Best time to get flights for 2008?

[Pudders]

Hi all,

We're going back out to Florida in April 2008 and Virgin and BA don't let you book untill 10 months before. There is a party of 16 of us going out and I want to be able to get the best prices I can for the date we're going. The villas are already booked and so is the wedding venue so no room for movement on dates.

Is there a particular time of year Virgin or BA decide to lower their prices or offer a sale price? April is not really peak season and we're not traveling during school term time.... or should I get these on the day they become available to make sure I get good seats?

Preferably we ant to travel with Virgin as they are by far the better of the two in my eyes.

Any help appreciated.

Clayton

[dbrook]

I would book as soon as possible. Too risky if you have specific dates and have villas booked.

I don't know when in April your dates are, but be aware that although Easter is March next year a lot of schools have Good Friday and Easter Monday off but then have their 2 week Easter holiday the first 2 weeks in April, so half of April will be peak season!

[Pudders]

I've checked our dates for our school and they have the long easter w'end and then 2 weeks off a week later! She has 2 weeks off, goes back on the Monday and then we fly out on the 22nd April.

It took us a while to get it sorted and checked.

Clayton

[CCollins]

You can already book flyfdrives through virgin holidays on the internet.

I would also recommend trying the link for flights at the top of this page - they will probably be able to book them for you already as well

[domster]

As there are a lot of you I would not leave it too long and book when you can get most of the seats at a reasonable rate.

[annette_tr9]

when we got married in orlando i wrote to every travel agent and rung everyone trying to get group discount because there were 20 of us and i found that everyone does really try to get a good rate!!

the best rate though i found was ringing virgin airlines direct who passed my info to group bookings and gave me a really good price. they took a couple of days to ring me back though. i think we paid about £300 a person.

definately try and get group discount before you book!!!

i don't think they schedule the flights until 11 months before so if you are going april you may not be able to book until may this year. no harm in ringing around though.

one point - if you fly with virgin remember to sign up for the airmiles points because with 16 people that may pay for your next trip.....mention it on the phone when you ring them

[Steve and Dawn]

Hi Pudders,

You can book flights with Virgin for the whole of 2008. I enquired about some flights for Sept/Oct 2008 and got a price.

[SteveW]

I would get them as soon as if its the first two weeks of April... I can't remember if Virgin do a group discount rate for 16... it may be worth asking ? If last 2 weeks of April I would wait until the last minute... look at the prices now £199 return with thomson, airtours etc. ( I know you said BA or Virgin but at £199 i would think again !)

Don't forget some schools in the UK have extended Easter periods next year due to the early arrival of Easter so it may be expensive at the beginning of the month...