Flights before Christmas

[skondo10]

Hello everyone!
We will be traveling to the world from August 31 - Sept 4th and then again Dec.15 - 20th. We are waiting a while to book our flights for the august trip. However we have never traveled in Dec and we were wondering if we should hold out for a deal on a flight or if we should just go ahead and book now. We will be flying out of Buffalo. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much. You guys are great!

[tigger2on]

We have friends every year who fly out of TO and usually book their tickets no later than the end of August.
We are going from Dec 5- 12, 2002 and have booked via Air canada already, but I have looked at the flights again and now they are cheaper by $20/ person.
Flyng on any weekend days lifts the price up but ifyou go Monday _Thursday, you definitely see a difference.
If flying out of Buffalo, I'm sure you can wait til the last minute but you might not have great connections, either way too short or way too long.

[blizzard]

Air Canada has a seat sale on now that covers through the end of September. I know you said you were waiting to buy tickets for your Aug/Sept trip and were going through Buffalo, but it might not hurt to price it out. If it's comparable, it can be a lot less stressful.

As for December, pricing depends a lot on loads. For the first two weeks of Dec, there is usually a seat sale sometime around the end of the summer. Keep your eyes open. Be aware though that returning on the 20th may be too late. I would book by the end of September if you haven't been able to find a seat sale. Any later than that and the good excursion fares are gone too.

Lots of the U.S. airlines have been offering good deals on their flights - usually the buying period is only for a few days though. It might not hurt to bookmark some airlines and keep your eyes open or to bookmark one of the news services that carry press releases and sort to airlines.