I will be travelling from Toronto to France and Italy September/October and wondered - what is the best time to buy my ticket, departing from Canada.

Canadian dollar doing well against US$ but not so well against Euro, so I was trying to save some money - better spent eating and enjoying the sights

Doru - you are from Toronto - suggestions?

There really is no "best time". You need to watch airfare on the big 3 to get a feel for prices, then pick a floor and a ceiling and buy when you think the price is good. It sucks, I know but with the way fuel prices are going the airlines have to raise prices.

Ginger

The way fuel costs are rising, I would say if you think you have a good airfare, buy it. Chances are, you won't see it that low again.

I know we all like to hold out to get a "last minute bargain" but it has become too much of a crap shoot to wait, especially with fuel and airlines filing chapter 11 status.

Doug

I've never understood why, but the prices seem to bounce around a lot, so it pays to check prices frequently, and if you notice a significant drop--grab it quick! For example, a month or more ago, I checked on Spokane-Rome round-trip flights and saw prices near $1500. Two weeks ago, I could have bought two tickets for $970, including all taxes and fees, on Northwest airlines, but I stalled, and now they're asking $1200 for the very same flights. So now I have to go through the agony all over again of hoping for another "sale."

If you are flying from Toronto to Rome you might consider Skyservice. Bookings usually open up around Jan. for the May to Nov. season.
There is also Air Transat flying into France from Toronto.Same booking times as Skyservice. These flights usually offer an early booking bonus and I have seldom seen the prices go lower than what these early bookings offer.
And Air Canada offers flights but they may use partner airlines so ask about that. They have seat sales throughout the year, you just have to watch for them. Air Canada offers some premium seats on some flights now, similar to Skyservice's premium and Air Transat's Club Class seats. Economy prices for all three are about the same. $750-$850 Can.

Look at Flyzoom.com . I took a look for some dates in Sept./Oct., and saw rates as low as $600 CAD total for YYZ-CDG. You'd have to add a low-cost flight back to Paris from Italy. Or you could use Zoom to go YYZ-CDG and LGW-YYZ, with a low-cost flight back to London instead.

I don't know what the Air Canada total is for your itinerary, but this might be worth considering.

As a follow-up to my earlier comment: a few minutes ago, just out of curiosity, I went back to the Northwest airlines website and picked new flight dates in October/November (definitely not my preferred time.)

I was quoted $944, including all taxes and fees. So I expanded my search to include three days before and after--and got new quotes, across the board, that were considerably higher.

Curious, I went back to the first dates, and they now showed a price of $1093 per ticket. That's right, a jump of $149 per ticket in less than 5 minutes!

Further support for the idea of monitoring airline prices regularly and religiously if you are looking for better deals....or possibly paying $50 to a travel agent to do the work for you. (I recently did this for a trip to Seville at Christmas, and saved about $150 per ticket, even after paying the travel agent.)

Thanks everyone (I'm new at this site, Terrific by the way - I suffered from sticker shock when I first started to check on prices - last year, under $800 Canadian on Air Canada to Paris in April/May; this year to Rome in September/October $1,000 on Air Canada; more with a stop-over in Paris both ways.

I will take your advice - check the various options - Skyservice, Air Transat, Zoom; buy the tickets and just "grin and bear it".

I'm a little concerned myself. I'm looking at November/December, and frankly i'm unnerved by the volatility of the ticket prices. I'm trying to stay the course and hold out hope. But in February the prices were around $500 for this timeframe. I surmised that they would drop about $40-$50 as the time drew closer.

Now it seems prices have risen about $80-100 MORE for this timeframe. With the rise in prices, i'm wondering if I am shooting myself in the foot by waiting. The suspense is murder.

Air Canada could have a seat sale before the fall, certainly. I would expect that it will, but I don't know how great the bargain will be. Also, I think in terms of ex-YVR fares to Europe, which are usually very expensive even at seat-sale prices (or so I find them). But maybe ex-YYZ fares are reasonable at times on Air Canada.

(Note that I don't mean that the fares are too expensive, considering the cost of fuel, labour, and the airlines' reasonable need to make a profit. But I just find I can't justify spending $1600 for a high-season fare from Vancouver to Europe on Air Canada, so find other solutions that are much cheaper.)

Wow...that's good to know--but scary! Thanks, I'll do it next time.