When To Book Airfare for December

[Babyboo]

Help --- We are planning a trip for Christmas and am not sure when to book the flights.

Can anybody offer advice, do I book now or are prices likely to come down. I know Virgin have a sale on at the moment, but that ends on 9th Dec and we wern't looking to go until 13th Dec. Not much difference I know but it makes a two week holiday almost three weeks (what a shame).

 

[tubtruck]

They may go up then again they may go down though once within a few months of the date thay are more likely to be on an upward trend. Keep the money in a high interest account and wait a little while is my advice, from the UK it tends to be fairly low season when you are traveling as its before the christmas rush so there may be discounts if the load % is low, and if they stay where they are at leat you will have earned a little bit of interest.

 

[Portugal1000]

Last year I booked on 11th March on Virgin for travel from 7th-26th December. The price was £300 per adult and £250 per child. I kept an eye on the price all year and it only went lower once in November when we could have got the whole thing (2 adults and 1 child) for an overall saving of £100. A week before we went the price had shot back up.
I also kept an eye on First Choice and you could have got flights in November going in December for 2 weeks for £199 all in. Only problem was you could only go for exactly two weeks.
Hope this helps.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

It depends on if you like playing Russian Roulette or not.

At the start, i.e. with VS 336 days before your return flight date, the plane is empty. this means the cheapest seats are available. as the flights fill up, the prices go up.
If you want to wait until nearer the time IF the flight is still not full, then they will discount fares, however, if the flight is getting full, then you may have to pay more.

I personally don't like playing roulette, so I book 336 days out.

I would also say that at that time of the year there are less flights avaialable.

 

[UKDEB]

Hi Babyboo and welcome to the DIS.

It's such a tricky one to call, but I'm with Obi on this one - I like to have my flights booked so that I know I'm going. I would find it too stressful to wait until closer to the time. Once we've made a decision to go, we usually spend a while searching for the best price available at the time and then book it. After that, I never check the price again. As far as I'm concerned, the money's paid out and I'd rather remain content at the price I was happy with when I booked than torment myself with potential savings had I waited.

Christmas is the busiest time of all at WDW, so my advice would be to get your flights booked.

 

[Jets fan]

We travelled out on 14 December with Virgin last year and booked the flight in the January. Also we paid the entire price in January so that was that money out of the way and enabled us to save lots for everything else.

 

[claireloveseeyore]

I have booked my flights for December 22 - 3 January. We are flying with Continental and it is costing me £3500 approx for 4 adults and 1 child. We usually fly with Virgin but they were working out at a lot more, plus we are able to fly from Scotland for less than flying from Manchester with Virgin.

 

[tartangirl]

I would book as soon as you see a price you are willing to pay.

You may be slightly before the price hike but if you are it is only just so those flights will book up quickly.

We couldn't go until 19th and we were in the Christmas prices so we delayed and are now flying out on Christmas day and back on the 3rd - we're only paying £1660 for 3 adults and 1 child with Continental from Scotland. We also normally fly with Virgin but the connecting flights were hugely expensive and DH isn't prepared to drive to Manchester in winter.

 

[brightspark]

Hi there, we have booked our flights with virgin for November 24th - 3rd December... we paid £330 and the return flight apparantly had only got 30 free seats when we booked... I wouldn't wait too long!

 

[saratogagirl]

Hi we booked last month for December 14th, it cost 399.00 per person, we are doing a fly drive though so there were extras to pay, insureance etc. This was with Virgin ..

 

[Babyboo]

Thank you for all your comments.

I guess we should be booking now as I doubt the prices are going to go down in fact the have gone up slighly over the last couple of weeks that we have been looking!

 

[Boo Boo Too]

Historically, BA (who are normally matched by Virgin) have a sale in about September. There are normally some bargains to be had, but no-one can guarantee if there will be a sale, how good that sale will be and what the terms and conditions of that sale will be (i.e. which dates are included/excluded etc).

As Obi says, it is like playing Russian Roulette. If you have your heart set on specific dates (especially over a very busy time liek Christmas), then you would be a lot safer to book as soon as you can.

As others have said, have a GOOD look around: comparing packages, booking seperately and even looking at indirect flights (through Expedia etc) can reveal some bargains

Good luck

Boo