Betty1

Trying to get 11 people to Paris from CLT for dates shown above. I've been watching prices for months and this is the best I've seen. Reasonable layovers in MIA. Offered by 1800flyeurope. Really wanted the nonstop from CLT but it's been $1360 - $1400+ for months. I know that no one has a crystal ball but what's your opinion? Would you take this? I've got the tickets on hold until Tuesday.

CaliNurse

I'd take it for June!!Prices either will not come down at all, or if they do, it will be so small a difference, it will not be worth the continued time, energy and aggravation required to wait!!
Buy 'em,relax, and get on with planning the fun part--after you land !

amer_can

Go for it..Wait until Tuesday and see if anything opens uup then do it. Not a bad price for high season!!

dutyfree

Personally,for an additional $200,I would go for the nonstops. I think you are adding so many more hours on your trip not to mention if you are flying with different airlines ,you are adding more variables for problems . As in life,less airline legs means more vacation...just saying!Your dates really aren't the true high season as kids are still in school.

Ackislander

dutyfree raises an important issue. If you are flying airline A from CLT to MIA to catch airline B, what happens if airline A can't get you there because of thunderstorms etc?

How much is peace of mind worth? If you are paying the extra $200 each, economy may be worth the potential hassle; if they are paying, consider it as a percentage of the whole trip and ask what it is worth as insurance.

I think it is FlightAware that will give you the ontime ratings for those flights, a piece of data that might be useful in making up your mind.

But those tickets, as CaliNurse says, are not very likely to get cheaper.

Dukey1

What if the world comes to and end? You enter and win the lottery? Jesus comes back to Earth? Blah, BLAH, BLAH!!!!

I agree with taking the N/S just to avoid MIA if nothing else. But doing so because of this or that event? Nope. What if you died tomorrow? A waste of time to even contemplate.

Those prices out of CLT are NOT going to drop. WHY would they???

Really? Why?

Do yourself a favor...prices have been going UP for decades.

ira

Hi B1,

Last Sept my Lady Wife and I had tickets for ATL--> MIA--> BCN.

All went well as we boarded the plane for MIA.

2 hrs later we were taken off the plane for MIA.

Since it was too late for us to make our connection in MIA, the airline personnel did their best to get us the most reasonable flight to BCN.

This turned out to be a flight to FRA, a 2 hr layover and a flt to BCN.

We arrived at 16:30 instead of 08:30.

You decide how much the NS flt is worth.

ira

PS,

We arrived with one carryon.

The small checked suitcase arrived in 2 days.

The large one arrived 2 hrs before we had to leave BCN.

gracejoan

Personally I would not go via Miami!. I fly from Asheville to Paris often and I go via ATL.

Watch those direct flights out of Charlotte as often the return port of entry is Philadelphia and everyone says to avoid it like the plague...

Good luck...

Gretchen

Have you checked RDU or even Greensboro?

Betty1

I guess what really galls me is that last year May 22 - June 10 we paid $740 for the nonstop from CLT. Tickets bought in early November. I wasn't expecting that again but maybe something around $1000.

The flight through MIA is all on American with about with about 2 hrs layover on the outbound and 2.5 hrs on the inbound. I just checked to see if they have another flight leaving MIA later and they do but it goes through LHR and doesn't get to Paris until the afternoon. Of course there's no guarantee there would be room on that flight if we should miss our connection.

The n/s on US Airways is presently $1403 so the difference between the two flights is $250+. When I check the seat map on US Airways the planes appear to be only about half full both ways. (Not sure I can trust that.) I keep thinking that they can't afford to operate a flight with that many empty seats and might reduce the fare to fill it up. Faulty logic?

So I guess we have three options: A) pay the $1400 and consider it money well spent for the convenience of a nonstop. B) buy the tickets for $1149 on American and put up with the longer flight, possible delay or C) wait and hope that one or both of these come down (and pray they don't go up!)

Aaarrrgh! I hate this!

Christina

I'm seeing similar fares for other routes on other airlines this summer, I think that $1400 ish price is going to be it. In fact, that isn't bad compared to what I'm seeing (more like $1475 on a shorter route).

I would never take connections in order to save $250, I think my time is more valuable than that (aside from the issue of possible delays or missed planes). Figure it out per hour of your time including the transfers and waiting time, and decide if it's wroth it to you. I am assuming that is NS both ways, if so, I definitely would pay it. Other people actually don't mind and seem to have plenty of free time and think their time is free (maybe if you are retired you feel that way more), so wouldn't care. In fact, I have one friend who actually likes a stop to break things up and get off the plane. I could see that if it was the same amount of total time, but it never is.

dutyfree

If it is worth anything-there was a graphy circulating just the other day that says that we are all paying 30% less than we did 20 years ago for tickets which I agree on.You sure aren't going to be driving from CLT to CDG for $1100 the way the gas prices are going?

denmal

Try looking on Lufthansa - CLT to Munich or Frankfurt... It is not non-stop but if you get stuck , you are stuck in Europe were you can hop a train