Best time to book economy seats?

[Nottingham Nick]

Hi

Has anyone got any thoughts or tips / tricks for getting the best deal on economy seats?

I am going to BOS on 14th Feb, this is the first day of half term. I booked the seats several months ago and got a good deal.

Shortly after I booked the flight was showing as oversold on Sabre and was sold out on the VS website. Flights the following day in economy were £700+.

I have checked periodically since and the 14 Feb flight has always been oversold, then a couple of weeks ago a few seats appeared but were £500+

Today the flight is showing wide open on Sabre and economy seats are available for £240 + tax - still more than I paid, but I would have been a little peeved if I had booked for £500+ a few days ago.

Comments anyone?

Nick

[RichardMannion]

Hi Nick,

Thats a good question - just like the one I ask myself regualrly of when should I sell my stock.....

There are the fares that are published in advance (300 days) I beleive for each route as its a scheduled departure. Obviously there will be many fare classes within the offering, and the lowest ones (N and X) will tend to go quickly. However at any time before that departure, VS can like everyone else put in some more promo fares or special offers - thats why the prices can fluctuate.

As a general rule of thumb its better to book as early as possible; saying that, those of us that have been flyign for a while know the times when the special offers are likely to be released and can 'gamble' on the fares being lower then. The January sale is almost a given, so is the Autumn/Fall sale. Don't forget, that Virgin can soemtimes react very quickly to a competitors offer.

Thanks,
Richard

[Nottingham Nick]

Thanks for the answer Richard.
The buying ans selling of shares is a good analogy - it seems that
whatever choice you make, there is always a better time to do it!

I have continued to check next Saturday's BOS flight and each day I
get a different result - most days it is sold out, but today there
are seats available at C.£400 for the weekend return.

At least it isn't QUITE as cold in Beantown as it was a couple of
weeks ago!!



Nick

Your lucky you got a ticket. I booked my flight to Boston on December 31st to fly February 13th - 16th for valentines weekend. Virgin were all sold out on the Feb 13 even back then 14th was ok for availability till quite late on but would not have got me there intime for Valentines Now I am having to fly American Airlines there. Most dissapointing because I would be a flying club silver if I could have booked a flight on Virgin.

Oh well may see ya in Boston (although I wouldnt know it!) [:o)]

Jonathan Mayhew

Flying Club Red Member

[RichardMannion]

Seats do sell out fast for popular dates - remember faes can be booked 300 days in advance so it wouldn't surprise me if people did start booking Valentines weekend back in April.

SOmetimes there are some exceptions - like Easter for the last 2 years - There are still MpM fares going out to NYC and IAD when I checked the other day. The key thing to watch is departure day, as the difference on any revenue fare for Thursday departure and Good Friday departure is huge, its much cheaper to fly out on the Friday.

If you're thinking of IAD, the Hilton Embassy Row has some stupid deal on over Easter where you buy 2 nights and get 1 free - I was quoted c. £150 for 3 nights!

Thanks,
Richard