Flight Ticket Prices

Travel at the Right Price

• Check the flight price guide

One of the key things when looking for a flight ticket is to have at least an idea of the possible price range for your destination.

Calendar and Price Variations

Everyone has their own dates, but it’s important to know that when it comes to air travel, a difference of just a few days can lead to big savings—or, on the contrary, a much higher cost. That’s why it’s sometimes better to look for the best departure (and/or return) date rather than the best travel agency or airline, especially when it comes to charters.

Of course, in air travel as elsewhere, it’s the principle of supply and demand that determines the calendar and the resulting price variations. The rise of competition between tour operators and airlines has made things quite unclear and not always logical. Add to that the widespread system of aggressive promotions and other special offers, which only complicates things further...

Price Revisions

Theoretically, airfares are reviewed twice a year, at the end of March and the end of October (which is when professionals release their catalogues). Between each revision, the calendar can generally be divided into two periods: the "high season," which corresponds to summer and Christmas holidays (hence the importance of knowing school holiday dates), plus other holiday periods for certain destinations, and the "low season," which is the rest of the year.

From these basics, things actually get more complicated. That’s why it’s already useful to distinguish between charters, low-cost flights, and scheduled flights (and occasionally between destinations).

The Advantage of the Internet

Fortunately, the Internet is here and simplifies things considerably, especially through online booking systems. You can run as many simulations as you want to find the best dates and prices for your destination. In fact, don’t hesitate to search over several days (or even in nearby departure/arrival cities), across multiple search engines, and also check the websites of tour operators and airlines (since no one offers a 100% complete range for a destination).

The Charter System

This is the system promoted by many tour operators for the most popular tourist destinations. Easy to recognise, it separates the prices for outbound and return flights. In this case, the calendar depends first on the tour operator (so compare them), and price variations are almost constant. Overall, this calendar is actually a succession of more or less short periods alternating between high and attractive prices, with the most expensive being, of course, during peak travel times.

Some Observations

-# High prices are, of course, directly linked to school holidays. That means for summer departures: early July (the official start of holidays), early August (the worst), and to a lesser extent July 14th and August 15th; the main returns being at the end of July and the end of August. The same applies during Christmas or Easter holidays. For nearby destinations, you can also add shorter holiday periods and the May bank holidays. However, between these peaks, tour operators occasionally offer much more attractive prices.

-# Weekend flights are sometimes more expensive than weekday flights.

-# Leaving when everyone else is returning can save you money. The best time is the last weekend of the Christmas holidays, but also (for other reasons) January and, to a lesser extent, November; early August, on the other hand, is the most expensive.

-# During staggered holidays between school districts, like at Easter, if there are departures from different cities, price increases generally follow the schedule. Hence the importance of comparing prices between departure locations.

-# For various reasons, there may be a one- or two-day difference between tour operators at the start or end of a period. That’s why it’s worth checking their websites.

-# If there are only summer charters to a destination (e.g., Greek islands), the summer period is often actually cheaper than the rest of the year.

-# For some destinations, prices vary more based on the number of flights offered than on the price range.

-# Finally, at the worst times, a scheduled flight can often be cheaper than a charter (especially with certain tour operators).

To Save Money

The three main tips:

• Avoid travelling during peak migration periods and school holidays. This is by far the number one rule if you want to save money on charters and, more generally, on travel.

• Conversely, favour departures when everyone else is returning.

• During staggered school holidays, and depending on where you live, check departures from other nearby cities not necessarily in the same school district (e.g., Toulouse and Bordeaux).

Low-Cost Flights

Like charters, low-cost flights separate the prices for outbound and return flights. More than any other system, the pricing of "budget" airlines loves to fluctuate. From a symbolic 1 € ticket to a price almost identical to that of a traditional airline, anything is possible and changes constantly.

Some Observations

-# Like charters, prices follow demand and skyrocket during peak periods. That means school holidays for tourist destinations, or for others, weekend departures/returns or flights that allow you to leave early and return late in the day.

-# Conversely, during off-peak periods (dates and/or times of day), low-cost fares... can be really low-cost (but watch out for extra charges).

-# Price information by date is almost exclusively available on the airlines’ websites, including their promotions.

To Save Money

The three main tips:

• As with charters, avoid peak departure/return dates, including even the time of day for certain destinations.

• Keep an eye on the "news" and offers from low-cost airlines directly on their websites; their super-low prices usually don’t stay available for long.

• Beyond the advertised price, also pay attention to the increasingly numerous extra charges with these types of carriers. The "real" price to pay must indeed take these into account.

Scheduled Flights

With rare exceptions (charter principle), it’s the airline that decides its calendar, which is then generally replicated by travel agencies. The big advantage is that prices are fixed within each period. So you no longer have to search day by day for the best dates; you just need to know the different seasons of the carriers.

But it’s true that from one airline to another, the number or duration of seasons can vary. Moreover, with the same carrier, you’ll notice that there isn’t always consistency in this regard depending on the destinations offered. And ultimately, to find a good deal, it will also and above all depend on the price increases applied (and the type of airline: expensive or budget). Depending on the destinations and airlines, the increases for the same flight will indeed vary greatly from one season to another—from just a few dozen euros to several hundred. In short, it’s often very difficult to figure out...

Some Observations

-# For certain routes, particularly intra-European ones, the calendar is primarily based on the daily level of flight occupancy, much like low-cost flights.

-# As with charters, weekend flights can sometimes be more expensive than weekday flights. Although this is quite rare, it happens with some airlines flying to the United States/Canada. On the other hand, a very touristy destination offered on a scheduled flight (e.g., the West Indies) may sometimes have pricing structures quite similar to charters.

-# Airlines that regularly offer promotions on part or all of their network have, in a way, created a new period in their calendar.

-# Occasionally, the different seasons can also affect the benefits offered to passengers.

-# Finally, don’t forget that while prices rise during our holidays, the same can happen in the countries we visit but at a different time of year, such as in the southern hemisphere.

To Save Money

The three main tips:

• Check the high-season periods of airlines and the differences between them.

• Get an idea of the airlines that are traditionally budget-friendly and the others, as well as the range of their price variations depending on the period.

• And above all, more simply, use the Internet to run simulations over several dates. The Web is, in this case, the best tool for synthesising scheduled flights.

About Fares

How to try to make sense of what has become a real jungle...

Official Pricing

This is the pricing originally offered by airlines and which prevailed until travel, competition, and deregulation became more widespread. Of course, this full fare still exists. But despite the flexibility in terms of date, time, validity, or changes, very few people use it for leisure travel, preferring much cheaper fares even if it means adapting to constraints. It must also be said that for those with a minimum of flexibility or time, the advantages of the full fare can represent an expensive luxury. For example, a round-trip Paris-New York ticket far exceeds 1,500 € under these conditions.

Airline Discounts

With the evolution of the market, airlines have decided to offer and develop various discount systems, providing, depending on the case, 25% to 80% off official fares. Generally, these can be open to everyone or, on the contrary, reserved for particular categories of passengers or geographic areas. These discounts come with constraints and are sometimes limited in the number of seats available. They are, depending on the case, passed on through travel agency networks (child fares, infant fares, "negotiated" fares, various promotions) or, on the contrary, available directly from the carriers (loyalty programmes, subscriptions, couple fares...).

Category Discounts

These primarily concern infants (under 2 years old), who often benefit from a 90% discount, children (from 2 years old up to their 12th birthday), for whom discounts can go up to 50%, young people (12 to 25/26 years old), students (under 27/30 depending on the airline), and seniors (over 60), who can also obtain preferential rates.

Other people, depending on the airline or destination, can sometimes get special, sometimes interesting prices. This includes married or cohabiting couples travelling together, families (minimum 3 people), groups (variable number, but often 10 minimum), as well as newlyweds, people with disabilities, foreign workers returning to their country of origin, and even religious figures (notably to Africa with Air France).

As for constraints, while they are limited for domestic flights, for international routes they are often more significant, especially for categories other than "infants" and "children."

Subscriptions and Loyalty Programmes

The possible discounts with a subscription also depend on the number of trips, the routes taken, and the duration of the subscription card. This is a system you’ll find primarily on the domestic network(s) of airlines, but also in the French overseas territories. These subscriptions can be personal but also, for companies, open to several people at the same time. Special subscriptions also exist for young people and students.

As for the loyalty programmes offered by most carriers or airline alliances, they apply to larger geographic areas and can concern all or part of the network of one or more airlines. By accumulating flight distances (and the services of the airlines’ partners), you can eventually benefit from various advantages such as upgrades, discounts, or free flights.

Discounts Open to Everyone

At the national or international level, for France or abroad, all these preferential fares have the particularity of offering attractive discounts open to everyone all year round; the basic constraints being more or less the same as those of "category" fares. This system now exists with almost all airlines and is often passed on by travel agencies or search engines (hence identical prices between all at any given moment).

In a way, you could say that these preferential fares—also more broadly called "negotiated" fares—have become the "norm" and correspond to the public offers you find everywhere.

Tour Operator Fares and Discounts

Another traditional player in the sale of flight tickets, travel agencies and other tour operators. Even though more and more airlines sell their flights directly and no longer commission intermediaries much, they are still very much present.

Scheduled Flights

As relays for airlines, tour operators and agencies market their preferential offers. Of course, each tour operator initially chooses to work more or less with the airlines of their choice, which explains why you won’t necessarily find the same ones from one to another. However, through booking systems, they all have (at any given moment) identical prices for the same tickets. This means that for negotiated scheduled flights, for a similar offer (same ticket from the same airline under the same conditions), there won’t be one agency that’s really cheaper than another; the small price differences you might see come from different margins or seasonal price variations offered by the airline that the travel agency may or may not pass on. As for price differences between tour operators for a destination, in 99% of cases, they come from a different choice of carrier.

Charter Flights

In addition to regular routes, many tour operators offer charter flights or tickets for certain destinations. Schematically, these tour operators, having bought a certain number of seats outright from carriers, can apply the pricing they want and occasionally offer all kinds of promotions. Unlike negotiated scheduled flights, there can indeed be big differences from one tour operator to another for the same charter flight.

"Yield Management" and Other Oddities

"Yield Management"

Meanwhile, for the passenger, things remain more complicated when it comes to finding the best price. Indeed, for both, what’s called "yield management"—or more simply, real-time price variation based on availability—has been in place for several years.

Thus, two people making the same trip on the same plane, with the same services for the same class and the same ticket bought from the same source, will not pay the same price depending on when they made their reservation. It’s a lottery over which the customer has little control, except theoretically to book their ticket as early as possible.

Cheaper Further Away

Another pricing oddity is that you’ll often pay less for the same flight with a pre-connection from a neighbouring country than from your home base. In other words, Air France’s Brussels-Paris-New York is generally cheaper when bought as such than as Paris-New York (just check on a search engine). It’s a way to attract foreign customers. Hence the little tip for those who live between the two cities to depart from Belgium in this case (however, it’s not possible to board in Paris if you have a departure from Brussels, or you’ll lose your entire ticket).

Displayed Prices

An important criterion if there ever was one, but it’s better to try to find the best "quality-price" ratio rather than just the price. Because beyond the fare displayed for a flight, there can also be various extras (taxes, insurance, booking fees) or multiple constraints (overnight stays at your expense) whose costs will ultimately confirm that "the cheapest isn’t always the most economical."

Introductory Prices

That’s why you need to be careful with introductory prices. These are the fares on which a tour operator or airline bases its advertising for a destination, and in too many cases, the goal is still to attract the customer to ultimately sell them a more expensive ticket. Often, the fare in question is only valid, for example, for short off-season periods, for a very limited number of seats, under special conditions, without the various extras to be paid, or simply for a one-way trip.

Variations

For regular routes sold as such, it’s true that you won’t always find the same price everywhere for the same ticket.

For various reasons (extras decided by the tour operator, not passing on all the airline’s seasonal variations), there can be small price differences. However, these remain very often minimal. Because now, most airlines offer identical prices to all major tour operators (who in this case only act as "ticket resellers") as well as on their websites.

In fact, for scheduled flights, you can no longer really say that one tour operator is really cheaper than another. And very often, the differences between advertised prices for the same scheduled route will first depend on the airlines proposed by each (or a difference in validity for the same airline). Because in absolute terms, an Aeroflot ticket will always be cheaper than a Singapore Airlines ticket, regardless of the point of sale.

On the other hand, for charters, things are different; tour operators who own the seats apply the pricing of their choice.

Total Cost of a Ticket

Due to competition and the logic of "as cheap as possible," it’s rare for the displayed fare to correspond to the actual price you have to pay. So you often have to add, whether you go to a "real" or "virtual" agency:

-# Travel insurance, although legally not mandatory.

-# Booking fees, which, now that airlines no longer commission travel agencies, can amount to several dozen euros with some intermediaries.

-# The French airport security tax and foreign airport taxes (also depending on the airlines used), not always included in the displayed price.

-# At the limit, the time spent and costs of searching for your ticket by phone, Internet, premium-rate phone services, etc., can also be taken into account (airport transfers, overnight stays at your expense, etc., being rather included in the price of the trip).

In practice, it’s therefore quite common to have to pay an additional 15 € to 75 € directly.