We plan to leave for Paris (one way) at the end of March 2012. Which DC airport is best and cheapest to fly from - IAD or BWI? and which Paris airport is best to fly to - CDG, ORY or PAR? Which airlines offer the best coach flights? We plan to also purchase a connecting flight to Nice. Some say it's cheaper to fly out of NY.
Posted by
New Paltz, NY
9100 posts
The only way to know which airport is cheapest is to research the fares at a site like http://www.kayak.com. All transatlantic flights go to CDG; no flights to Orly. Newark Airport has an Amtrak Station, so it would be fairly easy to take the train from DC to Newark if it happened to be cheaper.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23275 posts
A better explanation of your travel plans might be in order if you want better information. It could be cheaper to buy a RT to Paris and throw away the return. The NY area "tends" have cheaper prices at times because of the three big airports and competition. But the only way to answer your question is for you to do you own homework and prices all the locations. There is no automatic given that one airport is cheaper than another. It just depends.
Posted by
Reston, Virginia
403 posts
Another consideration might be that it is possible to fly direct from JFK to Nice, whereas for any flight leaving from WAS you have to connect in Paris. If Nice is your ultimate destination, I would personally rather connect out of JFK than in CDG, and of course you can easily TGV back to Paris if that is your final destination. It would be easier to give specific advice if you provided somewhat more detail about your intended itinerary.
Posted by
Copenhagen, Denmark
265 posts
Also, there is no 'PAR' airport. PAR is the common code for all Paris airports. Some Metro areas with more than one airports have a code for the entire area to allow searches for multiple airports at once. Examples are: NYC covers EWR, JFK and LGA LON covers LHR, LGW, STN, LCY and LTN BER covers TXL and SXF (until 3 June 2012 where the new Berlin airport opens, which will get the code BER) STO covers ARN, NYO, BMA, and VST PAR covers CDG, ORY and BVA WAS covers DCA, IAD and BWI CHI covers ORD and MDW
MOW covers SVO, DME, VKO and BKA and so on. Not all booking engines include exactly the same airports in these codes, though.
Posted by
OP
Olympia, Wa
2 posts
I think I figured it out. Thanks for the replies, unless anyone has better ideas. I found it's best (for us) to fly from Dulles straight to London (LHR), then straight to Nice, all on British Airways - Premium Economy. Round trip -two people $2607.00. If I kept searching, probably could find a better price, but I like the fact it's British Airways all the way.
Posted by
Corsicana, Texas, USA
354 posts
To determine your total cost, don't forget to add the seat reservation fee, if desired. For some of the British Airways ticket levels, to reserve a specific seat prior to the 24 hour check-in period, passengers pay an optional fee for each person, each flight segment. You might investigate if Premium Economy passengers pay this fee.