Can anyone give me advice about air travel?

[MumblesParty]

Hi - hoping for insight from seasoned travellers!
We booked a villa in Italy for July, and planned to book the flights once all the Christmas expense was out of the way. When we looked in early December, there were several flight options from our chosen airport, with EasyJet and Jet2, at various different times.
We looked again last week, and there is just one flight (Jet2), at a horrible time of day. Nothing with EasyJet.
Should we just suck it up and book the flights, or might some more be added in the next couple of months?
I've called the airlines and customer services really don't know, and just tell me to keep checking. So I wondered if people with travel experience knew what the chances were of more flights being added in the next few weeks.
Many thanks

My advice is always book the flights first. Sorry, not helpful! But for the future.

have you looked on the easy jet website?

can you cancel the villa and get the flights sorted out first?

just trying to think of options

I expect there will be many more options available between now and July, it's quite early in the year.

Google Flights is quite helpful for giving you alerts on a particular route.

And Skyscanner is a great resource for regular checking of new flight options.

Depending on where in Italy you are going, you could also look at other airports. E.g. Innsbruck, Austria is a budget airport with lots of flights and the connecting train from Innsbruck through the Brenner Pass into northern Italy (Verona or Venice) is a lovely ride.

Definitely book flights first in future if you don't book a package.

Do not wait to see if more flights are added. You need to sort something sooner rather than later, often they get more expensive closer to departure.

Have a look at alternative airports at both ends and see if there is anything that gives you a reasonable journey and better flight times otherwise suck up the flight times, a late night or early morning isn't the end of the world.

Where are you flying to and where do you want to fly from? If you can tell us that people will be able to give you better advice.

Sorry, I always book the flight early too if I can - during school holidays they never seem to go down in price the closer you get. I'm not sure why you think more flights would be released - they're usually determined months in advance. Perhaps a chartered flight would lay on an extra, so you could look at holiday companies like Tui I suppose.

Or, consider using a different aiport in the UK or Italy? I'm going to Italy this summer and looked at journeys between various airports to get the deal I wanted.

Can you look at other airports, it might be worth travelling a bit further for cheaper flights with better times.

I always start with booking the flights first.

Birmingham to Naples.
We could fly from Luton, but the only airline is Ryanair, and I am almost phobic about them, due to many cancellations/changes/refund refusals etc over the years. I've lost many hours trying to sort out Ryanair messes. I just don't trust them to get us to the right place on the right day.

I don't mind the horribly early flights but DP would actually prefer to cancel the holiday than get up at 3am! He's also too tight to want to stay in an airport hotel the night before🙄.

We usually book flights first, but actually we don't usually book the holiday at all till January. So when we booked the villa in November, we thought we had loads of time.

Rome's not that far from Naples and likely to have lots of options. Also consider Bristol to fly from? How are you getting to your villa, hiring a car? Driving around Naples isn't a huge amount of fun, but needs must etc.

Easyjet fly Bristol to Naples. Worth looking at.

The demand for flights is especially these days. That means that the prices are high and the availability is on the lower side. My guess would be that waiting won't increase the availability.

Look at East Midlands airport, Bristol or Manchester

nothing from East Midlands, and Bristol/Manchester are too far. Our only options are Birmingham, Luton and Stansted.

Can you fly from another airport? Use a different airline for each flight,?
Try Skyscanner for other options.

Skyscanner is showing direct flights from Gatwick, Stanstead and Luton with easyjet for Monday 15th July, some are very early but you could stay in a hotel the night before.

Your partner needs to get a grip and just get up at 3am. And in future just book flights first

couldn't agree more!! We've had words about it.....

Have you checked TUI? They sometimes have flight only tickets to Naples from Birmingham

I'd just tell him tough shit. Presumably it's not all about him.

There definitely are flights from Bristol to Naples in July- because I'm on one!

I love an early morning flight. Night before bag drop, stay at the airport hotel (just suck up the cost, it's minimal compared with the cost of the holiday), snooze on the plane and you're in the pool by lunchtime. Far less likely to get cancelled too.

Bristol is over 2 hours from us, so too far really.

@welshweasel if you do the night before bag drop, how long before the flight do you have to get to the airport?

I usually allow an hour and pay for fast track security

I don't know your dates, but Google flights is bringing up Tui, 9am flight.

Also flights via munich, geneva, frankfurt, paris and Zurich if you are prepared to change planes.