Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars... 🎶🎶🎶
Well, we're just about 8 ½ months out from your "Beautiful Villages of Provence" Tour... So if you haven't done so yet, it's time to start looking for and booking flights! Demand is very high, so the longer you wait, the less choices there will be.
If you're a frequent traveler, and have lots of experience finding and acquiring your own air tix, you may want to just skip this post... But for any of you that might want a few tips for finding the best flights, we're going to go into some of the basic things to look for here in this post...
Flights
So foremost in this preparation, is to decide where you want to fly out of here in the US, and into in France... If you haven't done this yet, we suggest you start looking. We've heard from some of you that you plan on flying over early and spending a few days in Paris before the Tour... In this case you're obviously looking for flights into Paris, but you'll need to think about where you want to return from. If you're heading home right after the tour, you could perhaps do a multi-city itinerary, ~ that is, into Paris, return from Marseille.
For any of you that aren't doing a pre-tour destination, and are coming in just for the Tour, we always suggest you consider flying in at least one day early... That would mean flying out on Thursday night, and getting into wherever you are flying into France on Friday morning and spending that night in a hotel... You certainly don't have to do this, as you won't be able to come to The Villa before 4pm on Saturday... We have had many guests fly out Friday night to arrive Saturday morning, but again, we forewarn you of the possibility of flight delays. Also, the extra day gives you a little time to adjust from jet lag and time zone differences (6 hours).
click this pic for a clearer view
Everyone always asks: Which airport is closest to The Villa? And the answer to that is Marseille (MRS) (about an hour and 15 min drive). There's also Airports in Lyon, Nice, Montpellier and Avignon as well but far fewer flights into these. Marseille will likely be your best choice if you're just trying to get close to The Villa. And know that prices can sometimes vary dramatically depending on the airport you fly out of here in the US... For those of you flying out of the Northeast US, you'll find that flying out of JFK airport in NY usually has the best pricing and the most flights, but of course it's a little more of a commitment to get there... We most often now fly out of Newark NJ (EWR) or Philadelphia (PHL) and find that EWR prices are usually 2nd best to JFK... Those of you farther South, will likely find the best prices out of Charlotte, Atlanta or Miami...
Flight Tips: We always suggest sticking with a "legacy" carrier such as United, Delta, American, Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France, etc... You can certainly find less expensive flights, but you should be aware that sometimes the discount airlines only fly these transatlantic routes a couple times a week, and don't have affiliations/codeshares with other airlines... and if they cancel your flight, they sometimes can't get you on another flight in a reasonable amount of time... We've had guests who scored great priced tix on some of these discount airlines, and then had last minute delays or cancellations and lost a day of their vacations.
Other things to think about as you search: Flight duration and number of stops... Obviously a nonstop flight is quicker with less chance of missing a flight or losing luggage, and if you're flying into Paris, you'll easily find nonstop flights... But if you're trying to fly into Marseille, you'll most likely be on at least a one-stop flight. Non-stops to Paris can be found with a flight duration of as little as 7 - 8 hours, whereas one stops into Marseille are often around 11 - 12 hours (including the connection). Also you'll want to keep in mind connection times... On any connection less then 70 - 90 minutes, there's always a chance your checked luggage (and possibly even you) may not make the connection... (especially if your first leg of the flight is delayed).
So, if you haven't bought air tix yet, there's three basic ways to acquire them:
1.Go online and buy them yourself at an airline's website or online agency.
2. Call the airline customer service and buy them over the phone
3. Go to a Travel Agent and have them buy tix for you
Buying online Most of our guests over the years just go online and buy their own tix... This method has the obvious advantage of you taking as much time as you need to see all the options; all the airlines, their flight times, stops, connection times, total flight duration, and of course price. Pick the flights you want and put in your credit card info. Not a whole lot different than buying a toaster oven on Amazon. (pro tip: clear your cache & history on your computer after each session as they often put cookies on your IP address, and sometimes when their servers see you returning with the same search over and over, the prices can go up).
Calling the Airline Having good results with calling the Airline and buying them from their customer service agents has a whole lot to do with the actual agent that you end up speaking to. Just like any other industry, some service agents are much better and more helpful than others... To accomplish this with the most ease, we suggest getting up and calling early in the morning as wait times will be significantly shorter... Mid-day and early evening wait times of an hour or more are not unusual. Be sure to tell them what's most important to you. (price, # of stops, or flight duration). Also, being very polite (they deal with a lot of nasty people) and perhaps saying something sincere like; "I really need your help, I tried to do this online myself but I'm just not comfortable..." If you get an unhelpful or unpleasant agent, just say thank you, and call back at a later time... (Tip: When dealing with customer service agents on the phone, write down their name when they first introduce themselves, and use it throughout the conversation; "Thanks so much Nancy, I really appreciate your help". It's proven to get better results.)
if you look closely, that's us- just over the wing
Travel Agent Travel Agents are professionals and not unlike airline customer service agents, some are much better, much more experienced, and more helpful than others. If you already have have a good travel agent, you can by all means use them, but be aware that these days Travel Agents usually don't make commissions on Airline tix, so they'll charge you a fee to do this for you... especially if that's all you're buying from them. (usually this is between $25 -$50 per tix). You might also sense some resentment that you didn't come to them for your vacation plans...
Things to keep in mind when shopping for tix:
Often, the most basic of economy tix won't include checked luggage fees (read carefully)
Allow extra time between flights if your flight includes a connection (90 minutes minimum recommended)
Keep in mind that the more connections you have, the more chances of you or your luggage missing a connection.
Discount airlines vs legacy carriers: be careful with the discount airlines... sometimes they only have a couple flights a week on a given route and they may not have "codeshares" with other airlines (so if your flight is cancelled or delayed for some reason, it could be difficult to get on another flight).
We always suggest the larger legacy carriers... examples: United, Delta, American, Lufthansa, British Airways, Emirates, Air France, etc.
While some guests arrange their flights to arrive the first day of the Tour (Saturday), we usually suggest you consider flying over at least one day earlier and staying in your arrival city in a hotel for at least one night just to be safe in case of cancelled or delayed flights. (this is of course totally your choice)
If you're thinking of flying home on the Saturday immediately after your Provence Tour, be careful concerning how early your flight leaves (you'll need to drive to the airport, return your car, get a shuttle from the car return lot to the terminal, and check-in a few hours before your flight departure... all of that can be pretty tough to do if you have a 9am flight... you may want to consider an afternoon or next day flight.
Lastly, we suggest you spend some time researching before you pull the trigger on buying tix... (watch prices for a few days to a few weeks). Prices vary daily...
Ticket prices can vary dramatically based on airline, oil prices, demand, departure & arrival airports, days of the week, class of tix, checked luggage, etc... For long term planning, we usually suggest a budget of around $1200 -$1700 per person for roundtrip economy tixs... Tickets are easy to purchase directly on line... Right now, we're seeing roundtrip economy tix into/out-of Paris for as little as $950... Into and out of Marseille for around $1300... And Multi-City economy tix (into Paris/out of Marseille) on legacy carriersin and around the $1300 range.... And of course prices can go up significantly for Premium Economy, Business Class, and so forth.
Everyone has their own strategies, but we always start our flight research at a site like www.kayak.com, or Google flights and once we find the flights we want, we personally buy them directly from the airline's website... If you're uncomfortable researching this by yourself, give us a call; we are Tour Operators notTravel Agents, but we'll be happy to try to help... And lastly of course, you could use a professional travel agent to purchase tix for you. They'll usually charge in the neighborhood of $25 - $50 per tix.
Passports
Make sure your passport is valid until at least 6 months after your return date... This is mandated by French law... If you don't have a passport yet, you will of course need one... and while historically they were usually pretty fast, they could take up to several months to arrive... And trust us on this; if you don't have a valid passport, they will not under any circumstance,allow you on the plane! If you need a passport, or need to renew yours, we suggest you start working on it now.
As always if you have questions, or need help, reach out to us! We're always happy to help! Start getting excited... Your adventure to France is just 8 months away! You're gonna have a Blast!
You don't need to fly to the moon... Just Provence!
