Flights for 2019

[Burnsk]

Does anyone know when the flights between August & November 2019 are released. We haven’t decided on a date yet. Thanks

[loldis]

If you want full choice of carriers, you have to wait until around 330 days before your return date for flights to be released. Although Norwegian seem to release theirs in blocks rather than day by day, so may have to wait a bit longer if you want to consider them.

[123TOPAZ]

We've booked for Aug 2019 already with Thomas Cook

[magicofflorida]

Thomas Cook's flights are already released, Tui sometime in April, Virgin flydrives are available but Virgin and BA flights 330 days before departure date.

[Candlestick]

Originally Posted by magicofflorida

Thomas Cook's flights are already released, Tui sometime in April, Virgin flydrives are available but Virgin and BA flights 330 days before departure date.

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I looked at fly drives and actual holidays same dates it was cheaper to book the cheapest package than a fly drive. Is that normal?

[Peko]

Originally Posted by magicofflorida

Thomas Cook's flights are already released, Tui sometime in April, Virgin flydrives are available but Virgin and BA flights 330 days before departure date.

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Not that it is a huge difference, but BA releases its flights 355 days prior to flight date.

Generally:

• The tour operators with airlines (Thomas Cook and Tui) release when they want as they are in full control of their flights. As above, Thomas Cook go very early.
• The airline tour operators (BA Hols and Virgin Hols) sell packages before their parent airlines release flights for sale, but obviously can't confirm booking references etc until the flights come on stream.
• As mentioned above, Norwegian follows the LCC model and releases blocks of dates periodically.
• Legacy carriers like BA, Virgin and the US carriers release 330 days before in most cases, 355 for BAmos

Unless you are booking with miles or want to book one-way tickets (an expensive option for a return, except with Norwegian), you need to wait until the appropriate number of dates before your return date to book a return ticket.

If looking this far out with legacy carriers like Virgin (not VHols), don't book immediately when flights are released, especially in economy. Not sure about the US carriers, but BA and Virgin don't release their cheapest fare classes immediately when they open a date for sale, it usually takes a week or two before that happens. Frankly, unless you are booking with miles or with Norwegian who use a different model, it's better to wait a bit.

[tracey1302]

I'm waiting for flights this time as I want a flight and hotel Expedia deal for our Universal stay as these deals are great when they're out - gonna look in October for next July.

Normally, you're looking at 11 months out but TC have already released their flights for 2019- they're expensive though because of high demand. Our flights are £698 return for early July, which is bonkers...