summer holiday flights -how cheap do you manage to get them??

[twillup]

We tend to drive to france for summer hols as it's cheap. But I'm just wondering what sort of prices people manage to get flying and booking acccommodation in places like Greece, Spain, Italy? The budget airlines won't have their summer prices up yet so it would be great to get a vague but realistic idea of costs?

Flights / holidays fluctuate so much in price it would be hard to give any reliable advice especially for next year as just no one knows. Tourism
can be influenced by so many factors.
The school hols usually see much higher prices than out of season so
advice is often to book asap. Also some offer free child places if you book ahead.
Advice here is to book on credit card in case they go bust etc and read T& C re changes/cancellations. Take insurance with the booking.
Flights: some sites eg Tripadvisor let you set up an alert for your chosen
destination and will email you when prices drop

I booked Crete flights with Easyjet last October for June 2016, and paid £300 for Dh and me (DC grown up so just two of us and we can go outside the school hols). I'm looking at doing the same thing this year, just waiting for the flights to be released.

Luton to Lyon this August cost us just under £500 for 5 with Easyjet - that included 2 bags in the hold and reserved seats on booking. We booked as soon as they were released. Plus £300 for 2 weeks car hire inc all insurances etc. We've driven for years to France, this was much easier, quicker but more expensive. Also, no room for yummy French food to bring back, nor for wine!
We've decided that if we go to the south again, we'll likely fly, but anywhere Loire northwards, we'll drive.

Flights to Basel cost around £150 each including luggage, booked only about 3 weeks ahead.

We got return flights Liverpool to Mallorca in early July for £120 pp booked less than a week before travel.

That is the average price we pay out of school holidays at all times of year for Northern England to Spain, Balerices, Canaries or Malta with a variety of airlines. It's almost always between £100 to £150 pp return excl luggage.

Easyjet are unusual in releasing flights six months in advance. The other budget airlines are at least a year - both Jet2 and Ryanair are currently booking to the end of October next year - so you may have missed the boat for October half term in over a year's time

Book with Ryanair for Greece as soon as summer flights open and got peak season return flights for 3 with 3 hold bags, priority boarding and reserved seats for £500. Would be cheaper but dd hates flying and I have to reserve/do priority booking.
Have also booked Easyjet yo Kis at Easter so school hols but not peak season and got entire holiday for £600 for 3 of us.

Not all Ryanair flights for next summer have been released yet!

Thank you all, that's really helpful - I don't want to put flights in my head if everyone said it ends up being £1k!! I will keep looking - I think some of the ryanair destinations mustn't have opened up summer bookings yet.

It's always a shocker when you add in all the extras - airport parking, seats together, luggage, car hire at other end... but I suppose less of your holiday is spent driving which would be nice for a change.

Completely! We have to go school holidays and usually pay between £4-600 in total for 3 of us. Not done Greece but I've booked August return flights for Italy and France for those prices. You can add baggage on later as and when you want to. Airport parking is at least another £100 for the official car park. Norwegian (who are v good and cheap!) have their summer flights out now. They do reduced child fares. Flights to Sicily early August cost me about £570 but would have been £100 cheaper later in the month.

How far ahead do budget airlines release their flights?

Norwegian have theirs out for next summer, EasyJet release their flights for the May half term this month and next summer next month. Sign up for the alerts on their website. Not sure about Ryan Air (DH refuses to fly them after rubbish experience flying back from Dublin!). Whizz Air do cheapo flights to Eastern Europe (not out yet). Not sure about German Wings.

Thanks

Scratch the above, Norwegian have their flights out for some routes, not others. They are a bit arbitrary!

Did Spain via easyJet for 80 each in August

And last summer paid £38.00 each with Ryanair to Copenhagen.

We tend to fly from odd airports, and use Scottish airports when they go back.

The other year we paid £50 each to France at the same time my bil paid £150 for similar flights.

Manchester to Milan Bergamo for 2 adults and 3 children - good day time flights, 2 cases for the hold. 2 weeks in August school holidays, all sitting together (but didn't book that - just checked in online as soon as you could), £450 with Ryanair as soon as the flights came out (October I think).

Did Easyjet flights last Christmas Manchester to Geneva for ski trip - flew out on 21st and back on 27th December. Booked in August - £300 for 5 of us.