mika24me

Hello everyone Long time member, very infrequent poster here

I'm looking at a trip back to the UK December/January to see family and wondering what the best time to book is. Flight prices aren't all released yet but am I best booking as soon as they are, or waiting until nearer the time? Also what dates are best to fly? I can't leave before mid - late December (uni placement will get in the way otherwise) and have to be back by early Feb but other than that we are flexible with dates and length of stay and have no aversions to flying on Christmas day or Hogmanay.

And lastly what websites or travel agents will get me the best deal? I've bookmarked zuji.com.au and skyscanner.com.au but will be travelling with my husband and 4 kids so every little saving will make a big difference.

Thanks in advance

Mel

Beoz

I always do my search via Kayak.com then perhaps flick over to Skyscanner. Force of habit I guess. It tells you where the best deal comes from.

mika24me

Thanks for the advice, will take a look at Kayak

From reading other threads it seems April or August are the best times to book...anyone have any more information on that?

bcworld

Prices, in general, shoot up to the highest prices of the year for departure on or around Dec 10th until Xmas Eve. I'm not sure there is a best time to book these flights...prices will be high regardless.

Occasional exceptions I remember seeing in the past...Royal Brunei for random dates closer to Xmas.

GarryP

The only trick I found, that won't help the op, was that Qantas didn't pay attention to the return half of the ticket from the UK to Oz. Therefore I had that bit on the 22nd Dec for normal prices.

In general the prices dribble out from 12 months out, and by about 9 months they are all out. Various sales dribble out over that time, till about 3 months out, when prices start to rise again (Malaysia in particular) to catch the last minute bookers. Kayak will give you a feel for how prices are moving, and will even make a prediction of if its best to wait or not. However nothing beats doing the leg work yourself.

Op may find it worthwhile to investigate the "get your arse to asia cheap, then fly from there" option for a pre holiday stopover on the beach.

cresta57

We've just done that same trip. As BC said prices jump around mid Dec. We explored all options & found that this year any date after the 15th Dec had well over $500 added to each ticket. The exception was Christmas Eve when they dropped down to pre Dec 15th rates.
We flew Nov 19th & returned Jan 3rd best price with a decent airline [Emirates] was just under 9k [8978.82 AUD] for 3 adults & two children. BNE to LHR
We flew our son over from Perth to Manchester on the only available date [Christmas eve] he arrived 12 noon on Christmas day & the flights cost $3,500 for 2 adults & one child.

mika24me

Briliant advice, thankyou! I have discussed with DH stopping over in Asia for a few days but it feels like a lot of work with 4 kids, we might reconsider though. I'll keep an eye on prices over the next few months but so far the thought of travelling on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day really appeals and I think the kids would enjoy the novelty.

cresta57

We were going to fly into Manchester & found a lot of the flights transited through Heathrow first. Deb's parents live in Cleethorpes so Manchester is a 2 hr drive Heathrow a three hour drive. The cost of flights from Heathrow to Manchester equated to about 100 GBP per person so it was much cheaper to hire a 7 seater [90 quid] and simply drive for an extra hour saved us close to 600 quid & the grandkids got to see some of the countryside.

Bermudashorts

I am constantly researching my next holiday and looking into flight options and prices. I have never seen anything to suggest that there is a best time of year to book.

My advice would be to familiarise with "average" prices, know what is good and look regularly over a period of time. Then when you see a good deal, take it and don't dither. I find that the flight search engines pretty much come up with the same deals, I generally look on expedia.com although I might not make the booking through them.

mika24me

That's a good point. Most of our flights go through London but if it is cheaper to fly from there to Edinburgh or Aberdeen rather than Glasgow then we could consider that. I think driving from London would be a bit much though.

bcworld

Depending on who you fly with there are quite good connections into EDI and ABZ with Lufthansa from Frankfurt...I think there are 3 flights a day between FRA and ABZ which I find odd! It's probably a much easier transit than at LHR. Emirates of course flies Dubai to Glasgow and I think soon Qatar Airways will fly to EDI.

I'm not sure if you are aware of the other thread in the main Australia forum on business class flights...but the same principle can be used for economy flights. Using this method you could probably get economy flights any dates around Xmas for the very low $2000s. Most likely on Singapore Airlines.

cresta57

I wouldn't fancy London to Glasgow in a car with 4 kids after a flight from Australia. That might just tip me over the edge
My folks tend to organise flights into Amsterdam then get a connection straight into Humberside. As BC says a connection from a European city can be much easier.

Beoz

I did Aberdeen to London once. Stopped in the Lake District for the night.