Travelling in August.....

[Steve and Sarah]

As the kids are staritng to grow up and starting school soon, this year may well be the first time we have to travel in the dreaded (Price wise) school holiday's.

Can anyone advise what the best prices that have been achieved for August flight and when (If..?) they start to get a bit cheaper - say mid july or whatever.

Currently looking at about £760 each on Virgin. Indirect similar prices.

Mant thanks

Steve, Sarah, Josh and Eliza.

 

[vicki12a]

I booked indirect from manchester for £545 on 21st august with delta stopping in Paris on way out and atlanta on return had been shopping around and that was the best price i could find

 

[wayneg]

There have been some reasonable indirect prices for this summer but probably all gone now, they were from around £400.
There is no set pattern to finding lower rates, could be 11 month out as soon as they are released or it could be 3 months out if they are struggling to sell, or a price error at anytime.
Being flexible is the key to lower rates, indirect or flying Monday/Tuesday could lower the price, also don't just stick to 1 UK & 1 US airport, open it up to anywhere in UK or anywere in Florida and prices can drop drastically, there were some great rates into Jacksonville this August.
If you have airmiles they can help, we are flying out VA PE, returning Delta Economy plus for £280 this summer but using lots of miles. I helped burt(Mart) on here get PE for £740pp this August, full price was £1,200pp.
Prices drop around 19th/20th August some can just sqeeze in a trip right at the end of the summer hols before they go back to school.

 

[WiganTony]

As Wayne notes, if you can be flexible with regards to departure and/or arrival airports, you can sometimes bag a bargain.

Although we live in Wigan, in 2010 American Airlines had direct Heathrow - Miami flights for £403 each, out late July return mid-August, which we booked and it saved us over £1,000. This year, we are flying Manchester - Paris - Orlando (out 31/07, return 17/08) with Air France but booked through Delta for £549 each.

Both of these fares were thanks to posts on various disney boards, so it pays to keep checking on a daily basis.

You may also get cheaper flights if you could fly into Tampa (around an hours drive) or Jacksonville (around 2 hours drive).

 

[zippy99]

We booked indirect for August on Tuesday just gone (17th)
Originally we wanted 20/08 to 03/09 - we have ended up tagging an extra day on at the beginning and are now leaving on 19th as it was the cheapest option

Paid £489pp
Delta / KLM Royal Dutch
LHR 09:45 → MCO 18:29 13h 44m 1 stop (ATL)
MCO 12:30 → LHR 07:30 14h 00m 1 stop (ATL)

A bit earlier in the month (before I had enough money to pay) we saw flights with US Airways for £470 from Gatwick that were indirect but also had good arrival times around 6pm - a couple of weeks back these flights shot up to over £700.

As Wayne says, there have been some good prices around, but the cheap seats are rapidly going am glad I booked when I did.

There are some good prices for 21st August to 4th September - indirect at £465 ish. Monarch also have direct flights from Gatwick to Sanford at £590 if that is easier with younger ones. For us that meant the kids missing the first day back at school and as DD is doing GCSEs we were trying to avoid that.

What is your preferred departure airport and dates - plenty of people on here like to help.

 

[paul_sheps]

We got indirect flights to Tampa for £485 a few weeks ago for 16th-30th August. Set up a price alert on Kayak gone up to about £670 now.

 

[darthtatty]

pleased to find this thread, was trying to remember how much flights were during august.
Guessed approx £2000 for 3 of us.
we're not planning on going until 2014 so been checking out 2013's prices as a rough guide.

 

[crabbie1]

We paid £2400 for 4 through complete orlando.Tht was in feb this year. If I had had the money a week before VA direct were £553 m+m but 600 not too bad. Dates are 22/8-5/9. Going 2 days earlier bumped the prices up by £500 just keep looking.

 

[Portugal1000]

27th July for 3 weeks on Virgin

2 adults and 1 child

Premium Economy both ways using miles and money

£2300

Booked 27th October. Originally PE only coming back. Then in January saw that prices had come down. Called and asked if I could use points to upgrade to PE both ways. Cost another 4000 points each but no extra money. Couldn't believe it.

Paid £600 pp Economy in August 2010