Looking at booking a flight on Air France from Seattle to Paris on July 17 returning July 31. Yes pricey, but we like the idea of a direct overnight flight. Should I buy now or anyone have a comment about this airline or another option?
We will be traveling on to Florence after a few days and looking at the overnight train or flight.
Hi Robert,
Do you use a search engine like www.kayak.com to check airfares? Flights are very expensive for those dates but I agree that paying a little extra for a direct flights is worthwhile--$1500-$2000 does seem like a lot.
If you're comfortable doing so, you might want to monitor flights for a few days to see if the fares drop. You can set fare alerts on kayak as well.
As far as the airline, we've had a good experience when we've flown Air France.
Robert, after flying to Paris several times via London Heathrow using British Airways we opted for the Air France direct flight and found it well worth the extra cost.
Thanks for the help. I think we will go with the AF tickets. After a vacation, do you really think about how much it costs if you had a really great experience? No, you remember the trip. We expect 2 weeks in Europe will cost us about 7-8 so several hundred doesn't make alot of difference. We don't go often so we want to enjoy!
You have the right attitude, I would say.
Four months in advance is pretty far out. I just managed to snag a good deal for a flight next month for $1084 each by using a travel agent. It is the Air France direct to Paris, then a connecting flight to Rome, then the nonstop from Paris for the return trip. I recommend a travel agent. You might have to pay them as much as $200 in fees (if you buy both plane and train tickets through them), but it is so worth it. They know how to search and figure out the best rate immediately. You don't ever have to meet with them either--you just talk over email. Rick Steves says he usually uses a travel agent to book just the plane and train tickets.
I would check out the airlines you like direct. Many times the travel agents have the same flights we get on web. They sometimes get early notice of specials, but check the Air France or KLM direct partners and compare. I agree direct is the best way - even if its a little more. You also pay more fees for each time you land for a connection so it might not be as expensive. Plus - if you sign up for the airline miles - you are on your way toward next years upgrade or the following year free!
That AF flight is so nice. It only took us 8.5 hours of flight time in October. Definitely worth extra money, though I of course don't know just how much extra it's costing you.
Judey, a travel agent can't do anything that you can't do yourself. I just now went on the Air France website and found a fare of $1080, including taxes, for a trip Seattle---Paris---Rome and back, departing mid-April and returning 2 weeks later.
Prices for July will be different.
Also, you will pay more getting your rail tickets from a travel agent, as they will use RailEurope. It may be worth it for certain popular trains in Italy to have the security of an advance reservation, but for the most part you are better off just buying your tickets when you get to Italy. (Note that this applies on to Italy; for France and Germany you can get great prices booking ahead on the resepctive websites).
The one time I used a travel agent recently I was sorry. I was flying SAS and needed to change the ticket for personal reasons. I had done this in the past with a ticket I booked myself, changing the date of flight at no charge for health reasons (I had a doctor note). SAS was very accommodating. But with the ticket bought through an agent, I could not deal with SAS myself, and the travel agent wouldn't go to bat for me, so I was stuck. And I did nlt get a break on the price of the ticket at all. Just a warning.
Use the websites that provide fare alerts and check Kayak and others, and book the tickets yourself.
See Lola, this is my first time traveling to Europe, so I'm not as savvy as you. I was just offering what I found to be helpful. I was not able to find that fare when I looked. There was no need for you to take me to task like that.
J., I am sorry if you feel offended.
The point of this forum is for people to share their information and experiences that may be helpful to others.
When someone advocates for using a travel agent to buy flight tickets that are freely available on the airline's website at the same price, I think other people reading these posts should know there can be a downside to that choice.
The good news is that it appears you didn't pay extra, despite your mention of a possible $200 extra in service fees. (Which I actually haven't encountered).
It sounds like you have a great trip planned for your first time to Europe---Paris and Rome should both be wonderful in April.
Lola -
There is one big thing a travel agent can do for you that you can't do for yourself, and that is to sell you a discounted consolidator ticket for international travel.
There are very few reasons travel agents still exist these days:
1) Cruises
2) Group trips
3) Consolidator/Discounted International Tickets.
Actually, you can find consolidator tickets on the web too.
A while back, I called our company's regular travel agent to book flights for 4 people to a meeting (domestic flight). The agent, bless her heart, said we could do just as well looking ourselves on the internet. She said to bring her our cruise business and package travel (airfare + hotel, car, etc.) but for flights alone she wasn't doing that any more. She'd had too many complaints from clients who went online after buying tickets through her, and found a better price on the web.
The best time to buy for summer is just before Christmas. Not Paris, but Rome, and I assume similar, we bought RT tickets for Rome in this period for $700 each on a 14 hour flight (the shortest is 13 and a few. Last year, it remained high until May-June, and my niece bought tikcets to Madrid and returning from Athens for $600 + dollars. But getting any closer, the rates go back up and the flight longer. Well, this has been my experience. Good luck.
I know it's not direct but Lufthansa does a Seattle to Frankfurt direct with and with a transfer to CDG that's not too bad.
Lufthansa does offer some pretty good specials and we've had some good experiences on Lufthansa flights.
I did Seattle to Frankfurt direct with Lufthansa in December of 2008. While not AF, they both fly Airbus and are both direct. If the difference is less than a couple hundred dollars a ticket, it is probably worth it (for a couple of people). I have a policy against flying through domestic airports to save money- my brother and wife had a travel nightmare going through Chicago from Seattle on "cheap tickets" to Europe.
I have now been researching open-jaw Seattle to Paris and then Frankfurt to Seattle flights. I found Lufthansa to be fairly expensive to add Paris on to the route. British Air is the cheapest for when I am going (December), so far, but I am not sure how I feel about Heathrow. (We wouldn't mind checking out Harrods or Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, though!)
However, my parents just took Icelandair to Frankfurt, and I recommend taking a look at them. Customs in Iceland is supposed to be the quickest in the Schengen countries (you would not need to repeat customs in Paris), and with a smaller 757 they can go through a whole flight pretty fast. My parents' lay-over was just about 45 minutes, and it broke up the flights and gave them a chance to stretch their legs out. The total flight time + lay-over time was not much longer than a direct flight would have been, because they were not back-tracking. They were very happy with their experience.
If the savings on Icelandair is substantial over Air France, it is worth taking a look at. Over all the 1-stop flights, my research (and parents' experience, not mine), shows Icelandair to be a good deal.
