Booking flight advice

[Grace2007]

Hi all, please could anyone give me a little advice on booking flights - I am a serial over planner and panicking about booking my flights for next year! We would (2a & 2c - ages 11 &15) like to fly on the 16.10.19 to MCO and return on the 1.11.19. Last year I paid £2200 for 4 flights direct from gatwick. Was this a reasonable price? I just booked and then didn’t recheck as I was happy to pay this price - we live near Manchester and flying from there with virgin was going to cost £5000 at the time I booked my ba flights. I’m looking at ba flights now and they are just short of £3000 but only saying 9 seats left. So panicking about booking but virgin haven’t released their seats yet! Have you flown at this time before and how much did you pay and when did you book (direct flights) thank you

[mouli1]

I think when it says 9 left there are more than that but might be different price .somebody with more knowledge than me will know

[D15ney72]

Hi, I could be wrong but I thought that when airlines say “only x seats left” they actually mean only a certain number of seats left at that price, rather than only that number of seats left on the plane. I’ve never booked Oct/Nov flights, but we’re going in Aug 2019 and direct flight prices are through the roof, so £3000 sounds like a fantastic price to me.

[Peko]

Originally Posted by D15ney72

Hi, I could be wrong but I thought that when airlines say “only x seats left” they actually mean only a certain number of seats left at that price, rather than only that number of seats left on the plane. I’ve never booked Oct/Nov flights, but we’re going in Aug 2019 and direct flight prices are through the roof, so £3000 sounds like a fantastic price to me.

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Correct, it means seats available at that price, when those are sold the availability will usually still be there, at a higher price.

Of course, at some point when a flight gets close to sold out, it means that's all the airline will sell at any price, but the price would be pretty high at that point. The way airlines manage availability can get complex, especially with connecting flights.

[Loobylou_82]

I would wait for the January sales, you have plenty of time yet to book flights as they are not all out. Just keep checking, i have never paid more than £500 for direct flights from Manchester in October. Good luck.

[Grace2007]

Hi thanks for your advice - I will keep my eye out - would really like to fly with virgin from Manchester but if prices are right will go from Gatwick

[LLamb]

We are about 20 min from Man but we are going from Gatwick next May. (School hols) I booked in Sepetmeber.

I know Oct will be more expensive but we got ours for £268 each. That’s into to FLL though. We actually did it as a fly drive and only paid £300 deposit. The flight only cost was more expensive.
If you don’t mind the drive up there are some really good deals.
Also don’t rule out Tampa if you would consider LGW.

Or Virgin/ba from lhr to mia. I just found flying into mco flight prices crazy for next year.

[NewtoOrlando]

We’re going 15/10/19 to 27/10/18 and flying Gatwick to Orlando and returning Miami to Heathrow (suits us as 15 mins from lhr so no parking or long drive home) with a Chevy Tahoe for 2 adults & kids who will be 13 & 11, and paid £2100 with BA. We usually go Heathrow to Miami but got a good deal to fly into orlando, if you play around with your dates on the BA custom my flights page you can get some really good deals.