Almost all of the time, I fly from New York’s JFK airport to Paris.   Generally, it is the most inexpensive route from the U.S.   However, there are times when it might be less expensive to go from Boston, Newark, Philadelphia, Atlanta, or even Miami even if I need to pay for transportation to get to an airport further away from home.

If I am paying for my ticket (as opposed to using frequent flyer miles, which I will talk about later), I start looking at prices about six months before my trip.   The website that I find most useful to get a good idea as to what airfares will be is www.itasoftware.com.    In addition to showing a wide variety of airlines, there are criteria that you can search on such as the cheapest flight within a range of dates.  For example, let’s say I want to take a trip to Paris for 6-8 nights sometime in the month of June, I can specify that in my search criteria.  The website will list the cheapest options along with the airlines.

I like to purchase my ticket 2-3 months before I depart.  So, about six months before departure, I track the flight(s) I am interested in at www.yapta.com.   By e-mail, I will be immediately notified of any decreases (or increases) in fares so I can jump on a bargain if one comes up.

If I am using frequent flyer miles, some planning in advance is required.  Generally, airlines accept reservations 330 days in advance of a flight.   Therefore when booking a summer or holiday-time flight to Paris, I try to book as close to the 330 days as possible.  Recently, I booked an outbound trip to Rome and a return through Milan during the Easter season using my frequent flyer miles.  Even though I booked about 310 days in advance, I was not able to get the exact days I wanted to fly.

When traveling during the off-season (mid-October through mid-May), I book using my frequent flyer miles about 8-10 months in advance.

If you are paying for your flight, the most expensive time to go is during the summer months.  From JFK in New York, flights average about $900-$1000.   In the off-season they are about 70% of that price.  It is not uncommon to see airfare “sales” that further discount those rates, but usually these appear only in the off-season.