how to beat the expensive 1 way ticket fares

thank you for your reply. I just checked their website and it came up in the thousands of dollars again. did you use any special way to search?

A couple of suggestions.

Go to someplace like Expedia and try it there. That will allow you to "combine" airlines for what might be a better deal.
If you feel comfortable posting your exact dates , put them out there for someone to look.

Be flexible, try shifting a date here or there. Your problem is that late October is just about 5 weeks away. Cheap fares may be getting slim! (Notice the other poster was talking about fares in January)

Just out of curiosity (and because I don't want to work today) I plugged in 10/20 to CDG and 10/27 back from Rome. Got a $700 are on USAir. Connecting in Charlotte going over and Phildelphia coming back. Looks like a pretty good deal to me :) THere were other resonable fares there too.

Hi Kathy,

This is what I did:

1. Went to www.kayak.com

2. Selected Multi-city (up at the top where it says round trip, etc.)

3. Put in Chicago - Paris & date of departure. You said late October, so I randomly picked Oct. 30th.

4. Put in Rome - Chicago. I picked Nov. 13th for the return date.

The lowest fare I got was $662 on US Airways, which is not an often-recommended airline, but American Airlines showed up with $675, Delta with $681, etc. You can also check the individual airlines' websites for possibly cheaper fares by following a similiar procedure.

Hope that helps!

Are you looking a "mulit destination" tickets, rather then one ways? They have better pricing, although not all airlines have that I guess.

If you don't find a good rate then just fly in and out of one city,, You can fly between Rome and Paris fairly cheaply on most of the Europeon cheapo airlines, I flew Paris to Rome one way for 80 euros,, but of course a return ticket would be a bit more. I looked at Air France and they wanted an insane amount for a one way,, like 600 euros or something,, but Vueling was only 80 and was fine.

Yes, "open jaw" or "multi-city" tickets are how to get a better price than two one-way tickets. The website might say either of the above terms, or "multiple destination".

Agreed, only buy "multi-city" tickets. Prices might be cheap right now. I purchased my tickets yesterday for February travel. In to Rome, out from Paris. $730 on American Airlines. Not bad!

I used Kayak extensively while planning an open jaw trip to southern France. The best price for the best date/time combinations was with NWA. Then I booked the (same) flights directly with NWA. It all worked out fine - I got back home yesterday!

As of 1235 today, US Air offers PHL to CDG and return from FCO to PHL for $622 including tax and fees. Coach roundtrip October 20 to November 18.

Costs can change from hour to hour, so keep your eyes peeled.

Good luck.

The one tip I would add is to check out a day or two earlier or later for departure and return. If you have some flexibility, changing your plans one day on each end might save a ton.

Also look for flying at different times. I prefer arriving there early in the morning and flying out later in the afternoon. If I can save several hundred a ticket by arriving at noon or flying back early in the morning, I'll jump at it.