Advice on booking flights

[GirlDreamer]

It's still a while until we can book our flights, but I just wanted to get some tips from you guys. We're going on nov 13th - dec 4th 2014. Travelling to and from on a Thursday. We can travel from either Birmingham or Manchester. What is the best time to book? And what website/company is better to book with?

 

[wayneg]

Gone are the days when you can predict whats going to happen with flights.

If you are set on those exact dates and want direct you will probably pay more than being flexible with dates, prepared to fly indirect or fly form other airports. The more flexible you are the more chance you have of lower fares.

Lowest price might be on release, there again lowest could be 6 months after release, no-one knows unfortunately.

Check Kayak, flythomascook, thompsons, travelsupermarket, orbitz, any other site you can find, you never know where you might find a deal.

Good luck.

 

[GirlDreamer]

Thanks. Yeah the dates are pretty much set as we've already booked a hotel/ticket/free QSDP package from wdtc. Guess I'll just have to wait and see when the tickets are released. How much should I expect to pay for airfare at that time of year? We don't have to travel direct, so if there's a big price difference, we'll choose the cheapest way.

 

[chmurf]

I personnaly always find it cheaper to buy between 6 and 8 months out

I check prices on Kayak

I also use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ to check on prices. It allows to see the classe fare for a flight. Usually class R, S and T are among the lowest fares (but this may vary depending on the airline

once you've determined a price it's unlikely to go below, you need to determine the highest price you're willing to pay (your target price)

once it hits the "guessed" lowest price, or your target price, whichever come first, be ready to book immediately.

that's how I usually work, and this year I've managed to save quite a lot on my october flights (oct 17th/nov 11th - £450 pp round trip indirect paris-orlando econ, which seems quite a good price)

 

[Brave5]

6-8 months out is usually good. Also try USAir and United - they don't fly direct but if you are on a budget they always seem to have the lower prices.