The idea of traveling to Paris is always exciting — until it comes time to budget for your airfare. Getting to the City of Light is not always as cheap as we would like, with round-trip ticket prices frequently topping $1,000 from the US.

EuroCheapo has you covered with the best affordable hotels in Paris, but how can you save on airfare?

In the past, we’ve shared tips about flying on budget airlines like Norwegian, and now we’re ready to share our secrets for getting to Paris on the cheap.

Here are six proven tips to help you score the best price on a ticket to Paris!

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How to find a cheap flight to Paris

Before you spend a bundle on your airfare, take a moment to see what our Paris correspondent, Mayowa Ige, does to score a low-cost flight.

1. Try a French budget airline

A few years ago, I scored a great deal using XL Airways, a budget airline that was based in France that made direct trips between Paris the US. I bought my one-way ticket to Paris (CDG) from Los Angeles (LAX) for $183. Unfortunately, XL went out of business in 2019. However, you can still get great deals on French Bee airlines with fares as low as $139.

No, you didn’t read that wrong.

Your flight won’t include any extras, so if you want to bring a bag to check, you’ll be paying extra. You can upgrade to a Smart ticket that includes a meal and a checked bag. For example, a recent search on French Bee had a one-way ticket for $178 from Newark to Paris on Basic and $248 for Smart.

Also, be sure to check out our guides to booking budget flights on Norwegian. While they’re not French companies, they do often run specials to Paris with draw-dropping low fares.

French Bee is a cheap way to get to Paris. Photo: Olivier

2. Buy your ticket during the wee hours

After living in Paris for three months, my mom decided she had had enough of FaceTime and Skype, so she started planning a visit in December 2017. With holiday markets and festive cheer in full swing, December is a popular month to visit Paris, but she managed to snag a 10-day round-trip flight with American Airlines from LAX to Paris for under $500. One 50-pound check-in bag, a carry on, and the food were included in the price.

How did she manage to score this deal?! By buying during the late night/early morning period. There is less online traffic at 1 am, so you can snag deals that “early birds” would have normally gotten by 6 am or 7 am.

3. Travel during the off-season

With the way the American work and school cycle is structured, vacations typically occur during the summer and major holidays, and this peak season usually means higher airfare prices. It will almost always be cheaper to go during the off-season, although sometimes you can find deals if you go during the beginning or end of the peak season.

You should also pay attention to European work and school cycles. In April, students get a 10-day vacation for Easter holiday and so inter-European flights may be slightly more expensive than normal because of the influx of students traveling.

Related: When (and when not) to visit Paris

The departures board at Charles de Gaulle (CDG). Photo: Pedro

4. Buy two one-way or open-jaw tickets

If you can’t beat the system, at least try to trick it! Buying two one-way tickets can cost the same as a round trip, and can actually work better for your travel plans.

For example, if your trip starts in Lisbon and ends in Berlin (with a stop in Paris along the way), you could buy a one-way to Lisbon, and a one-way home from Berlin, which saves you the hassle and expense of getting back to Lisbon to fly home. (In addition to one-way tickets, you should also check “open jaw” tickets that let you fly into one city and home from another.)

For a sample trip in early 2020, a one-way flight from LAX to Charles de Gaulle would cost $200. Then, a one-way flight from Berlin to LAX would cost $244. Meanwhile, a round trip from LAX to Paris and back would cost around $600. So, if you choose the one-way routes, you would be saving time and money in the long run because you won’t have to pay to return to Paris in order to fly back to the U.S.

5. Sign up for airline newsletters

Sale fares to Europe go fast… and if you plan to snag a steal, you need to know about it as soon as possible. One of the best ways to stay on top of the deals is to sign up for airline newsletters. Check out this guide to the best airline newsletters to subscribe to.

6. Change your language settings

If you’re planning on hopping around to different cities in Europe once you’re in Paris, you might want to check the different prices based on your language settings in your app or browser.

For example, I noticed that when I bought my tickets in Spanish, the euro prices were a bit cheaper than when I bought my tickets in English with American dollars. Since I was looking for inter-European flights, the savings were only $30-40 dollars, but considering that a round-trip flight from Paris to Madrid in mid-March 2018 is €42, you could end up saving quite a bit!

Your tips

Have you been able to find a cheap flight to Paris? Tell us your tricks and tips in the comments below.