is it best to book early or late?

Hi,

Still quite new to the site but finding lots of useful tips, in particular about using points to upgrade.

My question is.... to maximise the chances of getting an upgradeable PE ticket, with UC upgrade availability, is it best to to this as early as possible in order to increase our chances of this? i.e as soon as the flights become available to book. My husband and I are planning a trip in 2014 (a long way off I know!) flying into Vancouver, and then out of Miami. The way my points are building up, I should have more than enough by then to upgrade from PE to UC, or maybe even from Y to UC.

As we won't have that much flexibility in our dates (probably September) I don't like to chance leaving booking until a bit later, but at the same time don't want to miss out on any sales/bargains either!

cheers.

Very difficult to say. The best advice (especially if you are tight on dates)is to keep checking price/availability and when you see a price you like go for it.

After this there are two rules.

Never check prices again and

NEVER CHECK PRICES AGAIN!

thanks Steve... get the message!!! will abstain from ever checking prices when booked!! Just determined to do both those flights in upper... will be our 10th wedding anniversary and neither have flown higher than PE before. Get the feeling it will become an addiction though!

[Neil]

The fact you will want an upgradable fare, will mean the sale fares won't affect you, as te sale fares are in the lower, non upgradable fare codes.

ok, that makes thinks a bit simpler.... I think i will just go for it the day they go onsale... is it 12 months before?

cheers

ok, that makes thinks a bit simpler.... I think i will just go for it the day they go onsale... is it 12 months before?

cheers

tickets go on sale 11 months before the date of travel on a day by day basis

[Neil]

No, 11 months from the return date.

Do be careful though about booking on the very first day. Quite often for the first few days they only release the very highest full fares, so don't get to panicked and by one of them.

Of course it is also very important to point out that just because you buy an upgradable fare, it doesn't mean there will be reward seats in upper class released for those dates. Not every flight on every date has reward seats released and reward seats are not released in any set way like revenue fares, they can be released at any time right up until the flight date.

If it were me, I would wait until tou find a date with reward availability then book your revenue seats (after putting the reward seats on hold to ensure you don't lose them) as otherwise you could find yourself with two upgradable PE fares for say the 1st and reward seats only available on the 2nd or 3rd for example.

I was going to post something very similar to what Neil has just said -- the constraining factor for you will be the availability of the UC reward seats. When you see an acceptable option, don't hang around -- they may disappear quickly.

As Neil says, if you buy the upgradeable PE fares first, you may end up not being able to find reward availability on the same days -- but NB you can usually change the dates on upgradeable fares (for a fee). However, I would second Neil's advice and look for the reward seats first. If you do this well in advance, it is very unlikely you'd be obliged to buy a full W fare -- there are usually S fares available and you can just ring us VS and book it all in one go.

Incidentally, I would also investigate upgrades from economy to UC, if you have the miles. Buying an upgradeable PE fare can be an expensive business.

Hope this helps.

thanks everyone. Sorry if this is a dumb question... but how do I hold the reward seat before I have booked the upgradable PE/Y seat? Do I have to do this on the phone with FC?

Agree, upgrading from Y to UC with points looks like the better deal, if I can save enough points by then. I have the black amex, plus flying with Jet later in the year... its surprising how quickly they have accumulated.

cheers

[Neil]

Yes, you can hold fares/seats for 24hours by phoning.i personally would do the whole transaction on the phone as it is much is easier to let the agent do it all.

I agree also about buying a L economy fare and upgrading with miles. As long as you have enough miles it will work out the cheapest way to fly UC and apart from a straight UC reward will give you the best value for your miles in my opinion.