Best time to book flights

[sammibabe]

We are going to Florida next August for my 40th. We usually go in May but because of school/exams and my birthday we are going in the summer hols. How much can we expect to pay with Virgin (we have 2000 miles each for the tickets for 5 of us so we need to book direct as opposed to from the guys here) and is it better to book as soon as they are released or wait until nearer the time? Thanks as always for your help and advice.

[MarkJan]

Book as soon as you get a price you are happy to pay. There is no guarantee of prices dropping although they can fluctuate according to demand. In school holidays, look at a fly drive but don't take the car. It is cheaper to rent the car of your choice through www.uscarhire.co.uk than pay the insurances alone on Virgin Atlantic.

Have a good trip.

[AshleyLodge]

I have just checked out Virgin flights for some guests of ours going out at the end of July and the travel agent we used put a coulple of sample packages together. His best was £749 for adults and then prices varied according to the ages of the children. I have no idea what discount Virgin will give for airmiles though so I guess you will have to wait until the flights become generally available. If you want to use airmiles for peak season then you need to book early as Virgin don't let us use them once the airmile allocated seats have been sold.

Good luck

[mfairhurst]

It is usually 6 months before holiday that they put cheaper seats out so keep trying and maybe you will be lucky
Have a lovely holiday .
MAUREEN
www.onlinefloridavillas.com/villas/1683.aspx

[mizzy]

hi Sammi

Mach 2's out there at the moment and i know she got a great deal with virgin, not sure if she used her miles but i remember her booking earlier this year

she'll come along soon and put me right[msnwink]

[blott]

You need 2000 miles each for a return trip to Florida using Miles + money. We saved £226 on each ticket using this when we booked flights for next year recently.

Also watch out for any sales as we got our Virgin flights for December in one of them and saved quite a lot of money also.

[Sniff]

Flights are initially priced according to season, and expected demand. Expected demand is based upon yield management programs that analyse traffic for that particular route/date combination on previous years. Most airlines will publish flights around 1 year out, and the price varies considerably between classes. By classes I don't only mean First, Business and Economy, but also sub-classes within the cabins (usually these are differentiated by differing restrictions on the tickets such as minimum stopovers, possible refunds, etc)

As the flight date gets closer, the price will increase, up to a certain point when the airlines consider that most people who wanted to book have done so, at which point it will start to get cheaper again. This period again will vary according to selling profiles from previous years, but don't expect it to be more than a couple of weeks prior to flight date.

All of this is muddied by the travel agents and consolidators, who 'purchase' large blocks of seats for popular routes. They get discount prices for these blocks (how much discount dependant upon how big the agent is, how long their relationship with the airline has been, how well they've sold seats in the past, etc). This can in some cases allow them to undercut the airline's own price structure, but of course the agents often use other means to increase revenue (care hire, travel insurance, hotel packages, etc)

If the agents can't sell all their allocated block of tickets, they will return them to the airline (as they are on a kind of 'sale or return' deal) and that's when the price will really drop. This can be as little as 48 hours before the flight, as the airline offloads to the bucket shops in a last attempt to fill the flight.

So if you want the absolute cheapest price, wait until 48 hours before the flight and see what's available. Of course this is a risky strategy, as the flight might be full by then if they've managed to sell all the tickets. The safest/cheapest balance is probably to buy as soon as the flights are released...you get the widest choice of classes for sale, and the price has not risen much, if at all, above the initial price.

Of course, if you keep a careful watch on all of this and see which way the wind is blowing, and then remember it for next year...you'll be wrong!

The yield management algorithms are very sophisticated, and if a particular flight left with empty seats this year, you can pretty much bet the airline will be doing all it can to make sure that doesn't happen again next year.

[pieman790]

We contact our travel agent tell him when we want to travel and he can work out when the flights are going to be released. The schedule ones normally come out 11 months in advance and usually they are at the cheapest price once they are released as they have so many seats at cheapest price.
Yes Air lines and travel agents do offer discount from time to time but can never judge when the best time to book is. July is peak time so my advice is to book as soon as the flights are released.

[sammibabe]

Thanks everyone. We have got 2000 miles each (given to us by Virgin last time we flew because we had such a dreadful flight home) I think we will book asap; as long as we have saved enough by then[msneek]

[Sniff]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by sammibabe
Thanks everyone. We have got 2000 miles each (given to us by Virgin last time we flew because we had such a dreadful flight home) I think we will book asap; as long as we have saved enough by then[msneek]
[/quote]
Bear in mind that there are probably restrictions on the use of airmiles too...such as not being able to use them on the cheapest class flights - chances are that airmiles are only valid for use on Full Apex Economy for example. You may well find out that Flight-airmiles actually costs more than you can find the same flight (but different class) for anyway. Just do your homework carefully :-)