Canada from LAX to CDG round trip for $417 (tax and whatever else were included). And it was for spring as well (April). I got this through one of the sales I saw on travelzoo.com. I think it was just pure luck for me. I don%26#39;t think I will never be able to find such a good deal again.
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