Booking flights before they are released

Hi,
I am new to the forum, so I will apologise if this has been covered before, but we travel to Florida every May and stay for six months until November. I am unable to book our next flight until December each year, which means that we have missed out on our favoured seats in PE for the May leg of the journey.
My question is, can I book my flight from June before the return flights for November have been released?
Thanks Alison

[Neil]

Hi and welcome.
If you are using just money for your flights then it's not really possible to book your outbound in June. It would be classed as a one way fare which is very expensive.
If you are booking using miles then it's possible and doesn't cost any different to booking a return.
I can't really think if any sensible ways around it without it costing you money, but maybe another user will come up with another option.
Neil

I assume you're talking about cash fares rather than miles?

As Neil says you can book a one-way flight as soon as it goes on sale, and then the return as another one-way flight as soon as IT goes on sale, but that will be hideously expensive as one-way fares automatically book into the most expensive buckets.

A lower cost option would be to buy a return in a bucket that allows you the flexibility to change the return leg to another date (for a fee). Initially book the outbound flight you want, and the return say 2 days later. Then call up and change the return leg to your preferred date once it's gone on sale.

Note you do have to pay a premium for the right to flexibility and the only way to get the cheapest available fare is to wait until your return date's gone on sale and book the whole thing then. Only you can decide if it's worth paying more to get your desired seats.

If you're using miles, as Neil points out it's much easier as you can book one-way trips with no penalty.

[Neil]

A lower cost option would be to buy a return in a bucket that allows you the flexibility to change the return leg to another date (for a fee). This won't be the cheapest fare but shouldn't be ridiculously expensive either. Initially book the outbound flight you want, and the return say 2 days later. Then call up and change the return leg to your preferred date once it's gone on sale

Problem with that is the change fee for a K fare is £150 per person, so the OP would end up paying £300 just to efficiently get their preferred seats, which seems a tad excessive really.

I agree! But if Alison's willing to pay that to get specific seats, that's her best option.

Ok,
This may sound silly, but how about we turn it on its head & book a return in November from USA?
That way you get your seat of choice for your next trip in May, as you can book as early as June!
(Book June from Florida to UK for Nov & returning from UK to Florida in May)

Obviously you will need to book a single to USA before you can start booking your return :o)

This should also allow you to catch any sale offers between June-Oct

Trouble with that is Alison would face the same problem in reverse: whichever way she does it, if she buys a return one of the legs will only be five months away by which time she's worried that her preferred seats have gone.

The only affordable way to get the best choice of seats on two legs six months apart is to book a return at about T-332 with the return leg a day or two after the outbound, then pay a change fee to move the return leg to your desired date as soon as it goes on sale.

Alison - as you spend so much time in Florida have you looked at getting the Virgin US credit card? I think it's called the World Elite Mastercard and I suspect it's more generous than the UK one in terms of awarding bonus Flying Club miles & tier points, so may be useful for subsidising future trips and boosting your status, if required.

Thanks everyone. It's certainly a lot to think about in the Florida sun over the next six months

As Neil has already mentioned, pay with miles and you can book each leg separately with no loss.
In fact there was a thread recently that said it was actually cheaper because they paid less tax. I'm not sure on that as I'm still waiting for my return journey taxes to go onto my card as I have done my out and inbound flights on miles separately for next Feb/March.
Orlando is currently 35000 miles plus tax one way for PE
Do you have a stack of miles saved?
If not then consider all the miles collection options and also plan ahead so that if you need to buy a few extra miles you can do it when they are offering 30% bonus. If you already have this years trip booked for cash you can buy miles on miles booster for £10 per 1000
Dick D