Flights to Us for next Xmas - best time and place to buy?

[KevF]

Morning All,

Off to Florida next Christmas for a family wedding and wondering what time would be the best to purchase 5 tickets.....

Always hear of these people who leave it to the last minute and pick up excellent deals but have never wanted to experience the wrath of Mrs F when I have to tell her, one week before flying, that we can't get tickets or they are costing an arm and leg.

Would it be best to buy now in any sales (?) or a lot closer to the time.

Also, have always dealt direct with airlines but any recommendations for a ticket supplier would be appreciated....

Cheers

K

[Puggit]

Early as possible! Some airlines only sell 330 days out, so keep checking.

Xmas flights are unlikely to feature in any sales. Try and stay a Saturday night to bring the cost down.

[The Leaper]

Florida + Wedding + Christmas = [busy, expensive, no chance of any sale tickets] + [book asap]

[theaxe]

I agree with the other posters, book asap. Air passenger duty may also go up in the next year.

[5potTurbo]

Puggit said:

Early as possible! Some airlines only sell 330 days out, so keep checking.

Xmas flights are unlikely to feature in any sales. Try and stay a Saturday night to bring the cost down.

I'm finding that flights for Christmas aren't available yet - only 'til end November - so I guess during Jan 2012 bookings will become available for December 2012.

[KevF]

Thanks guys...yep found can't book yet too.

Will have to have a shop around in the next few weeks then...

Cheers

[Chrisgr31]

I am looking to book to go to Dubai next Christmas and whilst with some airlines its now possible to book a ticket there, none will allow the booking of a return ticket.

[sussexjob]

Well I've had 4 flights to the States and Caribbean in the last 6 weeks and on average they were less than half full....but they just don't want to put the prices down.

[Wombat3]

With family in the States I've played this game with the airlines for years. AFAIK all airlines only sell 330 days in advance - and that means in advance of your return date. So if you were planning to return in say 1st week of Jan next year you won't be able to book anything till early-mid Feb.

Basic rule of thumb is that if you are travelling in the school holidays to major hubs/destinations then just book it & pay for it as early as you can, there are seldom any deals around nowadays. If you have the option to travel outside of the school holidays then do so.

If you wait then you will find it hard to get sensible seat allocations, wait a bit longer & then there are no direct flights & longer still then no flights at all!