needtixtofrance

Hello,

I am looking to get tickets to fly to France in mid -August. I have to go there on specific dates to attend two weddings. The prices are atrocious - around $1500 from LAX. Bidding on priceline is not giving me a better deal. I am not sure if I should wait another month or two or try to find a buddy pass? I have no idea how to do that. What are my choices...I really do not want to pay more than $1000/ticket. PLEASE HELP!

Thanks!

IAHRyan

That sounds about right for August on a route like that. Maybe you’ll get down to $1200, but with the way fuel prices are going, I wouldn’t expect it.

BryanIAH

Have you looked at alternate airports? As IAHRyan said, summer fares are always high and the price of oil isn't helping.

onlyairfare

I'd agree with IAHRyan, it's going to be hard to do much better than $1,200 - $1,500 and that's probably trying some alternate routes besides LAX-CDG. I keep CLT-FRA and CLT-CDG on Farewatch, and right now, $1,200 from the east coast is pretty good.

You might check out SEA (cheap Allegiant fares to BLI from LA-area) or MSP (I think Icelandic may sometimes have cheap fares to Luxemburg) as US starting points, and land in Ireland, or a London-area airport, or Luxemburg. But you would still have to get to the departure point and then on to your actual destination.

Occasionally vayama will have "special fare," but with oil prices on the way up, and flights pretty full I don't know that I would hold out for a great deal at the last minute.

Wally Bird

Unless there's going to be a fare sale (highly unlikely!) that would appear to be the going rate. It's about the same from SFO and SEA.

DesertNomad

I'd take it soon. I was looking at fares from Reno to Prague and all were in the $1800 range... I ended up using miles (DL 75,000) to book it. DOn't know why Europe is so high this year... the cheapest fare I found to Prague was via Dubai... which works ok for me as I used to live there and have lots of friends there.

timfountain

Agreed with the above posters, $1500-$1800 is the new discounted price to Europe, especially for that time of year. Gone are the days of $600 TATL tickets.

- Tim

needtixtofrance

That is really crazy! Tickets to India are $1200-$1500 - I did not anticipate paying so much for France??

dd992emo

Nothing crazy about it. Don't know about everyone else, but I'll take France over India in August...

tommyleo

And you know that for certain? Airlines are now adding back some of the segments that were cut during the recession. Airlines will typically over-expand until the next recession hits them by surprise, then prices plummet and the cycle starts all over again.

needtixtofrance

Well, trust me, whether you want to visit India in August or not, the demand to fly back to India is huge - have you noticed the number of Indians in the US with families in India?

TrojanHorse

If I was starting at LAX

I'd look for the cheapest ticket from anywhere in the lower 48 to CDG or alternate airport

then find a cheap ticket to that domestic starting point

While its no guarantee that it will be any cheaper, you may shave enough off your fare to save a few hundred bucks. Only you will know what will make it worth your while to do something like that

if you only want to go non-stop or have one change of planes, then you are not helping yourself

BLI-Flyer

Also keep in mind that a buddy pass may not help if you have to be somewhere on a specific date. Most are standby passes and flights to Europe are generally full in the summer. You may sit around in an airport waiting for a flight for a few days and miss the weddings you want to attend.

pinworm

I would consult a travel agent. They can get you onto package charters for much less. If you throw in everything including your hotel etc, they can find you a good deal on a charter.

clacko

i would go for the $1500.....

personally, i am shuffling around on a $ 1900 rt to argentina in aug...and have already seen a $ 150 increase...

harking back, 25 years ago, we paid ~ $1300 ea to europe in the summer on aa but had confirmed ug's on the flights....might have been able to save a couple of texas tens w/o the ug....

my point is that an increase of $200 in 25 yrs isn;t much...the sticker shock is from the airlines committing suicide w/ over capacity recently....

good luck......