Do you always book your flights on the release date ?

[dan223]

Just to update, after a bit of poking around it seems that you have a 24 hour cooling off period (I also paid in full not on a deposit basis). Couldn't get through to them yesterday afternoon, said they were too busy and it hung up. Tried this morning, full refund, rebooked at 575pp, just shy of £50 saving pp.

[Elmhurst 5]

No never. I continually research all flight mediums to find the fares ij y budget range. ITA matrix is my first port of call, if I find a flight that fits, I take the details of the flight and call the airline direct, or use really good TA, y choice DialAFlight to find the flights.

[SloanRangers]

BA have just launched a sale. Couldn’t resist torturing myself and checking. Feeling much better now as the same dates and flights as I’ve booked on release day yesterday are now £50 more!
At least they’re not less so I’m glad I booked now…

[dan223]

Originally Posted by SloanRangers

BA have just launched a sale. Couldn’t resist torturing myself and checking. Feeling much better now as the same dates and flights as I’ve booked on release day yesterday are now £50 more!
At least they’re not less so I’m glad I booked now…

See more...

The sale is only on select flights, for Orlando it looks like January are the only sale prices.

[Craftylee]

Does anyone know if BA does a decent Black Friday sale?
Wondering if it’s worth waiting for that?

[dan223]

Originally Posted by Craftylee

Does anyone know if BA does a decent Black Friday sale?
Wondering if it’s worth waiting for that?

See more...

Sales with most airlines are often not great unless your specific dates fall in within there sale time (or you are flexible to go whenever) also quite often you will still get it cheaper before the “sale”. I think the biggest sales BA/Virgin do are end of year/start of year. As to whether it is worth waiting it’s a gamble, like I said, depends on your dates, and it’s likely to be cheaper at some point before the sale.

Personally the best time I’ve found to book is last minute, I.e a month or less ideally. Flew with TUI a few years back for about £300ish with bags, seat selection, extra leg room. Flight on the way back was delayed several hours (which was no big deal to us, meant we got longer in the parks), claimed the compensation which was pretty much the whole flight for free.

[dan223]

Just under a week since I booked, my flights are still cheaper now than my 1am booking, about the same as my rebooking the following day, (though did drop a small amount then came back up again) however now Gatwick flights are cheaper on the outbound (they were more expensive previously), which drops the price about another £50pp (and i'd rather fly from gatwick as well). At least in my case, booking so early did not seem to help at all.

[VS075]

Never - We always book in late December/January for our next trip and it always seems to be a lot cheaper.

Booking in well in advance (1 year +) is not good for your wallet/purse/bank balance/money stash under your mattress in my opinion and the worst thing is, so many people feel the need to so they can get excited.

Don’t even get my started on people who complete their ESTAs months and months in advance - all your doing is bringing forward the expiry date!

[grant_w]

If we are planning a holiday that far in advance we've found the flights are usually cheapest in the first few weeks.
For example we booked our flights for April 2022 a few days after they came out. We are going for 17 nights and hiring a Full Size car and we paid £623 for both.
Since then, every time I've received Sale emails from BA I've looked out of curiosity and it's just going up and up, £900pp a few weeks ago, and £1000 now.
One the very odd occasion your dates exactly match one of the BA sale dates you may find a cheap flight but I've never been that lucky

[cornishfrogboy]

Originally Posted by grant_w

If we are planning a holiday that far in advance we've found the flights are usually cheapest in the first few weeks.
For example we booked our flights for April 2022 a few days after they came out. We are going for 17 nights and hiring a Full Size car and we paid £623 for both.
Since then, every time I've received Sale emails from BA I've looked out of curiosity and it's just going up and up, £900pp a few weeks ago, and £1000 now.
One the very odd occasion your dates exactly match one of the BA sale dates you may find a cheap flight but I've never been that lucky

See more...

If you are seeking a simple package and in addition can be flexible on dates, then I can fully understand the attraction of leaving things very late.

If you are seeking a multi city involving in addition to your long haul out and back, hotels x up to 10, internal flights, AMTRAC, a couple of car hires, attraction tickets etc etc… then it makes more sense to get in early as there are variables in the pricing of all those other items. I might cancel and rebook a hotel or car hire, 2,3 or even 4 times during my planning. I can save more by doing this than I will on flights.

Everybody has different aspirations and circumstances.