Help me find the cheapest fare to Paris?

I recommend seeking out a travel agent. It's recommended in rick's books to use a travel agent and it helped me get a pretty cheap fare.

Do alot of computer searches,, I haven't used a travel agent for years.. as pointed out, they really don't want to spend the time to get you best fare,, they only get a flat fee ( here its only 50 bucks a ticket,,so really they won't bust their butts for you ).

From Seattle you could fly out of Vancouver B.C too, so add that to search. Non stop is not as likely though,, they usually refuel in the east,, unless you fly non stop to London ,, then take Eurostar to Paris( which isn't a bad idea) . If you buy Eurstar tickets online well in advance you can get a great price on them.

As for lay over less then one hour,, forget it, they wouldn't even be a legal booking.. ( meaning you could book them but they will not guarantee you getting next flight)

I dont' know if they are still flying then, ( may be out of season) but look at AirTransat, they are cheap . Air Canada sometimes has good fares too . Northwestern is one of their partner airlines you you could do them to Vancouver and then A/C to Paris( but you would have a stop in Toronto) they do non stop only to London from Vancouver.

I asked a travel agent to find me fare from NC to Amsterdam and she quoted one that was $50 higher than the fares I was finding online myself! So I am going to try Skyscanner to find a good deal, or either bid via Priceline.

Air France is the only airline that flies non-stop from Seattle to Paris. Right now they have good rates for October. Their website will show the cheapest fare for selected days of that month. October 5 looks like the lowest now---it says $927 round trip, but that is before taxes. Actual total is $1019.

Then compare to what you can find using other airlines, with one stop. Use kayak.com or farecompare, etc. I just did and found the same fares on both. Kayak has a chart showing the lowest fares for the month. The lowest comparable fare they had for Oct. 5-13, to compare to Air France, was $996, with 1 stop. So for only $23 more you get the non-stop.

Looking at the lowest fare date for October, you'll see that flying Oct. 9 to 16, on Icelandair, you can fly for $872. That is with one stop, in Iceland.

These fares may change slightly over the coming week. Some say that the best fares show up when you look mid-week, but I've never confirmed that myself.

If you want the cheapest fare from Seattle, you may have to tolerate a one stop flight, since as Lola noted, only AirFrance flies non-stop to Paris. When I fly from Seatac to Europe, my strongest preference is for a flight that involves no stops in the US before heading for Europe. That's because most US-Europe routes run only once a day--or in some cases even less frequently!--and if your incoming flight is late, you can be stranded in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York etc. overnight waiting to fly standby the next day. Not fun. On the other hand, there are more frequent flights within Europe, so if your incoming flight is late to your first European stop, you're likely to have a few more flights that day that get you to Paris.

So, from Seattle, that means looking at BA into London, Lufthansa to Germany, Air France to Paris and Delta-KLM to Amsterdam. IcelandAir also flies non-stop to Iceland and then on to Paris, but connecting flights onto the mainland of Europe are few, so late legs from Seattle put you in the same boat as flights involving domestic connections. If you decide to pick a one-stop flight that does stop in the US, you might want to give yourself a greater margin than a one hour layover, just in case your incoming flight is late. Believe me, after the first time you sleep on the floor of the Philadelphia airport because the Seattle-Philly non-stop came in too late to catch your connecting flight, you will be more tolerant of a bit longer layover between flights!

One more thing to consider--on the way back, you can't buy liquids at duty free (liquor, perfumes, face creams) and get them back to Seattle unless you have a non-stop flight between a European airport and Seatac. If your first US port of call is some other US airport, your liquid duty free will be confiscated unless you can cram it into any checked bag you happen to have. Another reason that I prefer a nonstop leg between a European city and Seatac.

I think JER and Lola gave good advice. I start by looking at the type of websites that search OTHER websites for me--kayak.com or itasoftware.com, and maybe even expedia or travelocity, though I don't like those last two much. But I think the Air France nonstop is going to be your best bet. I just bought a ticket on Air France for October, going through Paris, and AF was the second cheapest. Only Delta was a bit cheaper but like JER I won't change planes in the US. There don't seem to be great deals for October, and my flight didn't have that many seats left, so I'd look at the Air France website, look at their fare calendar (just put in your dates and make sure the box that says you can travel "around" these days is checked) and go from there. You should be able to go for $950-$1000.

"the layover is no longer then one hour"

Hmm....

Follow-up post will be "I missed my plane"

If your layover is in the US on the return PLEASE give yourself LOTS more then 1 hour. You have to clear immigration and customs.

i second the use of sites like kayak (ok, specifically i love and have had luck with kayak--JFK to London for less than $700 during the expensive summer season) but want to comment on just one part of your plan--the 'layover no longer than one hour' part. we had a 90 minute layover in dublin, and we STILL missed the plane, as we left JFK two and a half hours late. an hour layover is often not even long enough to get from one plane to another, even when running. so don't turn down a good fare just because it has a slightly longer layover than you'd like--you just might need it. oh--and have a GREAT trip!