ViolaineLazecki

Good evening everyone,

I fly from NY to Paris to see my family at least once a year, but the increase of the fares have made it more challenging to travel.

Would anyone know if by calling an airline on the day of departure and ask about the empty seats, I could purchase a seat at a much cheaper price?

Or would you have another tip on how to get a very last minute deal/or a seat a company cannot fill ? (I have checked all the websites I could online...)

Many thanks

Efrem

Welcome to FT!

Generally, a last-minute call will result in a higher price - not a lower one. The airlines figure that anyone who calls at the last minute really has to go and will pay almost any price for the ticket. (Think business travelers who just got told to go somewhere to close a sale, fix a problem, or calm down an angry customer.) While there are exceptions, this principle holds often enough that they aren't about to change their policy. If prices of unsold seats went down at the last minute, people who have some flexibility and know the general travel patterns would wait until then to buy, making planning much more difficult.

Consolidators and opaque sites such as Priceline are probably your best bet. Keep in mind that you won't earn frequent flyer miles on those tickets, but perhaps that's not a major issue for you.

Alpha Golf

Another option for you might be Norwegian, which flies fairly cheaply from NY to London Gatwick and Scandinavian destinations. From there you could probably get a low cost airline or (from London) train or bus. Will take much longer of course.

www.norwegian.com

ViolaineLazecki

I did think that airlines would not decrease their prices at the last minute. On the other hand, I thought that if they really need to fill up seats, they might give a good deal... I did check the low-cost companies, but for this trip it was not worth it (the price was almost as expensive as for a regular company)

Thank you

YVR Cockroach

As others said, standby is long dead. Dead for well over 25 years.

You might look into fares from Canada. There is a leisure airline called Transat that flies to Bordeaux as well as Paris in summer. Fares may go up or down as they're not a scheduled (only fly once or twice a week). Not to mention the 3x daily flights on AF from YUL to CDG.

Of course there is the cost of getting to/from Canada.

TWA884

Unless you have a friend who works for the airlines who gives you a buddy pass.

Fornebufox

If you can scrape together the miles, sometimes saver awards open up in the week before departure.

You could try flying into Brussels or Germany and taking the train.

Traveling outside of peak season (May-September) helps.

Maybe the Budget Travel forum would have ideas.

ViolaineLazecki

Thanks for the info... I like the idea of a buddypass! Just need to find the buddy with a pass lol ;-)

ViolaineLazecki

I am not sure about this one though, but thank you. ^

SeamusSA

Over the last several years the major airlines have reduced the number of flights and seats available, resulting in a change to the supply:demand ratio which affects price. In your situation I would watch for ads in the NY Times for charter or consolidator fares though they have become less of a bargain. You might sign up with one of the sites that lets you set up alerts for fare reductions - e.g, Travelocity will send you an email when the fare on the NYC-PAR route decreases by a specified amount.
Otherwise, look to alternative routing / carriers like Iceland Air that may get you across the pond to a place where you can pick up a low cost transport for the final part of the journey to Paris.
Bonne chance!

RhubarbPie

Why dont you stock up on BA Avios and book JFK>DUB awards on Aer Lingus and then pay for a cheap flight DUB>CDG. If you don't care which cabin you fly in, its only 25K avios r/t in economy with very low taxes. And avios are easy to collect with minimal effort - you could easily accrue enough for 1 trip a year.

SEA-Flyer

Another thing to check is XL Airways. My inlaws bought a cheap last minute one way from JFK-CDG a couple weeks back on them, and found another cheap last minute one-way CDG-LAS on them.

http://xlairways.fr

Usalv

If you're using a buddy pass, don't you fly stand by? But isn't the buddy passes with AF only can be used with relatives of the employees that work at AF?

Tamino

To my knowledge, buddy passes are not totally free of any fee or surcharge. There may also be tax implications for those distributing or using them. Buddy passes may sound like a good idea but there is no guarantee that you will find a seat when you want one.

With load factors as high as they are nowadays, these are best used by those with a lot of time on their hands.

Ghentleman

Good tips above regarding points/miles and cheap airlines.
Another option is the often cheap Jet Airways New York - Brussels.
From Brussels it's a relatively easy train ride into Paris. Not so much if you have lots of luggage.