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When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 14:09
by ColKent
I am looking at a trip next July/August flying into Las Vegas and out from San Fransisco (I know I might end up out from LGW and in to LHR).
I am wondering what the best time to book is. There are four of us and we will be flying economy unless we get a very good deal on PE.
Should I bite the bullet now at about £4,000 return for the four of us or is there a chance of a sale or price reduction in the future?

Thanks

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 15:39
by Blacky1
Welcome to vflyer
There will almost certainly be another sale or two long before your departure so my advice would be to sit tight and not book anything yet , however if your happy to pay the amount quoted at the moment then go for it if you need the peace of mind that its booked ,
Do keep an eye out for a BA sale as a VS one always follows very quickly ,hope this helps a little .
Im in a similar position myself looking for 6 y flights to Orlando next aug and feel that the prices are too high at the moment and hopefully the lower fare codes will get released before too long

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 15:53
by gfonk
I agree with blacky
If you are happy to pay the price now and want peace if mind go for it
Otherwise sit back and check out the sites until a price cones up you want

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 16:27
by Blacky1
Just to add something , I've just come off the phone to FC and have put some flights on hold , I'm reasonably happy with the price but the lady told me that a lot of flights next summer are full or nearly full already , I know it's Orlando and not Las Vegas or San Fran but its something to bare in mind

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 16:41
by gumshoe
There will almost certainly be a sale around Christmas (usually starting around Dec 22/23 and continuing well into Jan).

My gut instinct would be to wait - but with the caveat that there's no guarantee the sale will include your dates and routes, and there's always a risk fares will rise.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 16:48
by gfonk
gumshoe wrote:There will almost certainly be a sale around Christmas (usually starting around Dec 22/23 and continuing well into Jan).

My gut instinct would be to wait - but with the caveat that there's no guarantee the sale will include your dates and routes, and there's always a risk fares will rise.

And as blacky mentions a risk the flights could be full.
If it was me and I was set on the dates and was happy with the price I would just book em
But as gumshoe says its also worth a risk
Depends if you are prepared to put all your chips on red 34 lol

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 16:58
by ColKent
gfonk wrote:
gumshoe wrote:There will almost certainly be a sale around Christmas (usually starting around Dec 22/23 and continuing well into Jan).

My gut instinct would be to wait - but with the caveat that there's no guarantee the sale will include your dates and routes, and there's always a risk fares will rise.

And as blacky mentions a risk the flights could be full.
If it was me and I was set on the dates and was happy with the price I would just book em
But as gumshoe says its also worth a risk
Depends if you are prepared to put all your chips on red 34 lol


mmm... not really much of a gambling man (only passing through Las Vegas!).

If there is a sale, what sort of discount could I expect given that we are travelling in peak time? If the potential discount is not significant I might as well play safe and book now.

Thanks.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 17:42
by Blacky1
Unfortunately that's a question no one really knows an answer to , if they sell well at the higher fare codes then they won't release many lower ones .are you four adults travelling ie all over 12? And what fare code is the price you've been given ?

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 17:52
by ColKent
Blacky1 wrote:Unfortunately that's a question no one really knows an answer to , if they sell well at the higher fare codes then they won't release many lower ones .are you four adults travelling ie all over 12? And what fare code is the price you've been given ?


It's a family trip but we are all over 12. I don't know which fare code the prices, they are just the prices off of Kayak.com and similar.

Thanks

Colin

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 08 Oct 2013, 20:18
by Blacky1
ColKent wrote:
Blacky1 wrote:Unfortunately that's a question no one really knows an answer to , if they sell well at the higher fare codes then they won't release many lower ones .are you four adults travelling ie all over 12? And what fare code is the price you've been given ?


It's a family trip but we are all over 12. I don't know which fare code the prices, they are just the prices off of Kayak.com and similar.

Thanks

Colin


Ok , I was just checking to see if there was any child's fares just to work out the adult ones ,have you tried the VS website itself ?i done a dummy booking for the first two weeks in aug and it came out about £3800 , not much cheaper but every little helps!

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 24 Apr 2014, 16:38
by ColKent
I thought I should follow up on this. After listening to all of the advice given we finally went ahead and book PE at £5,569 total for the four of us.

I continued to monitor the price and it never fell below £5,500. At one stage Kayak showed it at over £9,000 but I've just checked again and it is down again but only to £6,500.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 24 Apr 2014, 17:33
by marshy11
My motto is to book and NEVER look back, it's hard but not as hard as seeing it cheaper!

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 24 Apr 2014, 17:55
by pjh
And sales fares often exclude anything that is within, or straddles, a school holiday.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 24 Apr 2014, 18:03
by ColKent
marshy11 wrote:My motto is to book and NEVER look back, it's hard but not as hard as seeing it cheaper!


True, but I was interested in what would happen. I was fairly confident, given that we are traveling in the school holidays, that there would not be a significant fall.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 25 Apr 2014, 08:45
by gfonk
marshy11 wrote:My motto is to book and NEVER look back, it's hard but not as hard as seeing it cheaper!

I also go by this too.
curiosity and the cat lol
Although I have also done that before.
I tend to monitor prices on a regular basis anyway then if/when I'm looking to book and a good price comes up I can feel confident about it.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 25 Apr 2014, 09:16
by dickydotcom
ColKent wrote:I thought I should follow up on this. After listening to all of the advice given we finally went ahead and book PE at £5,569 total for the four of us.

I continued to monitor the price and it never fell below £5,500. At one stage Kayak showed it at over £9,000 but I've just checked again and it is down again but only to £6,500.

Stop checking. As Marshy said, "never look back." If it does go down below what you paid you'll not be happy.
Dick D

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 25 Apr 2014, 09:24
by ColKent
dickydotcom wrote:
ColKent wrote:I thought I should follow up on this. After listening to all of the advice given we finally went ahead and book PE at £5,569 total for the four of us.

I continued to monitor the price and it never fell below £5,500. At one stage Kayak showed it at over £9,000 but I've just checked again and it is down again but only to £6,500.

Stop checking. As Marshy said, "never look back." If it does go down below what you paid you'll not be happy.
Dick D


I'll check as often as I like thanks very much. I have looked about three time since I booked and I will look again. I can't change the past but I can adapt for the future.

The real reason for updating the thread was to say that the advice given originally had proved useful.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 25 Apr 2014, 09:41
by gfonk
@colkent - I understand why you would check, as I also did the same. and as you say this helps you for future bookings so that you know when a good price is a good price etc. As I do it the other way round I dont look back though.
but thanks for updating the thread and its great that you got a good price. Just shows that good prices can be had.

Re: When to book?

PostPosted: 25 Apr 2014, 10:09
by HWVlover
For goodness sake, if you are going to check then you must check properly.

And don't rely on Kayak. Look at all the agents and the VS site daily. I got return flights to OZ for £1000 at Christmas via an agent when the price on VS the same day was £1700. And that price rose to £2300 on the VS site. And on the agent's site too. How do I know this.....? I refuse to answer.

And now Amsterdam has been mentioned in this forum, have you considered the impact on prices of starting your flights from there? I hadn't, damn it. More checking is required.

Ha Ha.
Have a good holiday.