I am hoping to go home LAX-LHR-MAN for Christmas this year. Does anybody have any advice as to when ticket prices for this time of year come down a bit? Currently its approx $850 and i need two tickets(would like to go on AA and avoid stopping in any east coast airport due to poss weather options) so this is my only route really (would consider CDG). Of course i want to be able to stay for as long as possible so my dates are quite rigid (12/21-1/2).

Yes, i know that if i want to go so bad i should just pay the price but i just wondered if anyone knows if they come down after a certain time, for example around summer??

Thanks for the help

Longhaul, my only experience with Christmas flights is to Japan. In order to make the most out my holidays (and spend as many days as possible with my then fiance) I was booking my flights my March/April, even by May or June the prices would have already started to climb. Nearer the time, they just went up to ridiculous levels.

You might find some bargains for around the 17th, 18th December (but looking at the award flights to Toronto and North America for this time last Christmas I wouldn't count on it). You're more likely to get good prices for dates before the 14th December - and that's likely to be too soon. Same for travel back, for a week or so after Jan 1st flights are very popular. Between Christmas and New Years Eve there is the occasional bargain.

From a Brit's point of view (esp. one who has to pay the flight prices for travel to Japan) 425GBP doesn't seem too bad. I know full well it can go much higher than that.

Perhaps one option is to pay this and get the most popular dates possible (i.e. 21st or 22nd December) and put yourself forward as a candidate for voluntary bumping. I'm sure others here can advice you on the best airline and the best tactics to use if you decide to try and bring the costs down via that route.

It's just that I've never, not once, seen costs dip nearer the winter holidays, only the opposite.

Agreed. In fact, IME the longer you leave holiday flights the more expensive they become.

The winter sale fare don't usually become available until August/September. I do believe you would be buying too early if you buy now.

If you don't want to take the risk of air fares increasing but don't want to lose out on fares going down, some airlines (namely the U.S. ones) will reissue the ticket and give you a partial credit if the fare goes down for the same, exact itinerary. Not sure if AA does this w/o a huge charge. NW does it domestically for USD 25. Not sure what the international charge would be.

If you are not stuck on AA/oneWorld, consider alternatives such as NW (codeshared on KL) LAX-AMS-MAN. It'd make for less worrisome and hassled transits.

Here here laplap. Don't wait, keep looking and as soon as you see something you take it. Pretty much with Japan from the UK, Fare below �500 = BUY NOW! as they can easily go up by �2 - 300 without even blinking.

A suggestion to the OP - have you thought about ORD?. BMI and Delta? fly direct to ORD and it might be easier doing the transfer BEFORE rather than after the TransAt and ORD isn't exactly East Coast like JFK.

-mrploddy

thanks mrploddy and everyone for your advice! i am not going ANYWHERE near ORD at that time of year. half of my wedding party almost missed my wedding in december because of weather there- so i'm a bit anti-ORD plus the fact that the other half (my mother, and stepfather) were delayed there overnight due to weather (my mum had my wedding dress in her luggage) and they had to put up a fight to get it back!! It sends shivers down my spine to think of ORD!!

am going to think aout CDG also, i think i remember flights dropping around that time too, so i may chance it as at the minute it will cost $1800 for two tickets- bit out of my price range!!

What about LAX-BOS/JFK-MAN? I'm not exactly sure of how often weather affects BOS/JFK, but I don't ever hear of it doing so, and this prices up nicely through JFK at £455 GBP with an AA codeshare on BA metal transatlantic.

I think around that time of year ( i consider) its risky to go anywhere near the north east. That's part of my dilemma as i have a specific route and sort of specific times! Just have to take the gamble i suppose! Out of interest, does anyone know of-hand the policy of AA if the ticket does lower in price? I know what it is if it was purchased in the UK -there is no re-issue fee, not so sure for the US though.

It's been a few years, and it's not the UK, but I did SFO-STR for Christmas many many times as a grad student. My experience was a) bad idea to buy ticket later than October, b) prices were lower until Dec. 16, c) cheaper to go Mon thru Thu.