How to get good prices
 

This is my first ever posting of any kind. I am planning a trip to England, June, 2009. airfares are astronomical and I can't find any deals online. Is there some secret to getting the best fares?

Airlines tend to price economy fares 4 to 5 months in advance in terms of really trying to sell the flights (as with anything about airlines, exceptions exist). Anyone actually buying airfare trip 11 months out is pretty rare (award travel is different - you might need to book this far out to find free award seats). I'd say post-Christmas since you do get some early packages out but I'd say late Feb/March/April as being more likely to find genuine deals.

As has been said, 11 months out is about where you need to be for a 'frequent flier miles' ticket, but if you're buying the ticket the best deals are usually to be had around four to five months ahead of your trip. So I'd start looking hard for deals in mid-January.

That being said, with the low US$ Europe is a very expensive destination. High fuel prices don't help. So the days of the 'cheapo flight to Europe' are probably a thing of the past...

cheapo flights to Europe will still exist for the foreseeable future... for travel in January & February... unfortunately, that does not help the OP.

But back to topic, OP, watch the news and look into European LCCs. I have heard that one or more LCC might try to take advantage of Open Skys in order to open service to the US. Service would likely be announced 5 or 6 months prior to the first flight, and tix go on sale shortly thereafter.

Thank you so much for your advice. I hate to appear completely uninformed, but what is a European LCC?

Planning vacation in England June,2009
 

Thank you to everyone for your replies, I had no idea there was a resource of this kind available, (or that people were kind enough to take the time to reply!) :)

My next question/s is/are: I would like to do some of the booking for this trip: the lodging, driver/car etc, as soon as possible. Is it too risky to get all these dates and reservations taken care of but purchase the airfare at a later date in order to get a hopefully better price?

Do you think the difference in price, given the abysmal state of the dollar and the spiraling gasoline cost is going to be worth the risk?

Again, thank you, everyone for any tips or words of wisdom, it is deeply appreciated. J

LCC = "Low Cost Carrier", i.e. a no-frills airline. Somewhat like Southwest in the USA, but at almost another level altogether, i.e. ads on the airplane etc. Literally a 'greyhound bus in the air'

Here's an example of an LCC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair

There's talk of them flying transatlantic, but I can't imagine that would be in place for a few more years.

I have to disagree. LON/TPA round trip in economy is approx £200 more in Feb 2009 than in Feb 2008

Welcome to FT! You should start looking in January-February '09. In the meantime -

(1) Follow discussions here, you can learn a lot just by being around and observant.

(2) Start learning how to use ITA software. Go to http://matrix.itasoftware.com, click on "month long search", fill in the flight information (use June 1 as the starting date of your month) and see what lowest fares show up now. Click on some date to get detailed flight choices, then view their graphical representation, etc. Very useful tool, lots to learn.

PS. Help is easier to obtain if you provide as precise and complete information as you can. For example, from which city are you flying? To which one (one can assume London, but that's not always the case)? And finally how long a trip?

here's a pic of the interior.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:R...-800_Cabin.jpg

It's sort of like an airborne subway train..

Except you get better service on a subway train;)

Check out Air India to London from ORD or JFK (tends to be cheaper than the rest, even if you have to buy your connecting flight separately). Also look into newer carriers, which often try to jump-start their business by offering limited-time deals.

Welcome to FT! Usually quite a few airlines have low fares, the practical question is how many seats are allocated to them and how many remain available.

For decades, AI was an airline that Indians and others used to fly to India, and a small group among them used it for US-UK too. Affordable US-Uk tickets weren't hard to find, so this only attracted a special niche - people who wanted Indian vegetarian cuisine, needed help in Hindi, etc.

However, once AI got discovered as a cheap way to fly to London, it is not a sure thing any longer. The credit for this phenomenon goes to the Internet. Previously, it is mostly Indians or people with special interest in India who went to Indian neighborhoods or got Indian publications. They would see the ads from "ethnic" TA's selling AI tickets. Now, a simple online search show all possibilities and online purchase of an eticket on any Airline involves the same few clicks. So AI is not exotic or distant any longer (that is, unless they have an "irregular op" :) ).

The best way now is go with the times, scan all airlines online on ITA as well as portals like Kayak, Vayama. Then individual airlines that come up as promising. Increasingly, this is how I have been finding the best fares, not ethnic TA's as I once did, although I still check with them each time (takes only a few phone calls, so why not).

Thanks aktchi! I always thought I was a travel expert...until I discovered FT (in a roundabout way through Cranky Flier), and now I'm here more as a student than as a teacher. Can't wait to learn from you all and contribute where I can.

Interesting update on AI. Makes sense that the secret wouldn't last forever.

It depends on whether or not your travel dates are flexible. If they are, I would structure them around the cheapest flight. Thing to remember with hotels and rental cars is that you can cancel them at any time up to 24 hours. So if you see a great deal on a hotel and car, you may as well reserve them (but not through Priceline or Hotwire, 'cause I don't think you can cancel the reservations made through those...just go through the hotel and car rental company's site instead) and wait for the ticket in the agreeable price range to appear. If something better shows up for different dates, simply cancel hotel + car and rebook.

Keep in mind you total cost of the trip. If you got a great deal on a hotel and the price of an airline ticket for a different date is only $50-100 cheaper, it may not be worth it to cancel the hotel as your total cost may actually increase.