Did I do the right thing booking the flights? (boring)

[Weebitawks]

Hi😊

MIL has very generously booked a villa abroad as a Christmas present and great excuse for us all to get away together. Very excited.

Villa is booked for smack bang in the middle of the holidays (as DS and DNeice are in school).

No one has yet booked their tickets and are carefully watching the flights to see if the prices come back down. They have gone up slightly recently. The rest of the IL's are flying in pairs. DH and I are travelling with our 2 DS' and DNeice so obviously these tickets need to be booked together (but MIL is going to give us the money for DNeice).

I've spoken ot a few people who have said as it's peak holiday time there's a chance the tickets won't come down. We also need to make sure that we have 5 seats together and can't be scattered around the plane. So I've booked the tickets. Should I of waited to closer to the time to see if the prices come down and would it still of been pretty easy to get 5 seats together? The flight looked pretty full when I was picking the seats. I'm not particularly experienced at booking flights.

Flights don't usually get cheaper nearer the time, especially ones for peak season. I would have booked asap. I think you've done the right thing, especially as there's 5 of you.

Also you need to clear your cookies as that increases the flights

Flights usually get more expensive so best to book them as soon as you know when your flying

There's talk on industry forums that prices will come down for this summer because many airlines are struggling so they need to increase demand. Also because we're predicted another hot summer here, which reduces demand.

If the price is right for you now, that's all that matters. Golden rule of flight prices, don't check again once you've booked!

I would have booked too, unless I knew that there were likely to be flash sales coming up (unlikely if it's a popular route during peak time)

But the sitting together thing is a bit of a red herring - booking early doesn't guarantee it, and booking late doesn't make you less likely to be able to get seats next to each other. I'm afraid you are at the whim of the airline, based on who else turns up to board the plane at the same time as you

We always go in the middle of the school holidays and I book flights as early as possible. The flights have always gone up not down. Where are you flying from / to?

Oh right so even if you pay extra and select your seats you might not get them?

cwtches123 it's Birmingham to Portugal

Afraid so, Weebitawks. They will try to honour your seat selections, and most times you will be fine, but just occasionally someone else might need them instead. Eg someone travelling with a baby who needs the bassinet seats will be given them even if someone else has booked them. Or if the aircraft is different, your seat might not exist any more (that happened to my parents once - they decided to splash on business class seats and then the seats didn't exist on the flight )

Ex travel agent here.

Unless you'd have been happy to wait until right near the time you're better off booking sooner rather than later.

And if it's a charter flight and you've chosen seats they won't change them.

Have a good holiday.

We fly a couple of times a year and always have allocated seats as one dc has special needs and we all need to be together. We have always received our allocated seats.