Finding cheap Paris airfares is essentially a matter of knowing how, where and when to look.
I used to rely on discount travel agencies and consolidators to find what they considered a good deal, but no longer. Not that they did that poor of a job. The landscape has simply evolved so much that these days I can just as efficiently -and often better- do my own comparison shopping online, with more advantageous results.
Take a look at this special I spotted. These seasonal deals return year after year: $499 roundtrip airfare to Paris, no week-end restrictions, including 4 nights at the Pavillon Pereire Arc de Triomphe hotel (near the Champs Elysées), free breakfast daily and a Seine River cruise (by Air France Holidays). Amazing! If I were you, I would join our Paris Clubhouse so you could get an alert from me every time I receive these deals…
In these times of high fuel prices and expensive air travel, it’s easy to get freaked out by often outrageous airfares, but with a little planning and research, I have been pleasantly surprised to find relatively cheap Paris airfares consistently.
The key is planning. If you’re leaving in 3 days, your chances for a good deal are markedly worse than if you have at least 3 weeks to work with.
My best overall recommendation for finding fares has to go to Kayak.com. It allows you to Find Cheap Flights from 100+ Sites with One Click.
This is a great place to start your search simply because it’s a very powerful travel search engine and it does not try to sell you anything. It was also founded and is run by people with top-notch experience specific to this field.
If a published airfare is not listed in Kayak.com, I doubt that you’ll find it anywhere else. In fact, you'll find airfares here from Airlines like JetBlue that do not normally publish with online travel sites. By making this the starting point to your comparison-shopping, you can begin playing with various dates and combinations until you find your cheapest selection. So, take a look at their Cheap Flights
and Travel Deals
first.
Using a recent October trip to Paris as an example, (I’m giving this date to frame the context and time of year - I realize that fares increase over time, but mechanisms remain similar), I looked at quite a few online options, starting approximately a month before my trip - but sooner is always better.
For preliminary searches, I kept my travel dates flexible by plus or minus 3 days and watched the effect on the quoted prices.
Among my initial results, Air Tahiti Nui, which has a regular L.A./Paris schedule on their Tahiti-France route, was about 40% less than the average $600-$700 roundtrip generally offered on advance purchases (that's around $400!). However, as can be expected, those seats sold out before I could say Aah!!
Swiss Air and Air Canada also had some very competitive deals in the $500 range; not bad for West Coast prices. These are usually East Coast fares. Overall, there was a plethora of really affordable deals. The problem was to find the right dates and availability combination. I gave myself a bit more research time and googled my way through anything that caught my eye.
Eventually, as time became of the essence, I had to make my move. The best performer that time was Hotwire.com. I kept coming back to the best deals they had listed, and time after time, the fares were good and so were the dates and seat availability. I even got to pick a window seat and reserve it through an aircraft seating-chart, all online.
I had never used Hotwire.com but my first experience with them proved very successful, so I’m happy to recommend them and I will use them again.
I received confirmation of my e-ticket and itinerary with all the necessary information immediately. The ticket I bought also allowed changes to my trip dates (for a fee), which was important in case I had a change of plans while in Paris.
I liked the flexibility. Discount tickets purchased through travel agencies usually made it a nightmare for me to change travel dates, usually forcing me to either travel as planned or buy another ticket. In that sense, a “normal” ticket at a low price was a real winner.
While my experience may not always be duplicated, my understanding is that Hotwire.com basically works with major airlines (in this case American Airlines), hotels and other brand name travel companies by “helping them reduce unsold inventories”. That’s how they’re able to negotiate great deals on flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, etc.
For the same reason, your luck in finding cheap Paris airfares specifically with them may depend on available inventory. But if you start your search early enough, you will find cheap Paris airfares.
These days there are services after services such as Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, Priceline.com and more, all working their tails off to get your business.
Although I have not personally used Orbitz, feel free to try them out as well, at Orbitz.com. This is another place where I have often spotted some very interesting deals.
Another great tool I discovered is the new Yahoo! Farechase. This is first and foremost a search engine, not an online store. It will display a multitude of fares obtained through Yahoo!’s list of participating airlines and hotels. Then, it will link you to the company of your choice for purchases, bookings and all other dealings. Yahoo! will not be involved in the actual transactions.
You can check out Yahoo! Farechase and do extensive comparison shopping at: Http://farechase.yahoo.com
One final thing to keep in mind is that high-season (June through September) and the Holidays can have a brutal effect on securing cheap Paris airfares. Therefore, it is particularly important that you plan early if you must travel during those periods. Have I already said plan early?
I hope these tips show you what I do, and help you research your own cheap Paris airfares. I will be adding new outstanding tools as I come across them. If any of you have had a great experience finding cheap Paris airfares, please share the wealth. Click here to join the Clubhouse and also, receive hot alerts whenever cheap Paris airfares are announced. You can't beat that with a bat!!
General tips for cheap airfares
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