I have been looking online at airfare and each round trip is about $1100 a person. I was wondering if anyone has websites that they use to travel because my husband and I don't travel that much to know the good websites. I'm willing to pay because we are going to France for 2 weeks but I wanted to ask around before I make the investment.
Thank you for your help!
Trish
I use www.kayak.com
We travel to Europe for 2 weeks at the beginning of March each year. My rule of thumb is that once I find a flight that is $500 r/t per person I book it. Two years ago we started in London and flew out of Amsterdam. Last year we did r/t to Munich. In a few days we leave for Madrid and will fly back from Brussels. This year we paid $490 r/t per person.
We've found that the beginning of March is the cheapest time to fly to Europe. We always plan our trip by finding a cheap flight and go from there. Our other rule of thumb is that all the hotels must average out to $100/night and must have a toilet and shower.
I have been looking for trips to Paris or Madrid for this summer and found some strangely cheap flights (like $300 less) when flying "open jaw" into one city and out of another, even in June. I would suggest looking for a city you may want to leave from (and spend a few days in) instead of Paris (I would recommend Madrid or maybe London if you haven't spent much time there). There are some weird and good deals to Europe this year.
When are you going to France? Fares are much lower in Winter than Summer.
Try Orbitz, Kayak, Bestfares websites. Keep searching.
American Airlines has some low prices for flying to Paris, for travel completed before May 15, 2009. The tickets are purchased before March 15, 2009. If you can start your flying at Chicago Ohare airport, I guess you can find good airfares.
We almost always fly into London with a cheaper ticket and then Eurostar to Paris. With train travel so efficient an advance (key word here is advance) tickets inexpensive, book the cheapest airfare and take the trains to your preferred destination. Look at British Airways, American, Delta and others on their individual websites. There are specials at times and there may be more in store given the economies in North America and Europe. You might find a cheaper fare out of Chicago if you make a stop on the way in Raleigh or Cincinatti or some other place. Don't give up--the fares are out there and usually posted early AM on Tuesdays. Be quick if you find one, they are taken in a few minutes usually.
Try 1800flyeurope.com. They are a consolidator and can have fares much cheaper than a lot of the usual sites.
Iceland air has very reasonable flights to Paris. I am from Pgh and a r/t flight out of pittsburgh to paris in may was almost 1000 but flying out of toronto on Icelandair was 620 r/t. We are going to travel to Toronto and leave from there.
Just rememeber if you go through Toronto, your are dealing with passport issues. Not like making a stop in a city on this side of the border. Leave extra time for connections. I have done it before and had to change terminals and go through customs either on the way there or back. We almost missed our connecting flight.
Happy Travels!
Trish,
I find going directly to the airlines usually gets me the best rates. This time was no exception.
Continental from the NYC area was $405.round trip.
I thought a great deal and booked it. From other comments sounds like I did good for my first time in Paris and Europe.
Have a great two weeks!
Karen
